New York Times issues correction to shrink scope of intelligence community consensus to actual size

Brett T. | 9:24 PM on June 29, 2017

It might not seem like much, but when news outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times vocally beef up their fact-checking efforts and introduce new slogans like “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” it’s just as important for readers to go full whack-a-mole when fake news is given an airing (or even sue when old myths are revived).

On Thursday, the New York Times issued a correction to its piece on President Trump’s “deflections and denials about Russia,” pointing out that the intelligence community as a whole never came to a consensus on Russia’s activities in the 2016 election.

New York Times finally admits that the 17-intelligence agencies Russian hacking narrative was a complete falsehood! https://t.co/Z2Pm19X9rQ pic.twitter.com/mVNpAkRnzx

— Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) June 29, 2017

NYT issues correction on commonly-made misstatement concerning Russia intel report. https://t.co/FXqrHRukQV pic.twitter.com/8RW3JKDzPI

— Byron York (@ByronYork) June 29, 2017

The report, issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and available in PDF format here, notes up front that “we” in the report refers collectively to the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA. So the correction is a bit like knocking the fabled “97 percent of scientists agree” number down quite a few notches.

That's been repeated and repeated. It's already part of Russiagate conventional wisdom.

— Rich Weinstein (@phillyrich1) June 29, 2017

The Daily Caller reports that the New York Times in an article published earlier in the week “incorrectly claimed all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies agreed that ‘Russia orchestrated the attacks, and did it to help get [Trump] elected,'” adding that Hillary Clinton made a similar claim in late May.