The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico recently received cryptic emails from a guy named “Robert,” claiming to possess internal documents from Donald Trump’s campaign, namely a 217-page dossier listing alleged vulnerabilities of Vice-Presidential candidate J.D. Vance, likely compiled in advance of Trump selecting him as his running mate.
How the press is treating these documents is in stark contrast to how it treated Trump’s former opponent, Hillary Clinton in 2016. This type of information—if true—would normally be a major story that would dominate news cycles for the next several days. It would serve as an effective talking point for Kamala Harris and her intermediaries, possibly even tipping some Trump supporters toward Democrats in November.
But before these news agencies set “Robert” down to vet him and his information, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) released a report confirming Iranian operatives had hacked an unnamed presidential candidate in June, possibly through a spear-phishing email designed to convince a victim to click a dangerous link. The Trump campaign made timely use of that information.
“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” said Trump spokesperson, Stephen Cheung.
By refusing to publish the allegedly hacked information, the media is taking the kind of care it didn’t bother with in 2016 when it released more than 150,000 emails stolen from Democrat correspondence with the Hillary Clinton campaign. Websites like Gucifer 2.0, WikiLeaks, and DCLeaks happily circulated that information and mainstream media outlets pounced on it, mining weeks of stories, dealing remarkable damage to Clinton. But as of August 15, 2024, no news outlet has printed any information from Trump’s hacked emails because they suddenly don’t want to appear to be aiding a foreign power in their quest to influence the 2024 election.
It leaves one to wonder what election results would’ve been in 2016 if the media had practiced the same care with Clinton that Trump is currently enjoying.
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Charlie R. Braxton is a poet, playwright, and cultural critic who writes about music and politics. He is the author of three volumes of verse, “Ascension from the Ashes” (Blackwood Press,1990), “Cinders Rekindled” (Jawara Press, 2012), and “Embers Among the Ashes: Poems In A Haiku Manner” (Jawara Press, 2018).
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