Why news outlets are treading carefully on the Trump–Epstein story
The connection between President Donald Trump and late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein seems like a big story.
How big?
That’s not an easy answer.
We really don’t know how big the story is because we don’t know how strong the connection was between Trump and Epstein. Emails released this week appear to indicate that Trump might have been aware of something. Beyond that, we just don’t know.
One email from Epstein to himself in February 2019 read that Trump knew about the sexual abuse of underage girls, but never participated.
Epstein wrote, “Trump knew of it. and came to my house many times during that period. He never got a massage.”
In an email to author Michael Wolff in January 2019, Epstein wrote, “Of course (Trump) knew about the girls.”
Related Knowledge Center: Democracy and politics
News organizations are scrambling to find a coverage approach that adequately informs the American public about the country’s slide from democracy to authoritarian rule.
Related Knowledge Center: The White House vs. the press
Whether it’s the Des Moines Register’s publication of an unfavorable election poll, a routine edit of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, or the Associated Press’s decision in its authoritative stylebook to continue to use “Gulf of Mexico,” Donald Trump and the White House have used executive authority and legal reprisals in an effort to punish and suppress press coverage that runs contrary to the administration’s preferred narratives.
Democracy and politics | Signalgate | The CBS submission | Voiceless America