Fake News Friday: The Russian "Connection"
"No one will ever believe you" is a Murrian phrase I wish I could blast through the PA systems in both the WashingtonPost's office building and the CIA's doom fortress, in response to recent allegations about Russian interference in the election. Namely, Russia's apparent hacking of the whole electoral process itself.
The "Russian Connection" is the latest manifestation of the electoral grieving process, now fueled by MSM outlets like the Washington Post, who recently ran an article claiming that "Russian propaganda" helped disseminate "fake news" during the election, that allegedly helped Trump's chances of victory. That article, posted on November 24th, has been widely discredited by outlets like Glen Greenwald's "The Intercept", who dissmissed WaPo's article as a "disgusting MacCarthyite blacklist". And in fact, has even already been 'retracted', at least in part, by the WaPo itself, who issued an Editor's note making readers aware of certain... issues with their 'evidence':
Editor’s Note: The Washington Post on Nov. 24 published a story on the work of four sets of researchers who have examined what they say are Russian propaganda efforts to undermine American democracy and interests. One of them was PropOrNot, a group that insists on public anonymity, which issued a report identifying more than 200 websites that, in its view, wittingly or unwittingly published or echoed Russian propaganda. A number of those sites have objected to being included on PropOrNot’s list, and some of the sites, as well as others not on the list, have publicly challenged the group’s methodology and conclusions. The Post, which did not name any of the sites, does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so. Since publication of The Post’s story, PropOrNot has removed some sites from its list.
Moreover, another article from The Intercept talks about an additional MSM attempt at disseminating reports about "fake news"- namely that a Clinton supporter made up a fake news story about Wikileaks being fake news, that MSNBC used to attempt to discredit Wikileaks for being fake news. You cannot make this up.
One would hope that kind of embarrassment might finally dispel the Russian connection theory, having already been caught once with multiple hands in the fake news cookie jar.
It did not.
In two conveniently timed Friday news dumps, NBC published an article about an investigation into partying Macedonian teenagers making huge bucks to make and sell Fake news, and WaPo published an article reporting that a "Secret CIA Assessment" claims Russia assisted Trump with winning the white house. This "secret CIA assessment" assessment, by nature of being a "national security" issue, is of course not permitted for viewing by our lowly, plebeian eyes, only the eyes of the trusted MSM and political establishment, who surely have absolutley no vested interest in disrupting the Electoral Vote in a last ditch effort to keep Trump out of the White House. As such, there's not a whole lot to delve into yet, beyond what is essentially a bunch of hearsay- "sources said", "such and such said", "as stated by x who feels".
The NBC article however is a special treat. Taken in part from an investigation into "fake news" by The Guardian and Buzzfeed (the latter of which is surely the go-to expert on debunking fake news), it tells the story of a group of Macedonian teens who allegedly make tens of thousands of dollars creating fake news stories on supposed NBC and Huffington post clones to sell to Trump supporters. This is of course supported by a 4-ish minute video full of radical cut-aways, brief references to "fake news" articles that are shown in passing along side "Hillary for Prison" image macros from a Facebook page called "American Politics Today", and convenient shots (more of shots of screens than actual screenshots) showing supposed creation of fake news on a fake news site, without ever showing a URL of the sites it's being posted on- save again, for the APT Facebook page. While I don't follow APT, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume "Dimitri", their anonymous source, probably wasn't posting to it, given the care taken to protect his identity and by extension his income- raising the question as to why that page was even used as a segway-example, especially after Dimitri is shown allegedly making and posting written articles. Not image macros or memes.
This is a continuation of the tactic displayed on all levels by those claiming Russian interference for months now. Hillary's comments about 17 US intelligence agencies claiming "Russian intelligence agencies" had involvement, for example? Debunked. Hillary's unspecific claims about certain items in Wikileaks emails being false proving that they were doctored? Also debunked. Even the Colin Powell email where he commented about "Bill still dicking Bimbos" was verified as legitimate.
Passing, unspecific references and a constant and convenient failure to mention any specifics that would allow people to verify for themselves, circulating long enough to push a wildfire of discourse that keeps the narrative going.
This is how markets for "fake news" are created and sold. This is also something the establishment has already tried once before, attempting to stage a " soft-coup" among the GOP against Donald with his "grab them by the pussy" audio tapes. And, now that Jill Stein's "Totally Legitimate And not a Scam Recount 2016" is crumbling, it's very possible that we may have another soft-coup attempt by the establishment and MSM to keep Trump out of office.
In 9 days, the Electoral College will cast their votes, so the MSM and various alphabet agencies working to spin their narrative will be pulling out every stop they can in order to sway the alleged group of Electorates that Elector Christopher Suprun states will also "not vote for Trump."
Only time will determine if he's made that determination using the same polling methods the MSM used to show Clinton's huge lead in the election.