Veteran investigative journalist Carl Bernstein raised the prospect on Sunday of reporters breaking a journalistic norm to reveal the names of Republican senators who serve as unnamed sources because of their role in fanning a “disinformation campaign.”
The Watergate sleuth appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources, hosted by Brian Stelter, and talked about how to crack open the upper chamber’s “dirty secret” when it comes to President Trump.
After arguing that journalists need to be a check against a “cold civil war of untruth” perpetrated by Trump, Bernstein said, “There is another factor that we’re not covering well enough because there is one institution that continues to enable this disinformation disproportionately, and that is the Republican Senate of the United States.”
Bernstein explained how he has spoken to senators and members of their staff on Capitol Hill.
“Perhaps half of the Republican members of the Senate despise and disdain Donald Trump. They were happy to see him lose as long as they could hold on to a Senate majority,” he said. “It’s time that we start calling these senators out, perhaps by name, in terms of what they really believe, what they tell us as reporters on background.”
Bernstein was referring to what is known in the media business as citing a source “on background,” which is when a reporter can use the information given to them but not with the person’s name attached. Instead, there is an agreement to use a description of the person’s position, or, under “deep background,” without any attribution, to protect their identity.
Bernstein, who exposed the Watergate scandal in the 1970s with Bob Woodward using anonymous sources while at the Washington Post, reasoned that Republicans are taking advantage of this system, most recently in talking about legal challenges surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
“They have enabled part of this disinformation campaign, and even some of them are talking about a ‘coup’ that Donald Trump is trying to initiate here and hang in the office by challenging legislatures in the Electoral College, et cetera, et cetera,” he said. “They know what’s going on. They won’t speak out. The dirty secret is perhaps these Republicans in the Senate, and we have to figure out a new way to cover them and what they are really saying to each other.”
Bernstein’s comments come as the balance of power in the Senate remains uncertain for the 117th session of Congress. Republicans have won 50 seats in the 2020 election, but Democrats, along with two independents who caucus with them, could match the GOP with 50 if two January runoffs in Georgia lean their way. Split 50-50, Kamala Harris, as vice president, would be able to break any ties.
