DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: The FBI raided a notable journalist’s home. Rolling Stone didn’t tell readers why.
The Rolling Stone story created a stir. Reporter Tatiana Siegel stated that the April 22 raid was “quite possibly, the first” carried out by the Biden administration on a journalist.
In this case, the journalist was ABC News national security producer James Gordon Meek. A former investigator for the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, Meek had been with ABC News since 2013. He also was a producer of 3212 Un-Redacted, an investigative documentary that streamed on Hulu.
As published, the Rolling Stone article’s first two paragraphs lionized Meek’s record and swashbuckling style.
“Meek appears to be on the wrong side of the national-security apparatus,” it stated.
As the story noted, Siegel’s sources told her “federal agents allegedly found classified information on Meek’s laptop during their raid.” Siegel reported that Meek left his job at ABC after the raid; a publishing contract with Simon & Schuster evaporated.
As edited by Rolling Stone Editor-in-Chief Noah Shachtman, however, the article omitted a key fact that Siegel initially intended to include: Siegel had learned from her sources that Meek had been raided as part of a federal investigation into images of child sex abuse, something not publicly revealed until last month.
Why did Rolling Stone suggest Meek was targeted for his coverage of national security, rather than something unrelated to his journalism?
Why indeed? “It sounds like Rolling Stone’s editor in chief deliberately buried the truth about the sex abuse allegations against Meek because the two of them were friendly. Meek looks really bad, obviously. But so does Noah Shachtman. And so does Rolling Stone. And it’s not like Rolling Stone has a whole lot of credibility to spare.”
UPDATE: Rolling Stone Magazine Faces New Journalism Scandal After Misleading Readers in a Big Way.
This is not the first time Rolling Stone has abused and discarded facts about a major story in order to (possibly) push an agenda. The magazine landed in serious hot water several years ago after publishing a “bombshell” report about a gang rape on the University of Virginia campus. That “bombshell,” though, turned out to be entirely fabricated.
That story led to a major defamation case against the magazine. They were found guilty, and the resulting damages ultimately resulted in the sale of the magazine.
Of course, the magazine has a well-known leftward bent, more recently calling Democrat Joe Manchin a destroyer of worlds and attacking ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Flashback: Sticky Fingers: A New Biography Explores the Seedier Side of Jann Wenner.
(Updated and bumped.)
ANOTHER UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Who do I trust more, the FBI or Rolling Stone? More like who do I trust less.