These tweets didn’t get a lot of attention, but we think they deserve a follow-up post. As Twitchy reported earlier, the Washington Post’s Philip Bump tried to call out Federalist senior editor David Harsanyi over the Post, along with a lot of other media outlets, not reporting the Hunter Biden laptop story. First of all, the Washington Post wasn’t given access to the hard drive data (which helps explain why CBS News wasn’t able to confirm the laptop story wasn’t Russian disinformation until last month). Why not report on the New York Post’s report? Because, stupid, you don’t report on something you haven’t confirmed yourself.
You didn't know that other outlets won't run a report on a Post scoop without confirming it themselves? You seem surprisingly underinformed about how actual journalism works, which I suppose isn't really a surprise.
— Philip Bump (@pbump) December 5, 2022
Pluribus editor Jeryl Bier decided to test that theory, running a search of the Washington Post’s archives for the phrase, “Washington Post has not independently confirmed.” The Post had no problem running with The Daily Beast’s story about Herschel Walker allegedly paying for his girlfriend’s abortion even though it wasn’t able to independently confirm it.
OK, but… "the Washington Post has not independently confirmed…" https://t.co/guDUKQb1aX pic.twitter.com/uFY6ZGgRxv
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) December 5, 2022
And the New York Times apparently doesn’t know much about how journalism works either, seeing as it had no problem running with the Walker story or with sexual harassment allegations against Elon Musk. The Times had no problem running with stories by the Post and Buzzfeed without independently confirming them.
and "New York Times has not independently confirmed" pic.twitter.com/t7WpCjRf7Q
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) December 5, 2022
P. Bump will never ever run out of excuses.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) December 5, 2022
But we'll just shout it out anyway, because it might hurt one of those Rs.
— Annyka (@AnnykaV) December 5, 2022
Precisely. If it met their criteria for 'newsworthy,' they would report it without independent confirmation.
— Scott Duncan (@scottduncan99) December 5, 2022
Sorry, the Washington Post can run a story about Walker and the abortion without independently verifying it. Oh, wait, they did. Several times. C’mon, man! We all know why the mainstream media didn’t run with the Hunter Biden story (and still won’t).
And this is the same Philip Bump who doesn’t want the unwashed masses to have blue checkmarks so he knows whom to trust.
***
Related:
WaPo’s Philip Bump dreads his searches being ‘polluted’ by plebs paying for blue checkmarks https://t.co/BV7Okk2MLJ
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 10, 2022
Join the conversation as a VIP Member