At this wide-ranging news conference this morning, Donald Trump predictably took aim at some media outlets, calling BuzzFeed “a failing pile of garbage” and refusing to take a question from CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta calling CNN “fake news.”
Coming out of the news conference, in a conversation with Wolf Blitzer, CNN’s Jake Tapper said that what BuzzFeed published last night, “hurts us all and the media.”
Tapper: What I suspect we are seeing here is an attempt to discredit legitimate, responsible attempts to report on this incoming administration with irresponsible journalism that hurts us all and the media going forward should keep that in mind.
Blitzer: You’re referring specifically to BuzzFeed?
Tapper: Yeah, it’s irresponsible to put uncorroborated information on the internet. I can understand why President-elect Trump would be upset about it. That’s why we did not detail any specifics from it because it was uncorroborated and that’s not what we do. We are in the business of sussing out what is true and false.
But Trump painted CNN with that same broad brush. It was Tapper who first reported that both Trump and Obama were briefed, with on a 2-page synopsis of Russia’s attempts to compromise the incoming comander-in-chief. Less than two hours later, BuzzFeed published 35 pages of documents spanning several months, collected as opposition research and admitting the memos couldn’t be verified.
Another twist in this, NBC News is reporting that Trump was not briefed on the 2-page synopsis, calling CNN’s reporting into question.
NBC News: Trump was not briefed on the addendum, sr. US intel official says; as just reported by @CynthiaMcFadden on NBC News Special Report pic.twitter.com/WYKemlhKsr
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) January 11, 2017
For Acosta’s part, he says his question still got asked, by a colleague from ABC News:
Fortunately ABC’s Cecilia Vega asked my question about whether any Trump associates contacted Russians. Trump said no.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 11, 2017