The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) published a retrospective of the media’s coverage of Russiagate. The retrospective examines various news organizations and their role in the Trump-Russia saga. The New York Times received the most criticism in the retrospective. The CJR spent 18 months examining the American media’s coverage of Trump and Russia to determine its significance as the country approaches the 2024 election. The findings were published in a four-part series.
The first section begins with a story about the reaction of then-New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet when he learned that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was not going to pursue the removal of Trump.
The second section highlights the paper’s coverage of the Russia probe. The paper’s coverage appeared to escalate with a report in February 2017 headlined, “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts with Russian Intelligence.” However, the published details were vague and few. The paper also appeared to legitimize Christopher Steele, the ex-British spy who authored the dossier.
Part three compares the New York Times’ coverage to that of other outlets. For example, the media focused on Trump’s “Russia thing” quote, but the New York Times did five stories over the next week citing the “Russia thing” remarks but left out the fuller context.
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