On the opening night of the Republican National Convention, one of the most notable events was unplanned. Donald Trump Jr. agreed to an interview with MSNBC from the convention floor, and over the course of the brief interruption, the network’s approach became crystal clear. Don Jr. was first asked about the division his father is allegedly causing, a much-stunted approach after the assassination. He was then asked if Donald Trump would recommit to separating immigrant children from their parents.
Don Jr. mentioned that this practice of locking people up began during the Obama administration, and rightly mocked the correspondent and dismissed the network. This was the appropriate response based on the questioning alone, but upon closer inspection it becomes clear how completely delusional the whole thing is.
The reporter who confronted Don Jr. was MSNBC immigration correspondent Jacob Soboroff. This means that his claim that Barack Obama did not engage in the activities he criticized was either journalistic incompetence or delicate deception. Given that Soboroff proclaimed: “I have followed the family separation crisis closely,” and that he wrote a book In this matter I tend towards the latter.
How can a journalist, let alone one who claims to be an immigration expert, deny Obama’s involvement in the imprisonment of immigrants is almost comical.”You know you didn’t do that, sir”, Soboroff claimed to Don Jr.
Great.
On Tuesday, the intrepid correspondent again attempted to stir up controversy when he appeared on Rachel Maddow’s show. Soboroff reported from the area where the South Carolina delegation was staying, noting that the view of events from that vantage point was indigent. Soboroff speculated that the state was being “punished,” possibly due to a conflict with Nikki Haley.
This is pure desperation, but it’s also typical of this duo of reporters. As we recently learned, MSNBC is facing a defamation lawsuit based on reports written in part by Jacob Soboroff and featured on several shows. Much like the massive defamation suit currently underway against CNN, few in the press seem eager to focus on these allegations of journalistic impropriety.
The charges concern Reports on several MSNBC shows The report describes a Georgia obstetrician who was accused of performing serial sterilizations on female immigrants. The reports – which Soboroff co-authored with reporters Julia Ainsley and Danielle Silva – were based on the testimony of a single whistleblower and accused the doctor of working at an immigration facility in Georgia treating detainees and performing unnecessary hysterectomies. The doctor, nicknamed “The Uterus Collector,” is alleged to have performed the procedures on numerous victims.
Court documents have revealed a process not unlike that of the CNN case, in which many people within the network, including anchors, raised doubts about the validity of the reports. The whistleblower has since admitted that she relied on hearsay, and there may be no more than two confirmed procedures performed by the doctor, with those performed out of necessity.
The judge ruled that Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace and Chris Hayes made “demonstrably false” statements about the doctor who is suing NBC for $30 million. In her ruling last month, Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of the Southern District of Georgia found that Maddow, Hayes and Wallace made 39 “demonstrably false” claims about Mahendra Amin, a gynecologist who treated detainees at a Georgia Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
In one of the communications obtained during the investigation, Soboroff said she had spoken to an immigration attorney who had expressed doubts about the whistleblower’s credibility. Elsewhere, Ainsley wrote to Soboroff about how surprised she was to learn that the doctor had performed only two hysterectomies in nearly two years. Despite all of these doubts, the network aired a series of reports and interviews with the whistleblower on the shows of Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and Nicolle Wallace.
These shows inspired a congressional investigation investigated the matter, an investigation that, however, found no evidence of the activities charged. “The Subcommittee was unable to substantiate the allegations of mass hysterectomies of ICDC detainees,” the Senate report concluded.
Jacob Soboroff has a more laid-back approach to journalism that seems perfectly suited to the biased broadcaster MSNBC. His appearance at the Republican National Convention is hardly a surprise.
