Two stories emerge in fallout from Flynn resignation
NEW YORK— In the hours since Michael Flynn resigned as U.S. national security adviser late Monday, two narratives emerged.
One, embraced by many in the traditional legacy media, centred on what Flynn had done that led to his resignation: discussing sanctions against Russia in a conversation with the Russian ambassador and then misleading Vice-President Mike Pence about it.
The other, which developed among right-leaning news media, focused on the leaks from Washington that had put pressure on Flynn to step aside and whether these leaks were intended to damage President Donald Trump.
One narrative holds Flynn, and others who knew about his discussions, accountable. The other portrays Flynn more as a victim.
Which narrative does Trump ascribe to? On Tuesday morning, he attributed Flynn’s resignation to “illegal leaks.”
“The real story here,” he said in a tweet, “is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N. Korea etc?”
On Wednesday, he again denounced the leaks in a blizzard of tweets.
The division between left-leaning and right-leaning news organizations is certainly not new. But the growing division between main- stream and more partisan media means that some readers are getting their news through an evernarrowing prism.
Americans who get their information from Breitbart News, a rightwing news and opinion site, for instance, or from the conservative Fox News are getting a very different version than those who read the Washington Post or watch CNN.
For roughly an hour after Flynn’s resignation letter began circulating, Breitbart did not change the main story on its home page, which was about immigration policy.
When Breitbart made the Flynn resignation its main story, around midnight, the account hewed closely to the facts of Flynn’s resignation and quoted heavily from his resignation letter. The site also put up a more analytical article that raised questions about the motives behind the government’s monitoring of communications between Flynn and the Russian ambassador.
“Democrats are clamouring for a deeper investigation of Russian ties to Trump,” the article said. “But the more serious question is whether our nation’s intelligence services were involved in what amounts to political espionage against the newly elected government.”
The article also raised questions about how the news media got its information, reinforcing a distrust of the press that Trump has tried to foster. “The fact that the contents of Flynn’s phone conversation — highly sensitive intelligence — were leaked to the media suggests that someone with access to that information also has a political axe to grind,” the article said.
Conservative commentator and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham suggested that the leaks were politically motivated.
“The long knives were out for Flynn almost the moment that he was announced,” she said.
Journalists at more centrist news organizations, including CNN and NPR, attributed Flynn’s resignation to the strong reporting and investigative journalism that had exposed details of Flynn’s talks with Russia.
Scott Detrow of NPR tweeted: “Resignation comes after aggressive reporting by Washington Post, CNN, NYT, and others. Claiming ‘fake news’ still has its limits.”