OTM 1

On the Media's "January Surprise"

I believe Buzzfeed made a terrible mistake by deciding to publish the Trump- Russia dossier to the public. Brooke Gladstone made a great point in saying, "Here you have basically tainted the public opinion jury pool." Essentially, Buzzfeed released these sketchy details about President- elect Trump, leaving the average American to decide the authenticity when they could not? This definitely has affected everyone in a sense. Rather than focus on the bigger picture like Gladstone alluded to with cases such as Obamacare and Russia, people are focusing entirely on this dossier. It is clear this dossier will dominate news cycles for at least a couple of weeks, but I do not find this to be the most important issue at hand. Families shouldn't be raging over lewd acts President- elect Trump may or may not have done. Instead, they need to think about whether or not their children will still be able to get healthcare at 26 years-old.

I also believe Buzzfeed went against basic journalistic values. Throughout my educational endeavors, I am constantly instructed to only write accurately. Without this credibility, who would want to read or listen to what any media outlet has to say? According to Journalism expert Tony Rogers, "A reporter's primary mission is always to find the truth, whether that means questioning and challenging statements." In Buzzfeed's attempts to be the first multimedia network to share this, it may or may not result in severe repercussions. Will Oremus briefly mentioned that if this dossier circulates, it may bring forth witnesses who can validate this information. While that may be true, I believe those with certain political agendas may take advantage of this, causing even more chaos. These witnesses could turn out to be just like those so- called Trump rape victims- phony.

Another issue I have with Buzzfeed is the fact that this only contributed to people's utter hatred for Trump, on the basis of what? These aren't facts, they're simply allegations, yet I have to listen to these questionable statements because certain people act as parrots. They lack an understanding of this dossier, but they already believe it to be true. Buzzfeed basically psychologically manipulated people into thinking they can prove the dossier's authenticity. If the U.S. Intelligence has not figured it out, how will the American people? We should always be skeptical of news like this, especially when it isn't backed up by facts.