Originally published Feb. 5, 2018
After spending the last few weeks warning that releasing a House memo detailing how the FBI abused the FISA process to win surveillance of a Trump campaign aide would be tantamount to treason, sabotage the FBI, do Vladimir Putin’s bidding, and perhaps get people killed, the media is now racing to downplay the document’s impact.
From almost the moment the document was released Friday afternoon, reporters on CNN and MSNBC pronounced the memo a "dud" and a "nothing burger."
MSNBC's Joy Ann Reid said: “The reviews are in, and Congressman Nunes’ memo … was a dud.”
CNN's Evan Perez said, "It's pretty much a dud, it doesn't really deliver."
Washington Post columnist Max Boot said, "My reaction was the same as everybody else’s, I mean where’s the beef, where is this great scandal? There’s absolutely nothing there."
MSNBC contributor Jill Wine-Bank declared: "This memo was a complete dud. It over-promised and under-delivered."
NBC host Ari Melber said, "I can tell you from reading this memo and consulting with a wide range of experts, it's a dud."
"It's pretty much a nothing burger," said Fox News contributor and former Obama spokesman, Jen Psaki.
These comments echo what the Democrats ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Adam Schiff, is saying.
"Some of the tea party members were out there saying that this is the most vile thing that they have ever seen," Schiff said. "It’s a big dud."
But while Schiff has joined in calling the memo a "dud," he's still also warning that the memo's release could spark another Oklahoma City-style terror attack.
"Well, I don’t think it’s working in the sense that people have a lot of confidence in Bob Mueller, but it is impeaching the FBI, and the problem with this, and this is I think at the heart of the department’s concern is if you have a neighbor who’s buying fertilizer, lots of fertilizer, but has no yard and you have concerns about it and you want to call the FBI, you’re now going to wonder is that FBI going to hold my name in confidence or this information in confidence, what if this becomes politicized, sources are going to dry up because of what the Republicans on this committee are doing now," Schiff said Sunday on This Week. [Video]