A Study in Fake News
Three CNN Employees Resign Over Retracted Russia Story
On June 25, 2017, CNN.com published a story that cited a single unnamed source, claiming that the Senate Intelligence Committee was eyeing a "$10 billion Russian investment fund whose chief executive met with a member of President Donald Trump's transition team four days before Trump's inauguration." The story was shared on social media. CNN quickly retracted the story and also apologized to Anthony Scaramucci, a member of Trump's orbit who had been named in the story.
The network’s investigative unit was told that the retraction did not necessarily mean the facts of the story were wrong. But, rather, “the story wasn’t solid enough to publish as-is,” according CNN.com.
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The 3 reporters who “resigned” the next day were:
Thomas Frank, the story’s writer. Frank worked for USA Today and Newsday for three decades, pursuing investigations and covering the Iraq war as an embedded reporter before coming to work at CNN.
Eric Lichtblau. A veteran of The New York Times who won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2006, Lichtblau joined CNN just three months before the story was published.
Lex Haris was a former executive editor of CNNMoney. After his resignation, Haris said in a statement, "I've been with CNN since 2001, and am sure about one thing: This is a news organization that prizes accuracy and fairness above all else. I am leaving, but will carry those principles wherever I go."
While at the New York Times, Lichtblau had often relied upon unnamed current and former government sources when writing about Russia’s election-related hacking. The botched Scaramucci story was the second botched Trump-Russia story within a month in which Lichtblau had played a role.
https://dailycaller.com/2017/06/26/three-cnn-employees-resign-over-botched-trump-russia-story/)
Earlier that month, CNN was forced to correct and rewrite an article by four writers, including Lichtblau, that relied upon anonymous sources claiming that former FBI director James Comey would refute Trump’s assertion that Comey had assured the president that he was not under FBI investigation. Comey’s testimony confirmed, rather than refuted, Trump’s account.
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And what happened to Thomas Frank after his “resignation” on June 26?
He got a new job covering national security and counterintelligence for BuzzFeed
He started on October 2, 2017 as the Web site’s first full-time reporter on that beat. In particular, Frank will focus on the very story that his former colleagues at CNN’s investigative unit have reportedly been told to lay off of—the various probes investigating the Trump team’s potential role in Russia’s alleged 2016 election interference.
BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith said he had no trepidation about hiring Frank.
Of course it was BuzzFeed that published one of the most blockbuster scoops of the Russia saga—the infamous unverified dossier compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele. “I think we’ll break more news,” said Smith. “Tom brings a depth of experience and sourcing.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/thomas-frank-cnn-buzzfeed
Today you can still find Thomas Frank spreading his filth across the internet and with every media organization he can find to collude with.
https://muckrack.com/bytomfrank
In America, you can call yourself a Journalist you will have a license to lie without repercussion. If you tell the right kind of lies for the right rich and powerful people, you will always be able to make a good living. You might even become rich yourself, perhaps even a celebrity.
https://www.thewrap.com/three-cnn-employees-resign-retracted-story-russia-ties/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stevenperlberg/three-cnn-employees-resign-over-retracted-russia-story