MSNBC's Maddow: I've learned from Trump era not to blindly trust government officials

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Liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said she learned from the Donald Trump era not to blindly trust the word of government officials, an interesting assertion given her and her network's reliance on intelligence leaks, Democratic politicians, and MSNBC's deep roster of Obama government alumni.

“This is a great time to be in the news business because we've never been more vital," she said Wednesday on "The Late Show." "Just to learn these basic rules again that if we didn't know them before, you know, don't listen to what they're saying. Just watch what they're doing. Don't take at face value something you get from a government official just because a government official is saying it.

"Those rules became very easy to remember all of a sudden again in the Trump administration, which is good," she added, in remarks flagged by NewsBusters. "But they're good rules for us for all time."

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Maddow's remarks were in the context of being incredulous toward false claims by Trump administration officials. However, she was one of the leading promoters of the theory that the Trump campaign and Russia colluded in the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, and she relied on Democrats to push the idea, such as California lawmakers Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell, who often said proof of collusion was in plain sight.

"Maddow says Trump helped her relearn journalism: Like don't trust what the government says... Sigh," NewsBusters associate editor Scott Whitlock tweeted. "If only the media could learn this when Democrats are president."

Maddow and Colbert said they looked forward to President-elect Joe Biden being "boring" in comparison to Trump.

MSNBC also has numerous partisan ex-government officials and Democrats among its contributors. Among them are former CIA Director John Brennan and former Obama national security aide Ben Rhodes. Brennan has been accused of lying to Congress and the media about the Obama administration's surveillance of the Trump campaign, and Rhodes is known for a New York Times interview in 2016 where he bragged about misleading young reporters to sell the Iran nuclear deal to the public.

Maddow's remarks come the same week that legacy media outlets are under fire for downplaying the Hunter Biden laptop story in October, in the light of Biden announcing this week he is under federal investigation for his tax affairs and overseas business dealings. MSNBC led the charge in promoting intelligence officials who dismissed the New York Post's piece on Biden's laptop contents as part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

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The reliably left-wing Colbert fawned over Maddow as the "master" of showing viewers how the complicated pieces of a story come together during their interview.

However, Maddow has dabbled in conspiracy theories throughout the Trump adminstration, such as suggesting Rex Tillerson was a Russian plant in the State Department and repeatedly pushing the contents of the salacious, unverified Christopher Steele dossier. She drew mockery in 2017 when she hyped having Trump's tax returns from 2005 and tried to connect them to a Russia-connected financial conspiracy.

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Maddow also infamously speculated in 2011 that then-Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner had been hacked when he accidentally tweeted a lewd photo that ultimately led to his resignation.