The online news site BuzzFeed on Tuesday published a letter containing salacious allegations — which even the left-leaning outlet acknowledged are unverified — against President-Elect Donald Trump.
The letter, purporting to come from a retired British intelligence agent, details Trump’s alleged relationship with Russia and contends that the Kremlin has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Trump for at least five years.
It alleges that Russians have been feeding Trump intelligence on his opponents, including Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, for years. It also details Trump’s alleged “personal obsessions and sexual perversion.”
BuzzFeed acknowledges that it has not verified the accusations and even notes that the document contains a number of basic factual errors. Yet it published the full document.
“Now BuzzFeed News is publishing the full document so that Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the US government,” BuzzFeed wrote.
It is a shocking breakdown of journalistic ethics.
Even Mother Jones declined to publish the full details and dossier.
“Even Donald Trump deserves journalistic fairness,” tweeted David Corn, Mother Jones’ Washington Bureau chief.
Ben Smith, BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief, defended the decision in a memo to staff.
“Our presumption is to be transparent in our journalism and to share what we have with our readers,” he wrote in the…