Don’t pay much attention to conservatives screaming that the “Fake News” has been exposed again because the Washington Post issued a correction about two statements in a story about the recent release of a conversation between then-president Donald Trump and the lead investigator for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

Their claims of “Fake News” are literally fake news.  They’re pulling a bait-and-switch to conflate two different phone calls.

Let’s start from the beginning.  On January 9th, the Washington Post published a story about a December 23, 2020, call Trump made to Georgia SoS chief investigator Frances Watson.  In that story, based on a source, the Post reported Trump told Watson to “find the fraud” and said she would be “a national hero” if she did.

A recording of the call was released last Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal.  In it, Trump does NOT tell Watson to “find the fraud” or that she’ll be “a national hero.”  He DOES, however, tell her that she’ll find “something bad happened” and “dishonesty,” and when she does she’ll “be praised.”

The Post issued a correction because the exact words attributed to Trump were incorrect, but as you can see, the context was clearly the same.

Now comes the bait-and-switch.  Conservatives are attempting to use this correction to say that the correction made by the Post invalidates the need for an investigation into allegations of Georgia election tampering by Trump that are based on a phone call Trump had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger,  department lawyer Ryan Germany and Assistant Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs on January 2nd, nearly two weeks after his call with Watson.

That call was recorded, and the recording was released Tuesday, January 5th.  That call also included then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and several Trump lawyers including attorney Cleta Mitchell and Georgia-based attorney Kurt Hilbert.

On the January 2nd call, Trump told Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” and he made a not-so-subtle threat that Raffensperger and Germany could be charged with “a criminal offense” if they did not report evidence of fraud (which did not exist).

Trump made a number of assertions–about Dominion voting machines, about out-of-state voters, about shredded ballots, about ballots mysteriously appearing–that have all been debunked by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, but he still demanded Raffensperger make an announcement of fraud prior to Congress certifying the Electoral College vote.

What you’re seeing now is the conservative echo chamber gearing up.  They’re using the correction (of quotations but not intent) to cast doubt about the context of a different call, hoping people conflate the two.  It’ll work in the conservative Bubble, and Hannity et al will blather on about how the investigation by the Fulton County District Attorney has been debunked, when she has all the evidence she needs in the tape.