Here’s the thing, though: While Buzzfeed’s action has done very little to convince Trump supporters that he is indeed a Russian patsy, instead making him into a maligned and martyred figure in their eyes, it has succeeded in making the job of legitimate news outlets even harder. Since BF aspires to credibility, everyone else who also does so is tarred with the same brush. So the publication of this material is probably going to make the news credibility situation worse, not better.
However, it should also be pointed out that there is puh-lenty of perfectly verifiable material out there about Trump’s “salacious” (that seems to be the most popular word) private life. So, whether or not this document is true (and parts of it have already been debunked), one has to say, “Is any of this at all likely?” And the answer, very unfortunately, is, “Yes.”
The deeper allegations, that the Russians have been blackmailing Trump for years, will take some sorting out. Anyone who has been paying attention to the actual words and actions of the President-elect over the past year and a half has had to ask, though, “What’s going on here?” The situation with Trump’s unceasing adulation of Vladimir Putin has been playing out publicly. As Jonah Goldberg has said, “Why is admiration for Putin and his government the only issue Trump has never wavered, equivocated, or flip-flopped on?”
Here’s the aforementioned “mainstream” article from the Washington Post; I also include one from David French over at National Review. If you want to read the remaining three articles on the real reasons why Trump won, I link to part two below also. And that’s more than enough for now!
The Real Reason Trump Won: Part 2 of 4