Washington Examiner Reporter to Critic Who Called His NY Times-FBI Story Disgraceful: ‘Fair Criticism’
A writer for the Washington Examiner didn’t argue with reporter Yashar Ali’s assessment that his writing was “disgraceful” after President Donald Trump amplified his reporting to attack The New York Times.
Ali called the story written by the Examiner’s Daniel Chaitin “disgraceful” and accused the Examiner of “spread[ing] misleading framing about how the press works.”
3. This Washington Examiner story by @danielchaitin7 is disgraceful and helps to spread misleading framing about how the press works. Shameful. https://t.co/Ub9Pxn5PrH
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) June 21, 2019
Chaitin later responded to Ali, acknowledging that Ali’s terming the story “disgraceful” is “fair criticism.”
Fair criticism. Not going to fight it. The story does show, however, that it doesn’t appear Mike asked a question (unless FBI copy/pasted it w/o the question, but then why include the “Thanks, Mike” part?), and I also did reach out to him for comment to explain. Never heard back. https://t.co/YFge0D0XtZ
— Daniel Chaitin (@danielchaitin7) June 21, 2019
Chaitin’s story seemed to frame The New York Times sending an email to the FBI press office seeking comment as illegally feeding information to the FBI.
The Examiner’s report was amplified by Trump today, who accused the Times of “feeding false stories about me” to the FBI.
Just revealed that the Failing and Desperate New York Times was feeding false stories about me, & those associated with me, to the FBI. This shows the kind of unprecedented hatred I have been putting up with for years with this Crooked newspaper. Is what they have done legal?…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2019
UPDATE –– 5:56 pm ET: The Examiner has since updated/corrected the report with this:
CORRECTION: The Washington Examiner has updated this story to: remove the characterization that the New York Times reporter “fed information” to the FBI; clarify when the email was written and when and to whom it was forwarded; include a post-publication response from the New York Times; and reflect the fact that four days after the email was sent the New York Times published a report headlined, “Senate Committee to Question Jared Kushner Over Meetings With Russians.” We regret that this story did not adhere to the Washington Examiner’s normal standards and procedures.
[Image via BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images]
