US Media Reinterpret Mueller Report Findings
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
The vast majority of US media are hostile to Trump for the wrong reasons, not key right ones they ignore.
Never in modern US history was media coverage so outrageously biased for one presidential candidate over the other.
They oppose him for triumphing over media darling Hillary, along with suggesting he’s a Manchurian candidate for Putin.
During the presidential campaign, neocon/CIA-connected Washington Post editors called him “a unique threat to American democracy.” No one can threaten what doesn’t exist.
NYT editors turned truth on its head, calling Hillary “one of the most broadly and deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history” – ignoring her unaccountability for war crimes, racketeering, perjury, and contempt for the nation’s most disadvantaged.
Slamming Trump, Times editors called him “the worst nominee put forward by a major party in modern American history.” He, Hillary, husband Bill, and GW Bush qualify for that dubious distinction.
Major media headlines on the Mueller report turned truth on its head, some examples:
Reuters: “Mueller report gives Democrats political ammunition” – falsely claiming it “provide(s) extensive details on…Trump’s efforts to thwart the probe…”
AP News: “The Latest: Report shows Trump trying to shut down probe”
ABC News: “No collusion, but a case for obstruction of justice in Robert Mueller’s report”
CBS News: “Trump tried to thwart Russia probe”
NBC News: “Mueller report found Trump directed White House lawyer to ‘do crazy s—t’ ”
MSNBC: “Mueller report: President Trump tried to get Mueller removed”
CNN: “Mueller report is devastating…Mueller had everything he needed to charge Trump with obstruction, but didn’t”
The NYT has been in the vanguard of vilifying Trump for the wrong reasons. Following Thursday’s release, it headlined “Mueller Reveals Trump’s Efforts to Thwart Russian Inquiry in Highly Anticipated Report,” saying:
The special counsel “detailed a frantic monthslong (sic) effort by President Trump to thwart a federal investigation that imperiled his presidency from the start.”
“(T)he report offered reams of evidence of a climate of deceit — and a base impulse for self-preservation — among a president and his top aides.”
Separately, Times editors headlined “Mr. Mueller’s Indictment,” saying:
“…Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors and investigators found ‘substantial evidence’ that President Trump broke federal law on numerous occasions by attempting to shut down or interfere with the nearly-two-year Russia investigation.”
The neocon/CIA house organ Washington Post headlined “Mueller report lays out obstruction evidence against the president,” saying:
The 448-page report “lays out in alarming detail abundant evidence against President Trump, finding 10 ‘episodes’ of potential obstruction of justice…”
Separately, WaPo editors headlined “The Mueller report is the opposite of exoneration,” saying:
“Mueller compiled a damning account of Mr. Trump’s lies, behind-the-scenes manipulations and attempts at coercion while Justice Department officials were properly investigating Russia’s election-year activities and Mr. Trump’s own possible obstruction.”
Wall Street Journal editors went the other way, headlining “Obstruction of Nothing,” saying:
Trump “and his campaign did not conspire or coordinate with Russians to steal the 2016 election. Try as he did to find a crime regarding Russia or obstruction of justice, Mr. Mueller found nothing to prosecute.”
Fox News went the same way, saying “Mueller’s report…did not find evidence of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia…”
“Mueller ultimately did not reach a conclusion on whether the president’s conduct amounted to obstruction, stating: ‘(W)hile this report does not conclude that (DLT) committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Fact: Despite his culpability for major high crimes, Trump did nothing to interfere with Mueller’s probe – or House and Senate ones. He let them play out to conclusion.
Fact: No evidence suggests he and/or his team colluded with Russia to triumph over Hillary – or obstruct justice.
Fact: He cooperated with the House, Senate, and Mueller probes, withholding no evidence requested. He could have invoked executive privilege but waived the right.
Here’s how Law Professor Jonathan Turley put it, quoted as well in a same day article, saying:
Trump “did not fire anyone involved in the investigation. He did not destroy any evidence. He did not end the investigation prematurely.”
“He took no actual obstructive acts. To charge him would have amounted to a virtual thought crime.”
“…Trump not only ordered senior staff to cooperate with Mueller, but he did not withhold evidence. Most important, he waived executive privilege over the entirety of the report in an unprecedented degree of transparency.”
None of the above media reports hostile to Trump explain this information.
Dems won’t let go, intending to politicize the Mueller report to their advantage by twisting its findings, supported by most establishment media – wanting Trump weakened in the 2020 race for the White House.
A personal note:
I deplore him. He broke every positive campaign promise made. He escalated wars of aggression inherited, continuing the rape and destruction of nations threatening no one, responsible for countless tens of thousands of casualties and human misery affecting tens of millions during his time in office.
He’s the most one-sided US president ever for apartheid Israel, contemptuous of fundamental Palestinian rights far more than his predecessors.
He’s hostile to unwanted aliens of the wrong race and ethnicity, along with Muslims from the wrong countries.
He’s no friend of the earth. His ecocide agenda supports corporate polluters and climate change deniers over ecosanity, public health, and the general welfare.
He’s waging war by other means on Iran and Venezuela, seeking to unlawfully topple their legitimate governments, wanting both countries transformed into US vassal states, their resources looted, their people ruthlessly exploited.
He’s hostile to truth-telling, wanting Chelsea Manning, other whistleblowers, Julian Assange, and others like him prosecuted and silenced for the “crime” of journalism the way it’s supposed to be.
He’s contemptuous of ordinary people at home and abroad, along with scorning international, constitutional and US statute laws.
He added two right-wing extremists to the Supreme Court, stacking lower courts with similar figures, contemptuous of equity and justice for all.
He elevated serial lying to an unprecedented level, failing the Pinocchio test repeatedly, exceeding the worst of his predecessors.
More despot than democrat, he matched Star Trek, going where no US president went before – mocking what governance of, by, and for everyone is supposed to be all about.
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
