The Old Media's Fake News stories on alleged Trump scandals just keep coming. In a stunning admission on Thursday, the BBC apologized to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and is paying him damages over a May 2018 article alleging that he arranged a $400,000 payment in 2017 to then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen in order to secure a meeting with the president.
"We apologise to Mr Poroshenko for any distress caused and have agreed to pay him damages, legal costs and have participated in a joint statement in open court," the oh-so-prestigious public broadcaster said. They were "happy to acknowledge" the story was "completely untrue."
London's Daily Mail reported the amount of the BBC's payout was not disclosed in court.
Poroshenko's lawyer Graham Atkins told the court Mr. Poroshenko "deeply regrets that it took the BBC so long to accept liability" and to remove the article from its website, adding: "He believes that the resulting delay will inevitably have increased the damage caused to his reputation by the publication of this allegation."
Just days before, BBC director-general Tony Hall gave one of those pompous speeches about how ruffians outside the socialist global elite are ruining freedom of expression by criticizing the news media for, that's right, "fake news."
Hall decried disinformation -- from social media and other plebeian communications for non-members of the media elite: "All around the world, fake news is now the poison in the bloodstream of our societies - destabilising democracy and undermining trust in institutions and the rule of law. In the West, we have witnessed its power to distort our discourse, fuel divisions and influence voter decisions."
Earth to Tony: Heal thyself.
The lecture continued:
Today, so many journalists face constant anonymous threats online, simply for reporting on opinions that others might not want to hear.Every day we see attempts to target, troll, intimidate them. To stop them from doing their job. This is more than an attack on journalists. It amounts to a campaign to denigrate their craft.
The phrase “mainstream media” is now a term of abuse - used by people of all political persuasions. Traditional journalism is painted as part of the problem rather than the solution. This really worries me. Ultimately, it’s an assault on freedom of expression. And our duty to seek out the facts - without fear or favour - no matter how inconvenient they might prove to be.
Really, Tony, this kind of language is why people "denigrate your craft" -- the constant lying about how "we only report facts" instead of personal opinions, and especially the "without fear or favour" phoniness. Reporting on people the Left loathes, from Trump to the Brexiteers, is riddled with bias, and even downright falsehoods.
Why can't journalists recognize the truth that freedom of expression includes the freedom to tell them they're not respected as honest brokers of information?
