The Trump campaign says that it was hacked by what they suspect were foreign agents agents. The hacked emails were sent to Politico and The Washington Post which decided not to publish them.
You read that right. They received hacked documents from suspect origins which have been authenticated by the campaign itself and they are choosing not to publish.
Can you see the problem here?
Will Bunch said it so succinctly I have no need to go further:
The hot mess that was the political media in 2016 continues to slime America 8 years later
In 2016, there was no reasoned debate about the ethics of publishing Russian-hacked documents. Not that it’s not a tough call, morally — but the debate wasn’t even held. The documents were just published without any thought. Only after the election did anyone wonder so much regard was given to the (mostly inconsequential) leaks and so little to shockingly illegal methods to obtain them. So now..
I’d agree Politico and other news media are technically correct to consider the source and the motive before deciding whether or what to publish.
The problem is this:
The lack of any ethical debate in publishing the Russian hacks greatly benefited one candidate: Donald Trump
Eight years later, the media restraint in not publishing this alleged Iranian hack benefits one candidate: Donald Trump
Public distrust of the media is off the charts in part because many voters suspect, with some good reasons, that the media is in the tank for Donald Trump.
Not publishing the hacks will reinforce that suspicion
If the media hadn’t screwed this up so badly in 2016, they would not be in this bind -30-
He is absolutely right about the double standard being deployed here and it’s maddening that for some reason Trump always seems to be the beneficiary of these things. Why is that?
But that’s the media story which is still unfolding. Marcy Wheeler spots some other aspects of this story which should have the media delving into this a lot further than we’ve seen. Apparently, the Trump campaign didn’t report this to the FBI. And there are reasons …
The question of how to approach this news, if it is further confirmed, goes well beyond the question of whether to publish the documents allegedly stolen by Iran. In significant part because Trump refuses to maintain boundaries between his political life and his criminal life, hacks from Iran could create real damage to the United States beyond what they do to Trump’s campaign.
And that’s because Trump’s operation is sloppy and inept. As usual. I highly recommend you read Marcy’s post.