ABC News had the goods on Jeffrey Epstein years ago — and killed the story
Published by Salon.com
A source is testimony, not proof. Citing one is a provenance fact — it records who said what, where — and never a verification that the claim is true.
Who is named
The characters and things this document talks about — 20 in alls. Each links to everything else the record knows about them.
People 10
Ashley Bianco Donald Trump Jeffrey Epstein Prince Andrew Alan Dershowitz Noam Chomsky James O’Keefe Bill Clinton Edward Herman Amy Robach
Organisations 8
Forbes Huffington Post National Review ABC News CNN MSNBC The New York Times CBS News
Things 2
Claims made
Every claim in this document. Firsthand = asserted on its own basis; secondhand = recounted from elsewhere, carrying no independent weight.
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Jeffrey Epstein died in suspicious circumstances at a Manhattan correctional facility on Aug. 10.
secondhand · zero weight
Multimillionaire predator Jeffrey Epstein died in suspicious circumstances at a Manhattan correctional facility on Aug. 10.
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Jeffrey Epstein stands accused by dozens of women and girls of trafficking, rape and sexual abuse.
secondhand · zero weight
The wealthy and powerful New York financier, a convicted sex offender, stands accused by dozens of women and girls of trafficking, rape and sexual abuse.
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secondhand · zero weight
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” said fellow tycoon Donald Trump in 2002, adding: “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
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Bill Clinton was close with Jeffrey Epstein.
secondhand · zero weight
Former President Bill Clinton was also close with Epstein.
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The leaked video showed that corporate media knew much about Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes years earlier.
secondhand · zero weight
But last month, leaked footage emerged showing that corporate media knew much about these crimes years previously.
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The clip was originally leaked to James O’Keefe.
secondhand · zero weight
The clip was originally leaked to infamous right-wing troll James O’Keefe, who has a long history of producing bogus stories
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ABC employees, including Amy Robach, have confirmed the video’s authenticity.
secondhand · zero weight
ABC employees, including Robach herself, have confirmed its authenticity.
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Amy Robach said she had the Jeffrey Epstein story for three years.
secondhand · zero weight
Amy Robach: “I’ve had the [Epstein] story for three years.”
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secondhand · zero weight
First of all I was told, “Who is Jeffrey Epstein? No one knows who that is. This is a stupid story.”
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secondhand · zero weight
the palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew, and threatened us in a million different ways.
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secondhand · zero weight
We were so afraid we wouldn’t be able to interview Kate and Will that it also quashed the story.
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Amy Robach said Alan Dershowitz was implicated because of his use of Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet.
secondhand · zero weight
Then Alan Dershowitz was also implicated in it because of the planes.
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secondhand · zero weight
In their influential book “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media,” Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky identified “sourcing” and “flak” as two of the five key filters that dictate what makes the news and what does not.
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secondhand · zero weight
One particularly alarming form of “flak” was the 2018 U.S. mail bombing attempt, where a Trump supporter sent a bomb to CNN headquarters in response to its negative coverage of the president.
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ABC News claimed it never nixed the Epstein story and never stopped investigating it.
secondhand · zero weight
ABC News would later claim that it had never nixed the story, stating that at the time of Robach’s comments, not all of our reporting met our standards to air, but we have never stopped investigating the story.
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secondhand · zero weight
That work has led to a two-hour documentary and six-part podcast that will air in the new year.
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CBS News fired producer Ashley Bianco after ABC contacted them, asserting she leaked the tape.
secondhand · zero weight
After the video went viral, CBS News fired producer Ashley Bianco after ABC contacted them, asserting (possibly incorrectly) that she had leaked the tape during her time working on Robach’s show.
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secondhand · zero weight
Top executives at ABC are reportedly “freaking out” over the anonymous employee’s identity, spending far more energy and resources trying to find the leaker than in investigating why it enabled a serial sexual predator to continue offending.
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secondhand · zero weight
Neither Robach’s revelation nor Bianco’s termination have been reported on by MSNBC, CNN, CBS or the New York Times, nearly a month after the video first leaked.
Amy Robach Ashley Bianco CBS News CNN MSNBC The New York Times
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secondhand · zero weight
Indeed, Epstein’s team managed to convince many supposedly reputable outlets, including the Huffington Post (11/17/17), Forbes (10/2/13) and the National Review (7/10/13) to publish puff pieces about him.
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secondhand · zero weight
Forbes described him as “one of the largest backers of cutting‑edge science around the world,” making no mention of his criminal past.
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secondhand · zero weight
The stated writer was paid $600 by a PR firm to attach his name to the pre‑fab article and run it on the site.
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secondhand · zero weight
Robach predicted, “There will come a day where we will realize Jeffrey Epstein was the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known.”
No claims match this filter.
Syndication
Who is repeating whom. This is shown as structure, and it is the reason a chorus never moves a belief bar: forty tellings of one assertion are still one.
- possibly restates Jeffrey Epstein Aided Alan Dershowitz’s Attack on Mearsheimer and Walt’s “Israel Lobby” unconfirmed
What it cost
Reading this document into the graph cost $0.02.
23 claims in all. Content fingerprint 1cb7c061e585… —
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