Don't dismiss Mueller media coverage as a 'WMD'

As special counsel Robert Mueller completed his investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign, Washington was flooded with the inevitable hot takes.

Surely the hottest to singe most journalists, and arguably the most overheated of the endless takes, came from Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, who compared the press coverage writ-large to "this generation's WMD." He was referring, of course, to widespread media reports that Saddam Hussein had access to weapons of mass destruction, which were never unearthed. These claims fueled the public argument to launch the Iraq War in 2003.

Taibbi believes the journalism community hurt its public image through extensive reporting on Trump and Russia, and the "WMD" of his corollary is the "Steele Dossier," with a wide range of raw intelligence collected on Trump and the Kremlin-some of which bore out, some of which hasn't.

Nonetheless, attempting...