The Media Is Sooooo Dishonest

An hour ago, I heard NBC Radio news while in my car.  The reporter said that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan had called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from any investigation into supposed connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.  That surprised me, so when I got home, I check to see the actual quote from Ryan.  The result of that was to find that Ryan had actually said that Sessions should recuse himself from such a probe only if he were a "subject" of the investigation.

Let's take a step aside for a moment.  It's important to know what it means to be the "subject" of an investigation.  Someone who is a witness is not a subject.  Someone who is a friend of people being investigated is not a subject.  To be a subject of an investigation, one must actually be one of the people being investigated for possible wrongdoing.

So let's translate what Speaker Ryan said into clear English.  Ryan is in favor of Sessions recusing himself only if Sessions, himself, is the one being investigated.  Clearly, that is not what is happening now, and it is highly unlikely ever to happen.  Further, Sessions himself has already said that he would step aside (i.e. recuse himself) if he were ever the subject of the investigation.  Ryan's statement was actually in support of Sessions.

Despite what Ryan actually said, NBC Radio News made it seem like Ryan was piling on and attacking Sessions.  That is simply untrue.  It is Fake News at its worst.  NBC should be ashamed of itself.