MS NOW Claims FBI Investigating Journalist Over Kash Patel Report, FBI Denies

MS NOW (Left bias) reported that the FBI is investigating a reporter from The Atlantic (Left) over a recent critical report she published about FBI Director Kash Patel, though the FBI has denied the claim.

The Claim: MS NOW reported that, according to two anonymous "people familiar with the matter," the FBI had launched "a criminal leak investigation focusing on" the reporter, Sarah Fitzpatrick. MS NOW framed the alleged investigation as "highly unusual because it did not stem from a disclosure of classified information and because it is focused on leaks to a reporter." 

FBI Denial: FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson denied the claims to MS NOW. He told the outlet, "This is completely false. No such investigation like this exists and the reporter you mention is not being investigated at all. Every time there's a publication of false claims by anonymous sources that gets called out, the media plays the victim via investigations that do not exist."

Reporter Doubles Down: Carol Leonnig, who co-authored the report, joined PBS NewsHour (Left) for a TV segment in which she told the network, "We stand by our reporting. We have been told by multiple sources that, at the director's instruction from his executive suite, a unit in Huntsville, Alabama, was ordered to begin investigating and reviewing this Atlantic reporter's contacts – and begin potentially looking at her phone, metadata, and social media contacts."

How The Media Covered It: MS NOW's report was picked up by many outlets on the left, including The Atlantic, Vox (Left), New York Magazine (Left), The Independent (Lean Left), Truthout (Left), The Daily Beast (Left), Huffpost (Left), and The New Republic (Left). From the center, AllSides found coverage from Straight Arrow News and TheWrap. Fox News (Right) was the only outlet AllSides found from the right to publish news coverage. Unlike outlets from the left and center, which only included the allegations in headlines, Fox covered the story from the angle that the FBI denied the claim. Matt Vespa of Townhall (Right) wrote a brief opinion in which he called the premise of MS NOW's report "completely absurd."

RELATED: FBI Director Kash Patel Files $250M Defamation Suit Against The Atlantic

For Context: On April 17, Sarah Fitzpatrick of The Atlantic published an article in which she cited over two dozen anonymous sources from the FBI, claiming Patel is an alcoholic who exhibits erratic behavior and is unfit to lead the bureau. Patel filed a $250M defamation suit against the publication in response, and MS NOW had Fitzpatrick on for a TV interview in which she defended her reporting. On April 22, The New York Times (Lean Left) reported that, according to "a person briefed on the matter," the FBI was investigating one of its reporters for a report she published about Patel. The FBI denied the allegations to The Times.

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