Gutfeld on WaPo admitting to misquoting Trump
'The Five' panelist slams the paper as 'lemmings' for their anti-Trump reporting
Greg Gutfeld slammed the mainstream media in the wake of a massive correction by The Washington Post, which read in part that, contrary to the paper's original reporting, former President Donald Trump did not tell Georgia state elections investigator Frances Watson to "find the fraud."
The quote, attributed to a leaked phone call between the two officials, came as Trump routinely railed against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger's handling of the election. The president's back and forth with his fellow Republicans in Georgia provided the media with much fodder.
On "The Five," Gutfeld said that while "deep fake" images have been a trend on the internet for some time, the mainstream media has engaged in "deep fakes" of journalism for a while as well.
"It sounds new but the media has been out of it for years; only with words, tricking the public to say something they didn’t," he said.
"Take 'The Washington Post' who finally issued a brutal correction of a huge damaging lie. They contorted Donald Trump’s December phone call with the Georgia secretary of states top investigator claiming Trump ordered her to find the fraud and if she did she would be a hero."
"That lie came from a single anonymous source and with endlessly repeated by the media."
The host went on to further criticize the media, playing a montage of national newscasters reporting on the now-retracted quote:
"What lemmings. They're like Smolletts who can type," he said. "They claimed they confirmed it but ask yourself, how could all of them be wrong about the same exact thing? There is only one way: one source."
Gutfeld credited the Washington Examiner for its take on the retraction, remarking that multiple newsrooms must've confirmed the scoop by speaking with the same anonymous source.
"It is like tracing cases of food poisoning to a single batch of rancid potato salad. Just as easy to track and more disgusting," he said.
"We knew this was behind most anti trump drech -- one anonymous source gave it to Paper A, then Network B calls the same source to get confirmation. Then Snopes and the fact-checkers agree."
Gutfeld characterized the situation as an example of "investigative incest," and predicted it was the same process that led to the dissemination of the Steele dossier.
"So how can we ever trust these clowns again? They would do everything to destroy a person -- from a president they can’t stand to his obviously evil supporters. They'd push a lie to help their side win an election," he continued.
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"It’s like Biden claiming the vaccine started with him or that there's no emergency at the border, but the press don’t just nod along but they take the lies and turn it into truth. It’s not fake news, deep fake news. Be ready when they use it on you."
Gutfeld went on to note that the Post's media critic, Erik Wemple, criticized his own paper for the retraction as well.
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