The American people don't trust the establishment press, as seen in a Pew Research poll result released Thursday showing that only 8 percent of Americans have "a great deal of confidence" that the media will "act in the best interests of the public."
Here is one more example showing why this attitude is entirely justified: The Secret Service, after a thorough investigation in response to anonymous, media-promoted smears, is reporting that it found "no information that would indicate" that a misconduct allegation against withdrawn VA nominee Ronny Jackson is true.
Despite additional evidentiary support from the White House, we learned over the weekend that Jackson won't return as White House doctor.
Former President Barack Obama made no attempt to defend Jackson during the ordeal. As of Sunday evening, Obama hadn't issued any statement relating to the allegations against Jackson, even though he served as White House physician during the final 3-1/2 years of Obama's second term, and even though the alleged and unproven misconduct occurred during that time.
CNN led the "sources say" smear campaign in a story originally posted on Tuesday ("04/24," as seen in the Google News result), but updated on Friday:
As usual, the charges were entirely anonymously sourced.
Here is the full Thursday Secret Service response (click on the graphic to see a larger version in a separate tab or window:
The Secret Service didn't have to include the second and third paragraphs seen above to refute the charges in question, but appears to have done so to push back against the anonymous charges impugning Jackson's character.
The Secret Service's response didn't sway two reporters at the Associated Press. Friday evening, Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller began with a dishonest headline:
White House: Records dispute allegations against Jackson
The Secret Service is not part of the White House; it's part of the Department of Homeland Security. A headline including the Secret Service would have made the administration's case look stronger, which the AP apparently wanted to avoid.
The AP pair's report indicates that "the White House" separately has records disputing "accusations of drunkenness on the job." Unfortunately for AP and Montana Senator Jon Tester, who was most vocal in opposing Jackson's VA nomination, there's no evidence supporting those accusations, either:
Keeping hope alive, the AP reporters wrote that "Tester's office has not specified the time frame during which the alleged misconduct occurred." Jackson's tenure as White House physician began on July 25, 2013, leaving only 17 months (to the end of 2014) not directly addressed.
The AP reporters only noted the following concerning the Secret Service:
(It) said it has no evidence to support an allegation that its personnel intervened to prevent Jackson from disturbing former President Barack Obama during a foreign trip in 2015.
Anyone can see that the Secret Service's statement above is about far more "a (single) foreign trip in 2015."
What about the "internal documents related to all Presidential foreign travel" covered by the Secret Service's statement did Colvin and Miller not understand?
Now that the press and the Democrats apparently have their scalp, readers shouldn't expect to see much more media coverage of the cascade of exculpatory evidence the White House and Secret Service provided on Friday. Yet the press still wonders why and is outraged that the vast majority of the American people don't trust them.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
