COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 11/10/2019
Jon Allsop
EVEN BY RECENT STANDARDS, it’s been something of a banner week for our informational hellscape. The Justice Department’s inspector general issued a report debunking conspiracy theories about the FBI’s decision, in 2016, to open an investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, only for the attorney general of the United States, William Barr, to publicly dispute the IG’s findings. (Barr told NBC that the Russia probe was based on “a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press.”) We learned, thanks to the Washington Post, that officials, over many years, systematically lied to the American people about the state of the war in Afghanistan. In Britain, a crucial general election has been muddied by fake news and crude manipulations—many of them pushed out by politicians. And then there’s impeachment. As Peter Baker, of the Times, wrote Monday, “There are days in Washington lately when it feels like the truth itself is on trial.”