How Very Meta: Journalists Leaking to Journalists in ABC News Meltdown

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Want to know why Americans trust the media less than Congress and used-car salespeople? Greta Van Susteren highlighted one key manner of manipulation reporters and news orgs employ, even when reporting on the news industry itself.

Late yesterday, the New York Post reported that “Furious George” Stephanopoulos felt humiliated and betrayed by ABC News for shelling out $16 million to settle Donald Trump’s defamation claim. As John wrote last night, Stephanopoulos has made himself scarce on social media for the last few weeks as this percolated between the lawyers. In retrospect, ABC’s decision to have David Muir moderate the debate rather than Stephanopoulos might have been a hint that they had lost confidence in Stephanopoulos’ judgment — although Muir turned out to be a disaster anyway.

Now, this kind of story is why we use the “Too Good to Check” label. Of course we want people who falsify the news to feel “humiliated” as a result. But if Stephanopoulos has gone silent and ABC’s only offering press releases, how do we know that Stephanopouls feels humiliated and betrayed? Because several people inside ABC News want us to know it — although they don’t want to put their names to it. Van Susteren finds this mighty curious:

Another example (and a big one) of journalists not stepping up to the plate and being transparent ..why are all these journalists sources below anonymous ? pic.twitter.com/zneh6TrkzZ

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) December 18, 2024

“The Post has learned” basically fronts for a gossip piece, a genre normally found on the Post’s Page Six about celebrities rather than in its news section. Here are the mentions of the Post’s Anonymice:

Stephanopoulos, who claimed Trump had raped E. Jean Carroll during an interview with Republican lawmaker Nancy Mace, was particularly upset about being forced to apologize, a source with knowledge of the situation said.

Another source told The Post that “George is defiant.”

A third source said Stephanopoulos “is a very guarded person. His circle of trust is so small, and a lot of them don’t work [at ABC anymore].“ …

Three sources told The Post that morale is down after a series of layoffs in all departments. …

A source with knowledge of the situation told The Post that the $16 million payout is coming from the network’s insurance.

The most remarkable aspect of this report from the Post is that it doesn’t have a single source from within a news org going on the record in support of its main claim. Thanks to some clever writing and editing, it’s not even clear how many anonymous sources the Post used to craft this news item, or even how significant they are within ABC. Is it five? Four? Just three, reused for the sake of environmentally friendly recycling? 

In fact, do any of these anonymous sources actually work at ABC News at all? Or are they vendors, friends of friends, or people outside the building who went through the trash bin? Is Simone (the fabulous Kristy Swanson) the source?

Who knows? The Post’s journalists obfuscate the identities of journalists in order to report on … journalists. The Post’s editors allowed this report on editors to get published without any indication to readers why the report should be believed at all. 

This is exactly how mainstream media orgs — and yes, even the NY Post falls into that category, as much as we enjoy their work otherwise — use Anonymice to manipulate readers and promote bogus narratives. Media orgs insist that anonymous sourcing is critical to their ability to report on malfeasance by people in power, and that may well be the case, but … how exactly does that apply to this story? Or for that matter, practically any story published these days on the basis of Anonymice? 

Anonymous sourcing may have its place, but only when married to on-the-record sources and data, and only on issues of true import to liberty and security. The abuse of this tactic renders the credibility of the entire media industry as low as … well, that of Stephanopoulos at the moment. Media organizations are using all-anonymous sourcing to tell the narratives that suit themselves rather than report actual news with any verification or reliability. 

This is precisely why people rank reporters somewhere above pond scum and well below politicians. Unfortunately, this kind of gossip sells as entertainment, so the incentives are running against credibility. Of course, the Weekly World News used to sell like hotcakes too … until it didn’t. There may be a lesson in that for the mainstream media, if anyone bothers to pay attention other than Greta Van Susteren. 

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