The Daily Signal senior contributor Kelsey Bolar on Friday called out the media for being "hypocritical" by previously pushing the Russian collusion narrative and now dismissing the events surrounding the unmasking of former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
“The media suddenly claimed that it is impossible to cover two stories at a time. Of course, they can and should be covering any and all coronavirus news. But, they also should be covering the unmasking scandal of Michael Flynn after spending three years reporting on this,” Bolar told “Fox & Friends.”
Bolar highlighted that The New York Times and The Washington Post received Pulitzer prizes for covering the Russia collusion “conspiracy theory.”
“I would give them that it was covered relentlessly but it was not deeply sourced. We now know the source of that intelligence was an illegal leak to The Washington Post. Now, they conveniently don’t want to cover the real scandal that would appear as we’re learning about involving the Obama administration," she argued.
After breathlessly covering the Trump-Russia collusion theory for years, CNN tried to skip past Wednesday’s breaking news about Michael Flynn related to the since-debunked narrative -- but critics say that's par for the course.
Top Obama administration officials -- including ex-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who is now a CNN analyst, and others working with then-Vice President Joe Biden -- purportedly requested to "unmask" the identity of the former national security adviser during the presidential transition period, according to a list of names made public by Republican senators on Wednesday. The DOJ had been reviewing the unmasking of U.S. officials as part of its broader examination of the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.
CNN host Jake Tapper didn't even mention it in the Wednesday’s edition of his show “The Lead,” which began shortly after the news broke. The story wasn't mentioned on the cable news channel, or on its website, within the first three hours after the bombshell story hit.
When CNN finally covered the story they downplayed it, saying Clapper and other Obama-era officials handled it correctly. “Politics plays a huge role in why this is now a story,” senior justice correspondent Evan Perez told viewers.
CNN eventually published a story to its web site headlined, “GOP senators release list of Obama officials in latest effort to undermine Russia probe.”
The Hill media reporter Joe Concha said that CNN has an "entire baseball team" of ex-Obama officials, including former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe who "lied to the FBI and was fired for it."
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
"Instead of he being sent off never to be spoken on a national stage again, he gets hired by the network to talk about ethics in law enforcement, which is quite a remarkable thing," he said.
"If you're going to say that unmasking is routine, as Clapper said, then why isn't anybody asking 'Ok' how did it get leaked to the Washington Post exactly? That's sensitive information because last I checked, that's a felony," Concha added.
Concha also said that Comey "proudly" admitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee in May 2017 he leaked sensitive information to the media in order to prop up a special counsel for the Russian investigation.
"Why did you do that? It's to push a narrative, a nefarious one and it is to take intelligence and use it as a political weapon," he said. "That is something we should be asking about instead of talking about how this story isn't a story at all. It is a huge story and it deserves a heck of a lot of attention."
Fox News First
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time.