WaPo Scoop Sets Clicks Record

A great deal has been written and said about the media divide in the United States — or how Americans tend to follow news organizations that reinforce their political beliefs — and that divide was clearly in evidence Monday in the wake of a Washington Post story alleging President Trump shared classified information with Russian diplomats during a meeting at the White House.

According to USAToday, a glance at the three major cable news networks at 8:20 p.m. ET revealed the following banners on the bottom of the screen:

• CNN — Wash Post: Trump shared highly classified info with Russians 
• MSNBC — Dem congressman calls for impeaching Trump 
• Fox News — Liberals melting down & turning violent 

While CNN and MSNBC focused on the report from the Post and the reaction from Trump's opponents, Fox News focused on a perceived hysteria among liberals — a tactic the network also employed in the wake of the firing of former FBI director James Comey.

Just under an hour later, Fox News ran a banner reading, "McMaster: Washington Post story on Russia meeting is false," while CNN's banner read, "Sources: Trump shared classified info with Russian foreign minister."

On the Fox News website, the top story at 9:30 p.m. ET was about Hillary Clinton and the launch of her "Onward Together" PAC. The story about Trump was programmed beneath that under the headline, "'It didn't happen': WH denies report Trump revealed classified info."



For The Washington Post, Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving.

According to Glenn Kessler, the paper's "fact checker," their scoop Monday that President Trump revealed classified intelligence to Russian diplomats broke the Post's record for readers per second clicking on the article.

USAToday reports the newsroom broke into applause at the news of the new record.

And which story held the previous record? It was the revelation of the infamous 2006 Access Hollywood audio recording in which Trump bragged about being able to grope women.

In announcing the news on Twitter, Kessler himself got fact checked after initially tweeting the story set a new record for readers per minute, rather than seconds.