“Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” is coming under intense scrutiny. The bombshell book that claims to offer the inside scoop on the Trump Administration has become an overnight success. Bookstores across the country are reporting that “Fire and Fury” has already sold out and the book has already surged to the top of Amazon’s sales charts.
The book portrays an incompetent Administration and an unstable President. However, some journalists and media experts are also questioning the reliability of author Michael Wolff.
Wolff’s reputation among the journalist community, it seems, is less than sterling. “Fire and Fury” itself often reads like a gossip magazine, offering alleged deep insider accounts of intricate and intimate affairs. From the tears of sadness Melania Trump shed on election night, to the subservient nature of Jared Kushner, anyone wanting a pejorative portrayal of what goes on at the White House will certainly find the book interesting.
“[Steve] Bannon may well have said all that stuff but let’s remember that Wolff is an unprincipled writer of fiction.” -Steven Rattner
However, are the accounts true? The Trump Administration has slammed the book as a “nothing burger.” Trump himself has strongly refuted the book’s allegations, claiming himself to be a “stable genius”, not the morally questionable blowhard that Wolff often paints him to be. Trump further labeled the book a work of “fiction” and called it a “terrible expose” as well.
There are also questions of how Wolff managed to get such detailed accounts of behind closed door conversations. Many of the accounts that Wolff described were small, intimate affairs. Dinner parties, office conversations, phone calls. How exactly does a journalist become privy to such hush-hush information?
“He’s [Michael Wolff ] never much cared about burning sources. Can’t imagine that many of those quotes were meant for publication.- Joe Nocera
Many believe that Wolff took information that was supposed to be off the record and decided to use it anyways. Some have alleged that Wolf rarely concerns himself with burning or outing sources and that he will use underhanded methods to gather information. Journalist turned financier Steven Rattner even accused Wolff of using his young children as spies.
Of course, even if the information was obtained through questionable methods, that doesn’t mean that it’s not true or accurate. On the other hand, people may have been blowing off steam and exaggerating their accounts and complaints if they felt the conversations were nothing more than banter.
President Trump noted that:
“Many of the people I talk about in terms of fake news actually came to the defense of this great administration and even myself because they know the author and they know he is a fraud.”
Trump also argued that he was ‘one of the “top business people’, went to the ‘best colleges’, and had 10 years of ‘tremendous success’ on television. President Trump further railed against America’s generally weak libel laws, stating:
“Libel laws are very weak in this country. If they were stronger, hopefully, you would not have something like that happen”
Some have collaborated Wolff’s account, however. Janice Min, a leading news executive, took to Twitter:
So I was one of the 6 guests at the Bannon-Ailes dinner party in January 2017 and every word I’ve seen from the book about it is absolutely accurate. It was an astonishing night… pic.twitter.com/I4vgOrHOYb
— Janice Min (@janicemin) January 4, 2018
Who’s account is right? The truth often lies in-between. Expect more journalists and insiders to collaborate and refute the book in coming weeks. Hopefully, a clearer picture of the truth, whatever that might be, will emerge.
