Making the internet rounds is ABC News' Jonathan Karl's Atlantic piece in which former attorney general Bill Barr says of Trump's election-fraud allegations: "It was all bullshit."
After informally investigating two of the allegations — "ballot dumps" in Detroit and vote-switching machines — "We realized from the beginning it was just bullshit," says Barr.
This, I needn't really remind you, is not news. It was five months and three weeks ago when Barr disclosed to an AP reporter: "We have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election."
What I do find to be newsy comes from a journalistic viewpoint, and this Karl entry: "Barr and those close to him have a reason to tell his version of this story. He has been widely seen as a Trump lackey who politicized the Justice Department."
Once again the passive voice — this time politically akin to "Mistakes were made" — molests reality. Everyone with a conscience and the ability to read newspapers saw Barr as "a Trump lackey who politicized the Justice Department."
Karl then immediately compounds his journalistic sloppiness by writing: "But when the big moment came after the election, [Barr] defied the president who expected him to do his bidding."
Hardly. His informal investigations into Trump's fraud allegations? They came shortly after Election Day, which "overturned long-standing policy that the Justice Department does not investigate voter fraud until after an election is certified."
That's from Karl's own reporting. Not merely another instance of Barr's norm-busting, but another instance of Barr doing the bidding of Trump.
Perhaps ABC News will hire me as a six-figure "reporter" if I write this: Barr is now widely seen as covering his ass and trying to mend a reputation in immensely deserved tatters. Widely seen by whom? That's for the reader to figure out.