If you take an interest in American politics on a regular basis, you are probably already familiar with the infamous “Steele dossier”, which the media covered extensively during the 2016 presidential election.
The matter has come back to the fore recently because the main source of the information revealed in this report was arrested by the FBI and accused of lying to the federal agency. What this arrest confirms is that large parts of the damning content of this file for candidate Donald Trump are not based on anything credible.
I remind you here that the report in question was the result of requests for an investigation from a conservative firm, but also from the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton. In itself, this kind of investigation should not surprise, they are commonplace between adversaries, whether they are from the same political formation or from the opposing camp.
At the heart of the work entrusted to the firm Fusion GPS, we found the British spy Christopher Steele. It is the latter who would have obtained the confidences of Igor Danchenko, the man recently arrested by the FBI.
What did this famous report contain? Lots of information on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. It clearly evokes a conspiracy, a close collaboration between the Russians and the team of the Republican candidate. For good measure, we added some salacious details of a meeting between Donald Trump and prostitutes in a hotel in Moscow.
This incomplete report containing raw information which had not all been corroborated, leaked in several media which hastened to reveal its contents. This is where things get tricky and discredit many organizations.
While any information in that report was later found to be true (Russia favored a Trump victory and several of the president’s relatives had secret relations with Russia), none of the more serious elements received strong support.
Whether it is because of the stormy relations of the Republican candidate with the press, or because the mainstream media are engaged in a fierce fight in the quest for primeurs, we can now only deplore the eagerness with which we circulated information. fragmentary or false.
In an article published on Sunday, the Axios site rightly pointed out that too few media officials publicly agree to acknowledge serious mistakes made in their coverage of the “Steele Dossier”.
Almost all of the media have taken their toll on this controversial report and so far only the Washington post has made corrections to the articles already published on this dossier. In the first row in the dock from which we expect a retraction or clarification: CNN, MSNBC and the progressive site Mother Jones.
As it is sometimes said in popular parlance, many media “slipped” in the treatment of explosive and controversial news. Already struggling with a trust deficit and competition from social media, officials should hurry to emulate The Washington Post and make the necessary corrections.
Whether the “Steel Dossier” is partially true does not change the case. We acted too quickly, without perspective and without all the rigor expected from professionals. Here we bring water to the criticism mill and we forget that the credibility of the 4 is at stake.e to be able to.