In the first week of March,
2017, President Trump authored a tweet asserting that the Obama team had “wiretapped”
Trump Tower. No proof was provided at that time. Two weeks later, Judge Andrew
Napolitano on Fox News reported that British intelligence had been employed by
the Obama team to do the deed.
“Sources have told Fox News
that the British foreign surveillance service, the Government Communications
Headquarters, known as GCHQ, most likely provided Obama with transcripts of
Trump's calls. The NSA has given GCHQ full 24/7 access to its computers, so
GCHQ -- a foreign intelligence agency that, like the NSA, operates outside our
constitutional norms -- has the digital versions of all electronic
communications made in America in 2016, including Trump's. So by bypassing all
American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted
with no Obama administration fingerprints.” From Judge Napolitano’s blog post of March 16,
2017.
This “news” found its way to
Press Secretary Seam Spicer, and it was credible enough to him to refer to it
during a press conference. President Trump also referred to it. Then a
spokesperson from British intelligence denied the assertion.
“Recent allegations made by
media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct
'wire tapping' against the then President Elect are nonsense. They are utterly
ridiculous and should be ignored.” Posted on the Fox News Opinion site.
Fox News discovered that there was no way to verify Napolitano’s assertion.
"Fox News cannot
confirm Judge [Andrew] Napolitano's commentary. Fox News knows of no evidence
of any kind that the now-president of the United States was surveilled at any
time, in any way." Shep Smith of Fox News as quoted in an article from Business Insider
Napolitano originally wrote
“Sources have told Fox News…” It seems apparent now that those sources had only
been in touch with Napolitano. Fox News suspended him for ten days, and then
they put him back on the air. Although Fox has not been able to independently
verify the information, Napolitano stands by it.
Judge Napolitano was given
information by people he trusted and continues to trust. He distributed the
information and it is still up on his blog as well as on Fox’s Opinion section.
HJis fans like him and trust him. They have shared the information with people
in their circles of friends.
In the weeks following, it
has been reported that members of Trump’s transition team were indeed
surveilled. The details are coming out a little bet at a time. However, nothing
has come out implicating British intelligence.
News organizations are
responsible for their content, as Buzzfeed found out with the infamous Russian
dossier they posted. Thus far, the big stories anticipated in the wake of the
release of the dossier have not materialized. In fact, a Russian businessman named
Aleksej Gubarev, whose name was in the dossier, is now suing for defamation.
Trust is the key to spreading
fake news. News organizations and news consumers alike should be careful about what they pass along. When
people spread fake news, they’re part of the problem.
Scratching beneath the surface
Editors and journalism
professors lament the rise of fake news and encourage consumers of news to
beware of it. They say people should dig deeper and scratch beneath the surface
of the news they consume. I’ve done that for this post and I’ve provided links
to related stories for people who want to know more.
Time is one commodity in very
short supply for most people. It takes time to find stories, read them, and figure
out which ones are worthwhile and which ones are worthless. It would be lovely
if more people had time to dig deeper, learn more about stories, and come to
more informed conclusions than they can from reading headlines or watching the
news.
However, most consumers of
news simply don’t have time for that. They have jobs to go to and families to
take care of. Consuming news that caters to one’s beliefs is a lot less time-consuming
than trying to get to the truth.
And that’s the way it is.
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