The Media Cries Wolff

Author Michael Wolff admitted Monday that he did not interview Vice President Mike Pence or any Cabinet members, though some of the more incendiary claims in his book “Fire and Fury” are credited to Cabinet members. (GATEWAY PUNDIT)

Host Norah O’Donnell asked Wolf,

  • “Did you speak to any members of the president’s Cabinet for this book?”
  • Wolff responded, “I did not.”
  • You did not?” O’Donnell repeated. 
  • “I did not,” Wolff confirmed.

She then asked Wolff if he ever interviewed Vice President Mike Pence.

  • “I did not,” Wolff said again.

ACCURACY IN MEDIA notes some leftists skeptics:

…Some of the claims in the book have proven to be false, such as when Wolff wrote that then-candidate Donald Trump did not know who former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R.-Ohio) was. Trump tweeted about Boehner in 2015, repudiating the book’s claims.

One New York Times reporter said that the overall message of White House chaos under the Trump administration is believable despite the information included in the book.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, whom WikiLeaks exposed as being the reporter who would “tee up stories” for the Clinton campaign, is one of the reporters who has tried to toe the line on whether the book’s claims are true:

“I believe parts of it and then there are other parts that are factually wrong…”

“I can see several places in the book that are wrong. So for instance, he inaccurately describes a report in the New York Times. He inaccurately characterizes a couple of incidents that took place early on in the administration. He gets basic details wrong…

“He creates a narrative that is notionally true, conceptually true, the details are often wrong.”

On the other hand, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota criticized Wolff’s book and said, “this isn’t really journalism.”….

Even Steven Colbert is skeptical (NEWSBUSTERS):

For extra measure to make the point that Leftists are driven by “feelings,” MSNBC’s Katy Tur told “Fire and Fury” author Michael Wolff Monday that his controversial book “FEELS TRUE,” adding, “congratulations on the book, and congratulations on the president hating it” (TOWNHALL):

Wolff in Sheeps Clothing

(As A Side-Note) The author, Michael Wolff, said he didn’t know if people were telling him the truth, some [he said] knowingly lied to him, etc. I think this is all a plan to obfuscate and keep the press and Trumps detractors writing about tabloid “truths” while REAL WORK and POLICY is steaming along behind all the headlines. I love it. Whether some of the crazy headlines are accidental, or, the Trump team knows how the press core and “fourth rail” will act — like throwing bones to hungry dogs — nonetheless, the most conservative agenda since I have been alive is pumping through.

— Just my two-cents.

  • But the book’s author, Michael Wolff, says he can’t be sure that all of it is true. (BUSINESS INSIDER)

Here is POWERLINE laying down the law (really, common sense):

…Even liberals, like The New Republic, have big doubts about Wolff’s book. Already Wolff is backing away from backing up all the details of the book. As Business Insider reported this morning:

Michael Wolff, the author of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” included a note at the start which casts significant doubt on the reliability of the specifics contained in the rest of its pages.

A number of his sources, he says, were definitely lying to him, while some offered accounts that flatly contradict those of others. But they were nonetheless included in the vivid account of the West Wing’s workings, in a process Wolff describes as “allowing the reader to judge” whether they are true.

Does the idea that Trump didn’t actually want to win the election make any sense at all? It’s one thing to expect to lose because the polls say you’re going to lose; but the intent to lose, as stated in Wolff’s account, simply can’t square with any serious understanding of human ambition, even with a person as unusual as Donald Trump. In addition, if this claim is true, how does it feel to be Hillary Clinton now—losing to someone who didn’t want to win?….

(Via, THE BLAZE)

Even the White House NYTs correspondent distances herself from the veracity of what Wolff has written:

Maggie Haberman, White House correspondent for the New York Times, ripped author Michael Wolff on Friday for “getting basic details wrong” about President Trump’s campaign and administration in the newly published book “Fire and Fury.”

“I believe parts of it and then there are other parts that are factually wrong,” she said on CNN. “I can see several places in the book that are wrong. So for instance, he inaccurately describes a report in the New York Times. He inaccurately characterizes a couple of incidents that took place early on in the administration. He gets basic details wrong.”

Haberman said Wolff’s “style” is to create a broad narrative in a story, but gets many of the details wrong…..

(WASHINGTON EXAMINER)