The far-left New York Times has been forced to issue a humiliating correction after falsely reporting Paul Manafort passed along polling information to a Kremlin-connected businessman.
Times “reporters” Maggie Haberman and Ken Vogel are dishonest enough on their own, but put these two leftists together, and you are almost certain to get a heapin’ helping of Very Fake News, which is exactly what happened Wednesday.
Sharing the byline with Sharon LaFraniere, Vogel and Haberman published a front page “bombshell” report that claimed Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chair, had “lied about sharing polling data … related to the 2016 presidential campaign” with Kremlin-linked businessman Oleg V. Deripaska.
Until Haberman and Vogel were forced to issue their humiliating correction, this fake news not only went all around the world; it was seen as the first piece of evidence linking the Trump campaign to Russia. What’s more, because the information was found in a document related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s witch hunt, it was seen as proof that Mueller had finally found an actual thread that linked Trump to Russia.
Naturally, those unaware of just how regularly Haberman and Vogel lie were inclined to believe the report, as were all the usual-usual far-left propaganda outlets that have made lying about Trump their business model.
Except for the fact that none of it is true, this bombshell is a very big deal.
Oh, did you catch that part about none of it being true?
Because none of it is. The Haberman and Vogel bombshell is an undiluted lie.
“A previous version of this article misidentified the people to whom Paul Manafort wanted a Russian associate to send polling data,” a correction at the bottom of the front page bombshell now reads. “Mr. Manafort wanted the data sent to two Ukrainian oligarchs, Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov, not Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to the Kremlin.”
In other words, Manafort is not being accused of sending polling data to the Kremlin through an intermediary; he is accused of sending it to his former clients in Ukraine.
In fact, per post-correction Vogel, the worst Manafort is guilty of is using this polling data to puff himself up to these former clients in the hopes they would pay some of his old invoices — which has nothing to do with Donald Trump or Russia or Russia collusion.
To salvage the fake news, the media are now trying to make a big deal out of the fact that Manafort’s intermediary is Konstantin V. Kilimnik, a former officer with the Russian military intelligence service. But Manafort’s association with Kilimnik is old news, and using him to pass along polling information to a couple of Ukrainians is not a crime, and it sure as hell isn’t evidence of Russia collusion.
Do I personally believe Haberman, Vogel, and the New York Times deliberately published this lie knowing it would get far more attention than the correction snuck into the bottom of the piece four or five hours later?
Hell, yes, I do.
Only a fool would believe anything else.
If this fire hose of so-called mistakes made by the establishment media were honest mistakes, every once in a while a mistake would be made in Trump’s favor. But this steady stream of fake bombshells always, always, always err on the side of damaging Trump, which can only mean they are deliberate.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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