JRL NEWSWATCH: “After Mueller Report, News Media Leaders Defend Their Works” – New York Times/ Amy Chozick

“[CNN president] Jeff Zucker … said he was ‘entirely comfortable’ with the network’s coverage. ‘We are not investigators. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did’ … ‘A sitting president’s own Justice Department investigated his campaign for collusion with a hostile nation. That’s not enormous because the media says so. That’s enormous because it’s unprecedented.’ [Columbia University’s] Bill Grueskin … said … ‘Mueller and Barr need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt … Journalists don’t have that standard.’ In other words, Pulitzer Prize-winning reports of alleged wrongdoing do not need to provide evidence of criminality in order to be factual, newsworthy and relevant to readers. ‘The special counsel investigation documented, as we reported, extensive Russian interference in the 2016 election and widespread deceit on the part of certain advisers to the president about Russian contacts and other matters,’ said [Washington Post executive editor] Martin Baron. ‘Our job is to bring facts to light. Others make determinations about prosecutable criminal offenses.’ Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, echoed that sentiment. ‘We wrote a lot about Russia, and I have no regrets’ … ‘It’s not our job to determine whether or not there was illegality.’…. “

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