“We’ve said it clearly that that’s not what the story said, anybody could read the story and see that’s not what it said,” writer Matthew Rosenberg told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Thursday.
The story Rosenberg referred to was published in the January 20 edition of The New York Times and clearly stated in a bold headline on the front page: “Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides.”
“And then after his tweet storm, Infowars then started saying, ‘Well look, it was The New York Times that reported it,’ citing our story – misreading our story – and now a few weeks later the White House and the president are citing Infowars,” Rosenberg erroneously claimed.
The White House at no time cited Infowars.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday did, however, cite The New York Times’ January 19 reporting which asserted wiretaps were being used to investigate the Trump administration.
Rosenberg stated his article, which received an alternate headline online, did not reveal that the Obama administration conducted a wiretap on Trump as a specific target.
The New York Times has previously been labeled “failing” and “fake news” by the president, and was included in a list of “fake news media” considered to be an “enemy of the American people.” Embattled cable network CNN has also been dubbed “very fake news.”
