The decision by the Pulitzer Board not to take back its 2018 awards from the Washington Post and New York Times for their coverage of the false allegations of collusion between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russia is a "big win" for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former defense intelligence official said.
Rebekah Koffler, a former Defense Intelligence Agency intelligence officer specializing in Russian Doctrine & Strategy, told the Daily Wire that "Pulitzer's refusal to take back the award given for the inaccurate coverage of the Russiagate Hoax is a big win for Putin," and that the [Washington] Post played a role, possibly unwittingly, in helping Putin cause division in the U.S.
"Putin's goal for intervening in the U.S. presidential election in 2016 (as well as in 2018 and 2020) by running cyber-enabled and clandestine influence operations was to divide America by pitting Trump and Clinton supporters against one another. The media outlets, which spread the false 'Russia-Trump collusion' narratives, essentially helped Putin foment chaos in our country and undermine the confidence of the American people in the election process," Koffler stated.
Koffler added that the board's decision will negatively impact American democracy, saying that "Instead of revoking it from the purveyors of fake news, is a major loss for democracy and a big win for Putin and America's foes," she said. "This misguided decision also discredits the award itself, which has been the hallmark of journalistic achievement for over a century."
The Board announced Sunday that it would not revoke the awards it gave to the Times and the Post after "separate reviews converged in their conclusions: that no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes." Former President Trump criticized the decision, stating that the board has "taken away any shred of credibility it had left."
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