President Donald Trump's interview with NBC News, which aired Thursday, provides a good example of biased media reporting:
Fox News:
President Trump on Thursday called fired FBI Director James Comey a “showboat” and “grandstander” who Trump intended to fire regardless of any recommendation from the Justice Department.Why? The New York Times offers an answer:
Trump, speaking to NBC News, gave his first in-depth remarks since the stunning ousting of Comey on Tuesday evening.
“Look he’s a showboat, he’s a grandstander,” Trump said. “The FBI has been in turmoil. You know that, I know that. Everybody knows that. You take a look at the FBI a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil – less than a year ago. It hasn’t recovered from that.”
Trump said he had planned to fire Comey for some time, but “there’s no good time to do it by the way.”
Comey was terminated after Trump received a written recommendation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Comey’s direct superior. That memo cited Comey’s mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s secret email server as the primary cause for a loss of confidence. But Trump said Thursday that Rosenstein’s document wasn’t what weighted the scale against Comey.
“I was going to fire regardless of recommendation,” Trump said.
New York Times:
Only seven days after Donald J. Trump was sworn in as president, James B. Comey has told associates, the F.B.I. director was summoned to the White House for a one-on-one dinner with the new commander in chief.Unfortunately, the New York Times article fails to support that last statement with any examples, or even quotes from unnamed sources. It is just laid out there as a fact. While it may be true, the reporting doesn't show it.
The conversation that night in January, Mr. Comey now believes, was a harbinger of his downfall this week as head of the F.B.I., according to two people who have heard his account of the dinner.
As they ate, the president and Mr. Comey made small talk about the election and the crowd sizes at Mr. Trump’s rallies. The president then turned the conversation to whether Mr. Comey would pledge his loyalty to him.
Mr. Comey declined to make that pledge. Instead, Mr. Comey has recounted to others, he told Mr. Trump that he would always be honest with him, but that he was not “reliable” in the conventional political sense.
...By Mr. Comey’s account, his answer to Mr. Trump’s initial question apparently did not satisfy the president, the associates said. Later in the dinner, Mr. Trump again said to Mr. Comey that he needed his loyalty.
Mr. Comey again replied that he would give him “honesty” and did not pledge his loyalty, according to the account of the conversation.
But Mr. Trump pressed him on whether it would be “honest loyalty.”
“You will have that,” Mr. Comey told his associates he responded.
Throughout his career, Mr. Trump has made loyalty from the people who work for him a key priority, often discharging employees he considers insufficiently reliable.
Is news story editing a lost art form? Or is it that political editors give a lot more leeway when the story tells them what they want to hear?
Speaking of bias, back to the Left side of the NBC News interview story:
CNN:
Presidents often get angry, but most go to great lengths to hide their fits of rage and the impression that red faced fury rules their actions.So CNN's lede is that Trump goes into "fits of rage" and lets "red faced fury" rule his actions. While this may be a true accusation, it is also possible that Trump just played them.
Not Donald Trump.
In three-and-a-half months in office, the 45th President has shown that indignation, impulsiveness and a prickly desire to protect his own self image are at the core of his governing philosophy.
The latest example of the President's simmering fury has emerged in the aftermath of his firing of James Comey this week, apparently the culmination of long-brewing animosity towards the FBI director.
Trump gave a glimpse of his irritation and impatience with Comey during an interview with NBC News on Thursday.
Consider one of the Left's favorite meme's: Trump's Russian connection. Hypothetical question: If Trump was actually some kind of Russian spy/dupe, and covering up that fact was his motivation for firing Comey, wouldn't the impression that he did the firing on an irrational impulse go against that theory?
The cognitive dissonance is getting a little nuts here.
CNN is forgetting that Trump is an experienced tv personality, who knows how to act. His "red faced fury" is played for public consumption.
Overall, Fox News gets the story right by just reporting what was said during the NBC interview. However, for biased analysis from the Left, I suspect the New York Times' story was much more plausible than CNN's story.
By the way, how did NBC lede with this story?
NBC News:
President Donald Trump, in an exclusive interview Thursday with NBC News' Lester Holt, called ousted FBI chief James Comey a "showboat" and revealed he asked Comey whether he was under investigation for alleged ties to Russia.
"I actually asked him" if I were under investigation, Trump said, noting that he spoke with Comey once over dinner and twice by phone.
"I said, if it's possible would you let me know, am I under investigation? He said, 'You are not under investigation.'"
"I know I'm not under investigation," Trump told Holt during the 31-minute White House interview.
The president also said he supports a full investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election last year, saying he wants the probe to be done "absolutely properly."Strangely, on NBC News' front page, they led with that buried piece of information: "Trump Backs Full Investigation Into Russian Meddling in Election".
Regardless, kudos to both NBC and Fox for leading with the news of what was said, rather than their interpretation of it.
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