We Broke the Panama Papers Story. Our Next Mission: Donald Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/24/panama-papers-media-investigation-next-donald-trump-hold-accountable

by rishabhd • 9 years ago

63 24 9 years ago

theguardian.com

fredsanford2• 9 years ago

Why didn't they hold Obama accountable? Or the Bushes, maybe Hillary for Benghazi? I don't remember all of this hand-wringing and crying back then.

gbil• 9 years ago

I believe the main topic here is how the journalists are being treated by Trump and his administration.

Chris20483• 9 years ago

Like how he didn't invite them to lunch?

fredsanford2• 9 years ago

I wonder why ...

tinus_hn• 9 years ago

Yeah when Wikileaks was reporting on Hillary the Guardian was a puppet of the Clinton campaign! Just like with Snowden, that Obama lackey!

Oh no, they actually reported constantly on the emails leak and Snowdens revelations, which were highly damaging to Obamas cause of strengthening the intelligence agencies.

dubhrosa• 9 years ago

How about they start adhering to the practices that made journalism a cornerstone of functioning democracies for so long? Such as reporting all the facts critically, and not approaching each story from the same, tired left-wing liberal agenda. (I say this as a left wing liberal). The guardian and most of the left leaning media was asleep when the DNC steamrolled HTC through. They were asleep to the possibility of a Trump candidacy and presidency, and fell into his trap by giving virtually unlimited media coverage; we may be in a post truth world but we are more certainly in a world in which there really is no such thing as bad publicity. They refused to pay attention to the facts of the Brexit polls. So I don't have much sympathy for their appeal.

Arnt2• 9 years ago

That story was written by Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer and includes the phrase "our newspaper, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung". I read the SZ (on paper) and in my judgment the SZ does well on the points you mention.

But I bet you still don't have much sympathy for their appeal. It's always possible to find a fault.

1337biz• 9 years ago

Op seems to be right when even Wikipedia points out the liberal / left bias of the paper.

"The editorial stance of the newspaper is liberal and generally of centre-left,..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BCddeutsche_Zeitung

MrBuddyCasino• 9 years ago

As an occasional SZ reader, I think you're both right. The SZ isn't guilty of this, or at least not very much. Journalism as a whole has lost credibility though, and for a reason.

chillaxtian• 9 years ago

The highest level of collaboration – which is what these times require – would be special joint projects. A possible first project could be to look into his international business ties, and those of his billionaire cabinet, to find all of their conflicts of interest.
Donald Trump alone has his hands in hundreds of companies, so it is impossible for one news outlet alone to investigate this properly. But it is not impossible if there’s a collaborative investigation.
Another project could be to investigate his ties to Russia and his past with Russia, which also is very promising, even if you don’t believe a single word of the Trump dossier Buzzfeed made public. Unknown conflicts of interests in both fields can turn out to be a huge danger to the national security of the US.
Collaboration could even mean working with foreign news outlets in different countries, whose reporters certainly might have more knowledge of Trump’s respective business partners than a US-based journalist.

this sounds more like a targeted smear campaign than journalism.

Chris20483• 9 years ago

Isn't an investigation supposed to hold judgment until it completes?

It's clear that the whole point of this investigation is to find dirt on Trump, rather than investigate any one specific issue.

B1FF_PSUVM• 9 years ago

What exactly came out of the Panama Papers story?

All I recall is a lot of noise, and some shaming of second and third ranking individuals, if that.

Basically, some servants being put in their place. Not for them to do (half-assed with corner shops) what the owners do much better with first class service.

aukaost• 9 years ago

Iceland's PM stepped down and a while after there were new elections.

dingo_bat• 9 years ago

Is the "no politics on HN" rule dead?

akjainaj2• 9 years ago

There never was such a rule.

I bet dang feels stupid for doing that experiment, it looks like the "hn is no-politics zone" meme will stay around for years.

DanBC2• 9 years ago

It's a shame a bunch of pathological arseholes ruined it. It was a good idea.

You're wrong about "there never was such a rule" too.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13463480

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics

DanBC2• 9 years ago

It's a bit complicated. Here's dang's most recent comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13463480

kelvin0• 9 years ago

"Another project could be to investigate his ties to Russia and his past with Russia"

OK, I'm a big fan of investigative journalism but this just seems to be a red herring, kinda like the allegations that where made about Obama's Birth Certificate.

So what if he had dealings with Russia, or Putin? Some agencies have had 'secret' dealings with much shadier characters then Putin in the past(puppets such as Pinochet, Noriega, Saddam ...). This just seems like a waste of time, punching at a smoke screen.

gibbitz• 9 years ago

If there really is a disgust for his treatment of the press. I think the press could start by ignoring his twitter feed and "alternative fact" stories. His strategy is to make us distrust our information sources and the "media" is playing into it directly. It would be best for all involved if the press began reporting on facts and not comparing them to the rubbish he and his administration says. Especially when they are about things that are seemingly important to only Trump (inauguration turnout, who's a loser, etc.). At this point I would go as far as to say that any coverage of press conferences would be best to just provide direct full quotation with hyperlinks to other direct quotations or measurable facts from trustable sources that are contradictory. The only way to fight back is to take the higher ground. If he treats the press the way he does now, the best strategy is for the press core to END the press conference by ceasing questions and leaving. If all he's going to do is avoid, insult and lie then there's no news, he's been doing all of that since long before he ever thought of running for president.

We Broke the Panama Papers Story. Our Next Mission: Donald Trump

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