Washington Post media critic claims Rachel Maddow 'rooted' for the Steele dossier to be true
Eric Wemple writes that when 'small bits of news arose in favor of the dossier,' MSNBC host Rachel Maddow 'pumped air into them'; reaction from Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple has been on a tear against members of the mainstream media over their faulty handling of the debunked Steele dossier. His latest target is MSNBC's hiring of Politico reporter Natasha Bertrand, whose dossier commentary helped land her a contributor gig at the network.
Wemple began his piece on Friday recapping Bertrand's recent on-air appearance where she told MSNBC's Joy Reid "we don’t have the reporting" to suggest President Trump has told aides that he "wants" Russia's help in the 2020 election, as the liberal host claimed earlier in the show.
"No, we don’t have that reporting — though there’s no prohibition against fantasizing about it on national television," Wemple wrote. "Such is the theme of Bertrand’s commentary during previous coverage of Russian interference, specifically the dossier of memos drawn up by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. With winks and nods from MSNBC hosts, Bertrand heaped credibility on the dossier."
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Bertrand, who joined Politico as a national security correspondent in 2019 after reporting for Business Insider and The Atlantic, "bootstrapped her punditry" into a contributorship with the liberal network in 2018, according to Wemple, following several appearances hyping the dossier and the Russia investigation. Wemple accused her of participating in the "collective journalistic failure on the MSNBC airwaves."
He noted her first "boosterism" took place during a panel discussion back in 2017 on a now-refuted CNN report that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was wiretapped and linked him to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application filed against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who she alleged was working as a "liaison" with Manafort, saying "these pieces are all starting to come together and it’s really alarming.”
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"Not so alarming, as it turned out," Wemple reacted. "For one, CNN was wrong about the Manafort wiretapping story, as made clear in the report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. The network added a weaselly editor’s note to the Manafort story as a means of wishing away the bad news. For another, the Horowitz report made clear that the FBI made numerous omissions and errors in the FISA process and still secured authorizations."
The media critic listed several other examples of Bertrand's alleged speculative commentary, including her claim that it was becoming "more plausible" that a "pee tape" existed showing President Trump with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room after his alleged extramarital affair with pornstar Stormy Daniels was publicized in 2018.
"[Horowitz's] conclusions may well have surprised anyone who relied on Bertrand’s reporting on MSNBC and elsewhere," Wemple continued. "The speculative mess that Bertrand has left all over Nexis transcripts serves as an indictment of cable-news sensibilities. Incentives on prime-time MSNBC shows point precisely in the direction that Bertrand ventured on too many occasions — that is, toward believing the specifics of a document whose veracity she and others couldn’t begin to assess."
Former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele compiled an explosive and unproven dossier on President Donald Trump’s purported activities in Russia. (Victoria Jones/PA via AP) (The Associated Press)
"Lefty hosts wanted to hear that the Michael Cohen stuff looked plausible, that the Russians had indeed been cultivating Trump, and that it was all coming together. So that’s what she said, and in March 2018, she was rewarded with an MSNBC contributor gig."
Wemple went on to mock the Politico correspondent for going on the "attack" against Horowitz for "debunking" her punditry after reporting that anonymous "experts" who criticized the DOJ for not redacting parts of the watchdog's report that may reveal sources and methods, echoing The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald who said, "I cannot fathom being a journalist and complaining that the government isn’t hiding more information."
With winks and nods from MSNBC hosts, Bertrand heaped credibility on the [Steele] dossier
Politico stood by Bertrand, telling Wemple in a statement that she is "an extremely well-sourced journalist and her depth of knowledge on national security issues is outstanding." MSNBC declined to comment to The Washington Post critic.
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As part of an ongoing series examining the media's coverage of the Steele dossier, Wemple previously took aim at CNN over its reporting of the Steele dossier as well as its "corrupting" hire of former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who oversaw the controversial FISA application into Page. Wemple also blasted MSNBC star Rachel Maddow for "rooting" for the dossier.
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