Being a mainstream “journalist” means never having to say you’re sorry.

In the lead up to the release of the transcript of the call between Trump and the Ukrainian President, we were told all kinds of things via anonymously sourced reports. Trump had made promises. Trump had offered a quid pro quo. Trump had threatened to withhold aid.

Here’s a sampling of some of the stuff that ended up not being true.

The WSJ said Trump mentioned Biden 8 times The transcript proved that false Will they retract their debunked conspiracy theory? — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 25, 2019

Bret Baier on Democrats' speculation over Trump's Ukraine phone call: “none of those things are in this transcript”pic.twitter.com/gYV7Pq7l2M — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 25, 2019

This is key. The reported "scandal," based on anonymous sources, turned out to be not true. These false claims led to real harm and impeachment fury. WP has a track record of publishing false info on Trump. @gregpmiller @nakashimae @shaneharris https://t.co/x1L9vrxiEv — Mollie (@MZHemingway) September 25, 2019

The transcript debunked everything Democrats claimed Trump did Democrats claimed Trump: -Withheld funds

-Demanded an investigation

-Mentioned 8 times the Biden family

-Offered a quid pro quo None of those things are in the transcript Schiff is either lying or is delusional https://t.co/GDKFtEKywr — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 25, 2019

Ryan says “Democrats claimed here,” and that’s true, but it was the media who were putting out the reports Democrats were citing.

Here’s another one.

Lead reporter on that piece (Greg Miller) was also lead reporter on story that Trump made a "promise" in the Zelensky call, which doesn't appear in the White House rough transcript — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) September 25, 2019

In short, nearly every single damning thing that was claimed prior to the transcript being released turned out to be not true. The only thing that was actually confirmed in the call was that 1) it took place and 2) that Biden was discussed, which Trump had never denied.

There was no “promise” made. Trump did not mention Biden eight separate times in order to apply immense pressure on Ukraine’s president. It’s simply not there in the transcript.

Hilariously, even after we’ve seen the call, The Wall Street Journal “stands by” it’s reporting on the eight mentions of Biden.

Opinion: The Wall Street Journal stands behind "eight times" scoop on Trump and Ukrainian president https://t.co/idbZJ2qSgI — The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 25, 2019

Just unbelievable. It’s literally not there in the call but they stand by it. Does that make sense to anyone?

As much as I’d love to chalk all this up to honest mistakes, it’s not. These reporters are mining sources they know are partisan and are more than willing to run to print with whatever ludicrous supposition some anonymous individual tells them. If it’s wrong, what do they care? There’s never any consequences. They can just move on to the next story and do the same thing again.

Case in point, this latest claim.

Would like to know more about how this alleged “understanding” came to be known, but if Biden topic was actually a pre-condition for any phone call with Trump (I have doubts), that would extend misconduct beyond impulsive, self-serving Trump words. It would point to WH *policy.* https://t.co/PXppRoGIXt — Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 25, 2019

And look, I like Guy. He works for Townhall, one of our sister sites, and also does Fox News stuff. I’m not trying to pick on him. But at what point do you just wait before running with this stuff? What part of that story is even worth considering right now given how badly these same outlets failed us just a day earlier?

BTW, the “adviser” in that story? It’s this guy.

Dude, Leshchenko is the guy who pushed the Manafort "black ledger," which may or may not be legit, and who was identified by Nellie Ohr as a source of information for Fusion GPS. https://t.co/Y9edpVEI0k — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) September 25, 2019

A hack who’s been feeding info to Fusion GPS going back to the 2016 election is not someone to be taking seriously when it comes to claims against Donald Trump. Especially when the Ukrainian president himself says there was no pressure applied and no such condition.

Heck, look at how the press is spinning the transcript itself, omitting entire pages in order to connect two disconnected points to claim a quid pro quo that’s not actually there.

I'm not sure I get the people seizing on "I would like you to do us a favor" as the smoking gun, because it transparently has nothing to do with Biden pic.twitter.com/XkWwqeDFr4 — Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) September 25, 2019

Keep in mind, Alex Griswold is not a Trump guy. Not at all. Quite the contrary. But he sees through this nonsense.

CNN just skipped right over it on air earlier this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/1cirnrMglW — Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) September 25, 2019

MSNBC also did the above falsifying edit twice. None of this was by accident.

The bottom line question is why does anyone continue to take these outlets seriously? Is there no end to the line of credibility that will be extended to them? We keep pretending they have standards. They don’t have standards. They have narratives, nothing more.

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