Politics

Media Missed Important Stories While It Was Distracted By Russia, Says Joe Concha

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The media failed to cover several important stories while it was obsessing over supposed Russian collusion, according to a reporter for The Hill, Joe Concha.

“How many Russian collusion stories did we see where an organization, reporters got it wrong and there were actual consequences? I can only name once really on a major level. CNN and Anthony Scaramucci, and three reporters got fired,” Concha said Monday on “Fox & Friends.”

“Think of the stories we missed as a result of Russia,” he continued. “The economy’s performance as it pertains to wages or unemployment or growth. The destruction of the ISIS caliphate that suddenly came out of nowhere, it seemed to a lot of people, because no one was really covering it. And the most overlooked story: the opioid epidemic. 70,000 people killed in 2017 alone. That’s more than car crashes. You hardly hear about that and that’s what effects real Americans’ lives.”

Attorney General William Barr delivered his report on the special counsel probe to Congress Sunday and wrote that President Donald Trump and his campaign team did not collude with any Russian entities during the election. Barr also claimed there was not enough evidence to pursue obstruction of justice charges.

Concha criticized the media’s handling of the Russia probe and said the release of the Mueller report serves as the biggest “reckoning” the press has seen since 2016.

“Throughout these last 22 months, gossip was treated as gospel. Sources providing information to reporters all too willing to accept it like seagulls at the beach. And look, this is a day of reckoning for our media like we haven’t seen since the 2016 election,” he said earlier in the interview.

“I would say maybe the worst day ever for our media given all that coverage and the pushing of that particular narrative around Russia collusion. The Washington Post and New York Times — Mollie Hemingway pointed this out — won Pulitzers for their reporting on Russian collusion. All we heard about was, walls are closing, nooses tightening and this is the beginning of the end. And now we’re hearing, even yesterday and this morning, this is the beginning of something else. The next chapter. You know why? Because it’s good for ratings and because people want to believe the worst about this president.”

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