“When did these guys drink the Kool-Aid, and who served it to them?” That The New York Times deemed that reference to former Attorney General William Barr and Special Counsel John Durham from Stefan Halper’s criminal defense attorney relevant, much less persuasive, to the question of the propriety of the special counsel’s investigation renders Thursday’s hit piece unworthy of any credibility.
The Times’ opening salvo on Thursday, “How Barr’s Quest to Find Flaws in the Russia Inquiry Unraveled,” launched a narrative-building exercise to convince the public that Durham’s investigation into malfeasance by the FBI and intelligence agencies was politically motivated and a failure.
As I previously detailed in these pages, Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman, and Katie Benner’s article on Barr’s quest supposedly unraveling cannot withstand scrutiny. Nonetheless, the Times’ ploy to preempt the eventual public release of the special counsel report is already advancing as planned.
Countering the propaganda-pushing press is difficult, especially when the media join forces with Democrats, as is already happening with the attacks on Barr and Durham. Savage, Goldman, and Benner make the task particularly challenging with their sheer breadth of accusations leveled at the two.
While line-by-line, the Times’ attacks on Barr and Durham — both Thursday’s and Monday’s op-ed follow-up — can be countered, there is really no reason to wade into the minutia of the reporting because the authors’ reliance on a quote from Halper’s attorney to make their case is so outrageous, so laughable, and so beyond the pale, the public would
