Axios AM

November 14, 2021
Happy Sunday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,192 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Fadel Allassan.
🎬Tonight on "Axios on HBO" (6 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max): Ina Fried makes news with IBM CEO Arvind Krishna ... Jonathan Swan flies to Brussels to interview NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ... Space reporter Miriam Kramer and business reporter Hope King reveal hot job listings of the future ... and I grill Chris Christie in New Jersey.
1 big thing: The media's epic fail
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
A reckoning is hitting news organizations for years-old coverage of the 2017 Steele dossier, after the document's primary source was charged with lying to the FBI, Axios Media Trends reporter Sara Fischer writes.
- Why it matters: It's one of the most egregious errors in modern journalistic history, and the media's response to its own mistakes has so far been tepid.
Outsized coverage of the unvetted document drove a media frenzy at the start of Donald Trump's presidency, helping drive a narrative of collusion between former President Trump and Russia.
- Following the arrest of the key source and further reporting, The Washington Post on Friday corrected and removed large portions of two articles.
- Post media critic Erik Wemple has written at length about the mistakes made by The Post and other outlets in dossier coverage.
BuzzFeed News, which published the entire dossier in 2017, says it has no plans to take the document down. It's still online, accompanied by a note that says: "The allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors."
- Ben Smith, BuzzFeed's editor-in-chief at the time and now the media columnist for The New York Times, told Axios: "My view on the logic of publishing hasn't changed."
- BuzzFeed defended the decision in a 2018 lawsuit by arguing that because the FBI opened an investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, the dossier itself was newsworthy, whatever the merits of its contents turned out to be. It won that case.
Other outlets that gave the document outsized coverage have so far been less forthcoming.
- Axios was among the outlets that did not publish the dossier or original reporting based on its contents.
What to watch: The Steele screwup will undoubtedly cause an even bigger rift in trust between Democrats and Republicans.
2. Climate summit waters down final deal
Delegates from various countries pose in the plenary room in Glasgow yesterday. Photo: Alberto Pezzali/AP
Axios climate reporter Andrew Freedman writes from Glasgow: The two-week climate summit closed with an agreement calling for reductions in coal and fossil fuel use, and transition to renewables.
- Why it matters: The "fossil fuel" reference is a first in more than 25 years of global climate talks. But COP26 fell short of developing countries' call for funding to compensate for climate-related losses.
The Glasgow Climate Pact is a mixed bag for those hoping for a far-reaching outcome:
- The fossil fuel language was weakened via intervention from India just moments before the summit closed yesterday, moving from calling for a "phase out" to a "phase down" of coal.
- The developing nations that are suffering the most severe climate-related damage are walking away without guarantees that they'll be compensated by industrialized nations causing most of the damage.
- But "fossil fuels" has never appeared in a final COP text before.
3. 📊 Brutal new poll for Dems

As President Biden hits a new approval low in the Washington Post-ABC News poll, Republicans enjoy their largest midterm lead over Democrats in the 40-year history of the poll.
- 51% of registered voters say that if midterms were held today, they’d vote for the GOP candidate in their district. 41% say the Democrat.
- "That’s the biggest lead for Republicans in the 110 ABC/Post polls that have asked this question since November 1981," ABC notes.
📈 On ABC's "This Week," George Stephanopoulos points out that Biden's core policies are popular:
- 63% support the infrastructure bill the president will sign tomorrow.
- 58% support the social-policy bill, which still faces a precarious path.
Go deeper: 12-page PDF.
4. Pic du jour

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree — a 79-foot Norway Spruce cut in Elkton, Md., on Thursday — arrived in Rockefeller Plaza yesterday, continuing a 90-year tradition.
5. 🔎 Behind the scenes in Glasgow

Axios' Andrew Freedman files this reporter's notebook on the way to Glasgow Airport: Late yesterday afternoon, Alok Sharma, the U.K. politician heading summit negotiations, moved to begin the final session.
- A final Glasgow Climate Pact had been hashed out over many hours, with one diplomat taking issue with a "very important" comma.
- The view of most nations was that the text was far from perfect, but the best outcome that they were going to get.
- All that stood in its way was a consensus vote from 200 nations.
But something was amiss. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry huddled with various parties as circles of diplomats formed.
- The body language on the TVs in the cavernous media filing center made it clear Sharma, and a host of others, were displeased. Sharma threw his hands up in exasperation.
Soon, India raised its objection to the language on "phasing out" coal use and fossil fuel subsidies, seeking to change it to a "phase down."
- The implication was that without that change, the coal-reliant nation would vote the whole package down. A single "no" vote would sink it.
- China also sought to weaken coal language, but kept a lower profile.
Envoys from other nations, particularly low-lying island states, expressed anger at not being in the room when the change was raised.
- Climate envoys blasted Sharma for overseeing an opaque process, prompting the COP president, known for a lack of drama, to apologize.
- He broke down for a second, explaining he had to protect the overall agreement.
Sharma regained his composure, and moved the pact to passage.
6. V.P. wraps up French swing

Vice President Kamala Harris laid flowers yesterday at a Paris memorial to mark the sixth anniversary of Islamic State attacks that killed 130 people in the French capital six years ago, AP reports.
- The stop closed a four-day fence-mending trip to France.
Stressing the theme of "America is back," Harris — accompanied by her husband, Doug Emhoff — reiterated U.S. hopes to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran, and met with French President Emmanuel Macron.
7. 🗞️ Crimson history

The Harvard Crimson named Raquel Coronell Uribe ('23), a Colombian immigrant, as the first Latina president in the paper's 148-year history.
- Coronell, a History and Literature concentrator from Miami, currently covers the Police Accountability beat.
No Latino has held the top editorial job. Coronell Uribe told The Washington Post she hopes to continue a tradition of holding the powerful to account, while prioritizing diversity and inclusion:
- "I want to make sure people feel and know there is a place for them at this organization."
In 2018, Kristine Guillaume became the first Black woman to serve as Crimson president.
8. Parting shot: Cruzy Street

After Big Bird tweeted about getting vaccinated for COVID to encourage kids to get the jab, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) complained: "Government propaganda…for your 5 year old!"
- On the "Saturday Night Live" cold open, Newsmax Kids presented "Ted Cruz Street," complete with theme song ("Cruzy days ... Sweeping the libs away"), letters of the day C-R-T and a Joe Rogan cameo.
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