In the current D.C. climate on Russia, all relevant journalistic incentives encourage and reward false news.
In the past six weeks, the Washington Post published two blockbuster stories about the Russian threat that went viral: one on how Russia is behind a massive explosion of “fake news,” the other on how it invaded the U.S. electric grid. Both articles were fundamentally false. Each now bears a humiliating editor’s note grudgingly acknowledging that the core claims of the story were fiction: The first note was posted a full two weeks later to the top of the original article; the other was buried the following day at the bottom.
The second story on the electric grid turned out to be far worse than I realized when I wrote about it on Saturday, when it became clear that there was no “penetration of the U.S. electricity grid” as the Post had claimed. In addition to the editor’s note, the Russia-hacked-our-electric-grid story now has a full-scale retraction in the form of a separate article admitting that “the incident is not linked to any Russian government effort to target or hack the utility” and there may not even have been malware at all on this laptop.
But while these debacles are embarrassing for the paper, they are also richly rewarding. That’s because journalists — including those at the Post — aggressively hype and promote the original, sensationalistic false stories, ensuring that they go viral, generating massive traffic for the Post (the paper’s executive editor, Marty Baron, recently boasted about how profitable the paper has become).
After spreading the falsehoods far and wide, raising fear levels and manipulating U.S. political discourse in the process (both Russia stories were widely hyped on cable news), journalists who spread the false claims subsequently note the retraction or corrections only in the most muted way possible, and often not at all. As a result, only a tiny fraction of people who were exposed to the original false story end up learning of the retractions.
Baron himself, editorial leader of the Post, is a perfect case study in this irresponsible tactic. It was Baron who went to Twitter on the evening of November 24 to announce the Post’s exposé of the enormous reach of Russia’s fake news operation, based on what he heralded as the findings of “independent researchers.” Baron’s tweet went all over the place; to date, it has been re-tweeted more than 3,000 times, including by many journalists with their own large followings:
Russian propaganda effort helped spread fake news during election, say independent researchers https://t.co/3ETVXWw16Q
— Marty Baron (@PostBaron) November 25, 2016
But after that story faced a barrage of intense criticism — from Adrian Chen in the New Yorker (“propaganda about Russia propaganda”), Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone (“shameful, disgusting”), my own article, and many others — including legal threats from the sites smeared as Russian propaganda outlets by the Post’s “independent researchers” — the Post finally added its lengthy editor’s note distancing itself from the anonymous group that provided the key claims of its story (“The Post … does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s findings” and “since publication of the Post’s story, PropOrNot has removed some sites from its list”).
What did Baron tell his followers about this editor’s note that gutted the key claims of the story he hyped? Nothing. Not a word. To date, he has been publicly silent about these revisions. Having spread the original claims to tens of thousands of people, if not more, he took no steps to ensure that any of them heard about the major walk back on the article’s most significant, inflammatory claims. He did, however, ironically find the time to promote a different Post story about how terrible and damaging Fake News is:
‘Pizzagate’ shows how fake news hurts real people https://t.co/cOh7RZ4RqK
— Marty Baron (@PostBaron) November 26, 2016
Whether the Post’s false stories here can be distinguished from what is commonly called “Fake News” is, at this point, a semantic dispute, particularly since “Fake News” has no cogent definition. Defenders of Fake News as a distinct category typically emphasize intent in order to differentiate it from bad journalism. That’s really just a way of defining Fake News so as to make it definitionally impossible for mainstream media outlets like the Post ever to be guilty of it (much the way terrorism is defined to ensure that the U.S. government and its allies cannot, by definition, ever commit it).
But what was the Post’s motive in publishing two false stories about Russia that, very predictably, generated massive attention, traffic, and political impact? Was it ideological and political — namely, devotion to the D.C. agenda of elevating Russia into a grave threat to U.S. security? Was it to please its audience — knowing that its readers, in the wake of Trump’s victory, want to be fed stories about Russian treachery? Was it access and source servitude — proving it will serve as a loyal and uncritical repository for any propaganda intelligence officials want disseminated? Was it profit — to generate revenue through sensationalistic click-bait headlines with a reckless disregard to whether its stories are true? In an institution as large as the Post, with numerous reporters and editors participating in these stories, it’s impossible to identify any one motive as definitive.
Whatever the motives, the effects of these false stories are exactly the same as those of whatever one regards as Fake News. The false claims travel all over the internet, deceiving huge numbers into believing them. The propagators of the falsehoods receive ample profit from their false, viral “news.” And there is no accountability of the kind that would disincentivize a repeat of the behavior. (That the Post ultimately corrects its false story does not distinguish it from classic Fake News sites, which also sometimes do the same.)
And while it’s true that all media outlets make mistakes, and that even the most careful journalism sometimes errs, those facts do not remotely mitigate the Post’s behavior here. In these cases, they did not make good faith mistakes after engaging in careful journalism. With both stories, they were reckless (at best) from the start, and the glaring deficiencies in the reporting were immediately self-evident (which is why both stories were widely attacked upon publication).
As this excellent timeline by Kalev Leetaru documents, the Post did not even bother to contact the utility companies in question — the most elementary step of journalistic responsibility — until after the story was published. Intelligence officials insisting on anonymity — so as to ensure no accountability — whispered to them that this happened, and despite how significant the consequences would be, they rushed to print it with no verification at all. This is not a case of good journalism producing inaccurate reporting; it is the case of a media outlet publishing a story that it knew would produce massive benefits and consequences without the slightest due diligence or care.
The most ironic aspect of all this is that it is mainstream journalists — the very people who have become obsessed with the crusade against Fake News — who play the key role in enabling and fueling this dissemination of false stories. They do so not only by uncritically spreading them, but also by taking little or no steps to notify the public of their falsity.
The Post’s epic debacle this weekend regarding its electric grid fiction vividly illustrates this dynamic. As I noted on Saturday, many journalists reacted to this story the same way they do every story about Russia: They instantly click and re-tweet and share the story without the slightest critical scrutiny. That these claims are constantly based on the whispers of anonymous officials and accompanied by no evidence whatsoever gives those journalists no pause at all; any official claim that Russia and Putin are behind some global evil is instantly treated as Truth. That’s a significant reason papers like the Post are incentivized to recklessly publish stories of this kind. They know they will be praised and rewarded no matter the accuracy or reliability because their Cause — the agenda — is the right one.
On Friday night, immediately after the Post’s story was published, one of the most dramatic pronouncements came from the New York Times’s editorial writer Brent Staples, who said this:
Now that this story has collapsed and been fully retracted, what has Staples done to note that this tweet was false? Just like Baron, absolutely nothing. Actually, that’s not quite accurate, as he did do something: At some point after Friday night, he quietly deleted his tweet without comment. He has not uttered a word about the fact that the story he promoted has collapsed, and that what he told his 16,000-plus followers — along with the countless number of people who re-tweeted the dramatic claim of this prominent journalist — turned out to be totally false in every respect.
Even more instructive is the case of MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin, a prolific and skilled social media user who has seen his following explode this year with a constant stream of anti-Trump content. On Friday night, when the Post story was published, Griffin hyped it with a series of tweets designed to make the story seem as menacing and consequential as possible. That included hysterical statements from Vermont officials — who believed the Post’s false claim — that in retrospect are unbelievably embarrassing.
VT Gov. Peter Shumlin on Russian hacking attempt: 'One of the world's leading thugs, Putin, has been attempting to hack our electric grid.' pic.twitter.com/liJbVLdT5A
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 31, 2016
That tweet from Griffin — convincing people that Putin was endangering the health and safety of Vermonters — was re-tweeted more than 1,000 times. His other similar tweets — such as this one featuring Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy’s warning that Putin was trying to “shut down [the grid] in the middle of winter” — were also widely spread.
But the next day, the crux of the story collapsed — the Post’s editor’s note acknowledged that “there is no indication” that “Russian hackers had penetrated the electricity grid” — and Griffin said nothing. Indeed, he said nothing further on any of this until yesterday — four days after his series of widely shared tweets — in which he simply re-tweeted a Post reporter noting an “update” that the story was false without providing any comment himself:
In contrast to Griffin’s original inflammatory tweets about the Russian menace, which were widely and enthusiastically spread, this after-the-fact correction has a paltry 289 re-tweets. Thus, a small fraction of those who were exposed to Griffin’s sensationalistic hyping of this story ended up learning that all of it was false.
I genuinely do not mean to single out these individual journalists for scorn. They are just illustrative of a very common dynamic: Any story that bolsters the prevailing D.C. orthodoxy on the Russia Threat, no matter how dubious, is spread far and wide. And then, as has happened so often, when the story turns out to be false or misleading, little or nothing is done to correct the deceitful effects. And, most amazingly of all, these are the same people constantly decrying the threat posed by Fake News.
A very common dynamic is driving all of this: media groupthink, greatly exacerbated (as I described on Saturday) by the incentive scheme of Twitter. As the grand media failure of 2002 demonstrated, American journalists are highly susceptible to fueling and leading the parade in demonizing a new Foreign Enemy rather than exerting restraint and skepticism in evaluating the true nature of that threat.
It is no coincidence that many of the most embarrassing journalistic debacles of this year involve the Russia Threat, and they all involve this same dynamic. Perhaps the worst one was the facially ridiculous, pre-election Slate story — which multiple outlets (including The Intercept) had been offered but passed on — alleging that Trump had created a secret server to communicate with a Russian bank; that story was so widely shared that even the Clinton campaign ended up hyping it — a tweet that, by itself, was re-tweeted almost 12,000 times.
Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. pic.twitter.com/8f8n9xMzUU
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 1, 2016
But only a small percentage of those who heard of it ended up hearing of the major walk back and debunking from other outlets. The same is true of The Guardian story from last week on WikiLeaks and Putin that ended up going viral, only to have its retraction barely noticed because most of the journalists who spread the story did not bother to note it.
Beyond the journalistic tendency to echo anonymous officials on whatever Scary Foreign Threat they are hyping at the moment, there is an independent incentive scheme sustaining all of this. That Russia is a Grave Menace attacking the U.S. has — for obvious reasons — become a critical narrative for Democrats and other Trump opponents who dominate elite media circles on social media and elsewhere. They reward and herald anyone who bolsters that narrative, while viciously attacking anyone who questions it.
Indeed, in my 10-plus years of writing about politics on an endless number of polarizing issues — including the Snowden reporting — nothing remotely compares to the smear campaign that has been launched as a result of the work I’ve done questioning and challenging claims about Russian hacking and the threat posed by that country generally. This is being engineered not by random, fringe accounts, but by the most prominent Democratic pundits with the largest media followings.
I’ve been transformed, overnight, into an early adherent of alt-right ideology, an avid fan of Breitbart, an enthusiastic Trump supporter, and — needless to say — a Kremlin operative. That’s literally the explicit script they’re now using, often with outright fabrications of what I say (see here for one particularly glaring example).
They, of course, know all of this is false. A primary focus of the last 10 years of my journalism has been a defense of the civil liberties of Muslims. I wrote an entire book on the racism and inequality inherent in the U.S. justice system. My legal career involved numerous representations of victims of racial discrimination. I was one of the first journalists to condemn the misleadingly “neutral” approach to reporting on Trump and to call for more explicit condemnations of his extremism and lies. I was one of the few to defend Jorge Ramos from widespread media attacks when he challenged Trump’s immigration extremism. Along with many others, I tried to warn Democrats that nominating a candidate as unpopular as Hillary Clinton risked a Trump victory. And as someone who is very publicly in a same-sex, inter-racial marriage — with someone just elected to public office as a socialist — I make for a very unlikely alt-right leader, to put that mildly.
The malice of this campaign is exceeded only by its blatant stupidity. Even having to dignify it with a defense is depressing, though once it becomes this widespread, one has little choice.
But this is the climate Democrats have successfully cultivated — where anyone dissenting or even expressing skepticism about their deeply self-serving Russia narrative is the target of coordinated and potent smears; where, as The Nation’s James Carden documented yesterday, skepticism is literally equated with treason. And the converse is equally true: Those who disseminate claims and stories that bolster this narrative — no matter how divorced from reason and evidence they are — receive an array of benefits and rewards.
That the story ends up being completely discredited matters little. The damage is done, and the benefits received. Fake News in the narrow sense of that term is certainly something worth worrying about. But whatever one wants to call this type of behavior from the Post, it is a much greater menace given how far the reach is of the institutions that engage in it.
Top photo: A man walks past The Washington Post on August 5, 2013 in Washington, DC .
“They know they will be praised and rewarded no matter the accuracy or reliability because their Cause — the agenda — is the right one.”
And they don’t give a damn how many American kids might lose life or limb in their latest meat grinder that Obama has been building on the Western border of Russia – not to mention the ‘collateral damage’. If it does not end in nuclear war, we will not win it against Russian kids fighting for their homeland on their own territory.
One only has to look at history to see that clearly – and Putin has further impoverished Russia to invent all kinds of very interesting hi-tech weaponry (effectively tested out in Syria) that will make the outcome certain.
The Democrat establishment represented by the Clintons belong to the War Party, along with Ryan, McConnell, Graham, and their fellow Pugnican scoundrels – of which they are the ‘acceptable’ face, spouting their ‘progressive’ pablum to the public.
The ‘hacks’ (leaks?) revealed no state secrets – only Hillary’s team sandbagging Bernie Sanders for his Judaism/aetheism/agnosticism/decency – if not for them, we might be looking forward to President Sanders rather than President Cheeto Head.
As a result, this is the first time (as a lifelong registered Democrat) that I could not bring myself to vote in a national election. At this point, I say a plague on both houses of the War Party.
Thank you for this insightful news. I had always thought the Washington Post was middle of the road and had trusted the news from them; what I’ve just read has reversed my thinking completely and I will no longer use them as one of my sources for news. It is not easy finding reliable sources anymore!
Your barebones assertion that walkbacks are not read is critical to the structure of your piece, but you don’t support it at all. My understanding of such retractions is that they can often be more popular than the original story.
Exactly, explain the evidentiary basis for that assertion, or this is fake news.
Fake news is a form of propaganda as is revocation of free press.
The US congress opted to take orders from the goebbels of israel on 3 march 2015 from a man who prefers
fake news
presstv.com/Detail/2017/01/08/505406/benjamin-netanyahu-newspaper-proposal
news blackouts
nytimes.com/2016/07/31/opinion/sunday/how-benjamin-netanyahu-is-crushing-israels-free-press.html
and is a suspected criminal in his own country
theeventchronicle.com/news/middle-east/israels-attorney-general-probes-suspicions-surrounding-netanyahu/
Fake news is a form of propaganda as is revocation of free press.
The US congress opted to take orders from the goebbels of israel on 3 march 2015 from a man who prefers
fake news
http://presstv.com/Detail/2017/01/08/505406/benjamin-netanyahu-newspaper-proposal
news blackouts
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/opinion/sunday/how-benjamin-netanyahu-is-crushing-israels-free-press.html
and is a suspected criminal in his own country
http://www.theeventchronicle.com/news/middle-east/israels-attorney-general-probes-suspicions-surrounding-netanyahu/
Thank You Greenwald!
-V
“That the story ends up being completely discredited matters little. The damage is done, and the benefits received. ” ~Greenwald
I notice that your reporting of these sorts of false smears always seem to come from the left-wing reporters and “news” outlets. I suppose that is to be expected since the left wing totally dominates the main stream media.
As we go down the road, seeing the left wing liars in the media caught over and over again I wonder if just being a modern “liberal” will indicate that one is a habitual liar. In some libertarian circles that is already a given.
Oh well, the USSR had Pravda and we have the the MSM.
Thank You
-V
Warmongers all.
The power’s media against millions of people’s blogs. Lies against truth.
Yellow journalism at its best! Congress needs to introduce a bill to hold these scoundrels accountable. I’m thinking something like 10% of revenues would be appropriate and might influence the media to spend more money on editors and fact checking before they rush to press.
And the journalists that compose these falsehoods should be held accountable as well just to dampen their “investigative” zeal so they think twice about trying to be another Woodward and Bernstein.
Perhaps a journalist should have to have a license governed by their own guild and when found wanting be suspended from the trade for a period of time depending on their infractions. Self-governed before they lose their Fourth Estate privileges.
The WaPo lost a lot of credibility for me when that big Amazon thumb started pressing upon it.
C’mon, @glenngreenwald – you know that the pas-de-deux between the US Death Machine* and the MSM presstitutes has been going on for decades. The nexus between the press and the Us political machine has been a non-stop version of ‘2 girls, 1 cup’ – only even more disgusting because it results in the death of tens of millions of foreign non-comabatant civilians.
To make clear just how flagrant this pas-de-deux has been for the last 30 years at least, I’ll mention for the tenth (or thereabouts) time in a comment on an article written by you… George H.W. Bush’s press secretary (now a professional Charity Vampire) – Peter Teeley.
For those playing at home: here’s what went down.
In the 1984 Vice-Presidental debates, G.W. Bush the elder claimed that Ferraro and Dukakis had said that the Marines who died in the Beirut barracks bombings ‘died in shame’.
That was a lie, and everyone knew it was a lie (except the TV audience, of course – who, by and large, would not know if you were up ’em as we say in Australia).
In an interview with the New York Times shortly thereafter, Teeley actually said the following:
For sheer hubristic “See this middle finger, you schlubs?” , that is right up there with Albright’s “We think the price is worth it” on “60 Minutes”. (“The price” was half a million dead Iraqis under 5 years of age).
Fact is, the oligopoly ‘old line’ media has an unbroken line of compliance and collusion with the political class that goes back to “Remember the Maine”, through the propaganda about the Lusitania; to the ‘surprise attack’ on Pearl Harbour that 3 admirals saw coming (and were sacked for mentioning it); to the USS Liberty incident, the USS Maddox incident (the Gulf of Tonkin), the “Light at the end of the tunnel” body-count tropes of Westmoreland and other US war criminals… through to parrotting H&K/Tom Lantos’ “Babies from incubators” propaganda prior to Gulf War I (and of course ‘WMD’ drivel, all the way through to ISIS, Trump-Russia and so forth).
There is a very good reason why Jefferson said that
NOTHING HAS CHANGED… except that technology has rendered the ‘old line’ media so obsolete that it is dying (pace the claims of the WaPo’s editor, who – being almost certainly innumerate – would not have the slightest clue as to the actual profitability of his paper).
[*] US Death Machine: the US political class (including bureaucrats), the military, and the ‘intelligence’ services
Isn’t this a story that deserves an update? Written on the 4th?
Fake News is a piece of info that cannot be proven.
Ergo *all* information published based on FBI, CIA, NSA, BND, GCHQ.. is Fake News by definition.
When do we stop listening to them?
There is an assumption that journalists have integrity. Not true!!! And it hasn’t been true for centuries. Journalists write what their owners tell them to write with few exception. Besides Watergate, I don’t think the Washington Post has had a worthwhile investigative story. Journalism is like religion — lies, lies and more lies.
Thanks Glenn Greenwald for your objective reporting. Without compelling evidence, it appears Democratic Leadership tried to divert Americans from how they tampered with the Democratic Primaries and how the Podesta brothers have been using their own brand of propaganda to pull puppet strings in the beltway. As a life-long Democrat, I cannot condone a party that neglects the wishes of their less wealthy constituents.
It’s the notable epitomy (perpetration of USA fabrication of false news to peddle and FOMENT false perception) of unsubstantiated and substantiated falsehood for credence and authenticity.—Alejandro Grace Ararat
Who is still singing the land of the free? Disgusting is short. The establishment their puppets and their mocking bird operatives want the entire USA united in fabrication of false perception as truth is why is going to be worst than all kosher dictatorship combined while chanting “in the land of the free”
Yes indeed. “Vermonters and all Americans should be alarmed”. Not at the actions of “The Russians”, but at the rapid deterioration into fascism of the former Land of the Free, advanced by both major parties in an unprecedented display of unity.
And let’s not forget the possible consequences of all of this foolishness
Dear Glenn,
I can not thank you enough for your bravery and sanity!! When I saw you on DemocracyNow! yesterday and the day before I just kept saying, “thank you!, thank you!, thank you!” out loud. As a Green Party activist, I can’t say that I am surprised at all by the horrifying actions of the Democratic Party and their operatives. There appears to be no shame in how low they will go to protect their turf and pursue the profit motive for their corporate masters. But what IS shocking to me is how so many average Democrats (aka “liberals”) are in extreme denial about how utterly shameless their party has become. Its as if they have literally been drugged or have had chips implanted into their brains that has made them into automatons who simply spout the latest media verbiage about how bad third parties (mostly the Green Party) are, or about the Russians or about the millions of other lies and half-truths the coprporate media is telling. These highly educated liberals (aka many Democrats) will even contradict themselves and appear completely non-sensical in their arguments without a flinch or question as to the rational basis for anything they claim. – When I was campaigning for Jill Stein before the election, a white middle class woman started screaming at me about how I was going to help elect Trump (I don’t like that argument in any case, but it wasn’t true at all in NY state). I am quite used to this treatment by Democrats, so just I kept my mouth shut and hoped she would leave me alone. But then without provocation she began yelling, “you should be ashamed, you should be voting your conscience!”. At that point I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and I said simply, “thats exactly what I AM doing”. Then she walked very close to me and put her face into mine and said in an extremely seething way, “your conscience should be to know what your vote causes”….WHAT!?!? So, now the liberals (aka most Democrats) seem to think that not only do they own my vote, but now they own my conscience too?! Wow. – We Greens have been experiencing this vitriol from Democrats for some time now. I know its not the first time for you either, but I’m so glad to fully welcome you to the club anyway! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Outstanding article.
Yet More Fake News Retracted by CNN…
Just hours after the segment aired, WikiLeaks threatened to sue CNN for defamation unless it issued an apology or aired a “one hour expose” on the supposed “plot” against Assange.
SEE IT: CNN apologizes to Julian Assange for calling him ‘a pedophile’
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/cnn-apologizes-assange-commentator-calls-pedophile-article-1.2935083
Greenwald is a pathetic shill for the Putin-Trump-Assange axis; a totally unobjective clown who should be disregarded.
I became a card-carrying skeptic of official government pronouncements early in my life when I served as a medical corpsman in Vietnam (31 May 1967 – 31 May 1968). It was during this phase of the war that LBJ and other war hawks were trying to turn around public opinion on the war back in the world. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel” was the phase being promoted that we had defeated the VC guerrillaa and NVA soldiers and victory over them was just around the corner. They based their opinion on intelligence reports by the CIA. But Samuel Adams, a CIA analyst, who had made four field trips to the Republic of South Vietnam prior to the Tet Offensive of 1968, reported Intelligence had vastly underestimated the total force strength of insurgents in country, that was being reportedly around 250,000, when in facts from his research, the more accurate estimate was closer to 450,000. And the wounded grunts on the wards told me that for all practical purposes the war was over and we would eventually be defeated by the enemy. They also observed the enemy had increase in numbers which contradicted these official intelligence estimates. As one wounded Marine grunt from the Siege of Con Thien (late summer to early fall in 1967) casually observed, he said that early in his tour of duty in firefights they would kill around five NVA soldiers while NVA soldiers would kill one Marine grunt. But now in firefights Marines would kill ten NVA soldiers while NVA soldiers continued to kill one Marine grunt. He said the NVA had vastly increased their troop strength, and they would never give up until they broke the will of Americans back in the world. And they seemed to have an almost inexhaustible supply of soldiers. Then we got hammered with the Tet Offensive of 1968. The game of charades was over. Samuel Adams was right. LBJ, Westmoreland and the war hawks were wrong. Walter Cronkite on a fact-finding tour told the American people that the war was at best a stalemate. Soon LBJ would announce he decided not to run for a second term for the presidency. But unlike his colleague and friend, Daniel Ellsberg, Adams tried to go through the chain of,command n the CIA rather than leak his report to newspapers prior to the Tet Offensive. His report was rejected. In 2002, a group of retired CIA officers established The Sam Adams Associates for Intergrity in Intelligence and each year have awarded The Sam Adams Award to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and William Bonney have been awarded this prize, and this year The award went to John Kiriakou.
“I genuinely do not mean to single out these individual journalists for scorn.”
Why not? The MoFus deserve all the scorn and ridicule that can be heaped upon them. They make journalism into something lower than prostitution, and of course the papers they serve also should be exposed to the full for what deceitful putrid collection of misinformation they are.
I agree. They must be pointed out and held accountable, including the paper they work for.
That is still too mild. They should be openly ridiculed, just like you say, and anyone who deliberately smears a person, like in the Assange and CNN case, should be sued. (I hope Assange goes through with the lawsuit against CNN)
Starting with that snotty little dwarf Jonathan Capehart who maliciously spread falsehoods about Bernie Sanders’ well documented civil rights work in the 60s.
Glen,
You are a Real journalist and I so appreciate the Real news provided in this article. But take heart! Not all the citizens subjected to US propaganda are accepting it at face value. Even this 70 year old now listens to mainstream media outlets and even to Clapper with my BS filter running in the background. With regard to the Vermont grid attack fake news, I listened but without panic and I suspended judgment. Many Americans know that there is an effort underway to “group think” the country into some unjustified response to Russia. It smells a lot like the “group think” leading up to the Iraq war. So take some comfort in the fact that not all citizens are passively allowing themselves to be fully manipulated. The most disheartening fact is that citizens have lost the Free Press in which they can trust. And our ability to trust American media to present REAL news once distinguished the US from Russia in my childhood. So thank you again for being brace, resolute and for doing your job on behalf of us all.
Flora
The article was well done.
I have questions related to other matters and do not know how to pass these questions in other channels, so here they are:
in a congressional hearing Clapper made the claim that wikileaks has endanger the lives of americans and their allies with unredacted releases of names. It was a claim repeated multiple times during this hearing by others seated next to him, and by members of congress.
Now, my understanding is that the unredacted release of names of afghanistani “operatives” was a product of a highly encrypted and limited release of material made possible from manning and then released to assange who passed it in secret to various reporters with the legitimate explicit intent that they research the material and withhold information that could possibly cause harm to human life. It was in fact a reporter at the guardian who separately decided to publish the encryption codes to these documents in his book, and was not the decision of assange or manning to do so.
So, isn’t it more true that Clapper, again, is making a wild extraordinary and false claim about assange and wikileaks to conflate the threat he and his team desires to achieve?
I have scoured wikileaks..I cannot find any release of any names of afghani operators in any of the material. Maybe I missed it.
I have asked this question to several people who have interest in fact checking the statements made repeatedly by officials.
To date, noone that I have asked has come up with any material that specifies names of operators.
What is he talking about.
More bullshit ?
– or let’s say it Jon Stewart would say it.
This here is ‘theatre’!
Not as much ‘theatre’ as Tucker Carlson pretending to interview Glenn Greenwald and both are chuckling – and smiling like F…faces von Clownsticks on a sunny day…
But still hackery theatre on the Intertubes!
Nobody should have any trust in the main stream media which has just become a propaganda machine for the Fascists, and a mechanism to pump out fake news to the masses. Equally, nobody should trust the intelligence agencies given their record of lies, and manipulation, and because they currently have political Democrat leadership.Have we forgotten the lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction, or Clappers lies to Congress in denying the existence of mass surveillance? The political elites are just continuing to try to stir up anti Russian hysteria,in the hope of promoting another war of profit, and they are still sulking because their Wall Street whore puppet was defeated in the US election, and their criminal enterprise is at risk. Its all orchestrated propaganda, fake news, and lies, just like they have been pumping out over their Brexit defeat.
The Russians were not the source of the hacked emails,but even if they had been then, so what, big deal, oh how shocking! Who do the Russians think they are – the US, meddling in another country’s elections ? Except of course that the US doesn’t have to resort to email hacking – they just create terrorists and sponsor and equip proxy armies, and unleash their dogs of war to create political instability, and overthrow democratically elected Presidents and Governments.Just like we have witnessed in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iran when it was Persia, and the Ukraine, and more recently political interference in Brasil and Venezuela.What is the old saying about glass houses, and the pot calling the kettle black?
saw the Carlson/Greenwald interview too and –
‘It’s hard to believe a full decade has passed since Daily Show host Jon Stewart made that infamous plea to Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald during a tense appearance on Fox’s lovefest.
If you need more context, try this on for size: less than a month before his appearance, Stewart and a few colleagues pitched Comedy Central executives on a Daily Show spinoff that would parody these loving, pundits.
Yes, it was still a pre-Colbert Report world, but the need was becoming clear.
Hundreds of thousands of people downloaded the video of the appearance, and since the subsequent invention of YouTube, several million more have watched the takedown. In it, Stewart says Carlson and Greenwald are “partisan hacks” who aren’t fulfilling their journalistic responsibilities, and describes the program as dishonest and “theater.”
At a 2005 Q&A at Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival, Karlin told the audience:
“It was something we had theoretically talked about a lot before, in the office, like ‘what about just going on that show and just telling those guys off?’ But we didn’t think he’d really do it…. And when we left the studio, we were convinced like ‘oh man, that was terrible, hope no one watches that.’ We kind of felt bad about it, we felt like it didn’t go that well. Not that it was that planned out, it just kind of unfolded. And then we were really surprised that people reacted that way, because we did not think it was consistent with how we normally treat the news and how we treat the media. And it was really surprising that it tapped into something that apparently a lot of other people were feeling as well.”
– and to make sure: The above is a joke
Warning: It made fun of two funny men we all love to love each other.
-(that’s why they were smiling like Cheshire Cats)
Glenn, you’re my hero. Thank you
What is your comment on the evidence released to the public by the intelligence leaders of the US today? They seem to show links back to Putin.
Just saw Greenwald on Fox w/Tucker Carlson. As I watched, I though why does he waste his time with crap like this? Probably many reasons:
Yes, Fox is garbage and Carlson is a overpaid idiot. But I am an internationally known journalist (and Oscar winner). This is part of the gig. He fucks with me. I fuck with him. He tries to out talk me. I in turn keep my cool and never give into his attitude. Then at the end I come off on the high ground and he looks like a total douche bag.
Good thing Greenwald lives in Brazil.
Watching Glenn on fox on Tucker Carlson. Very happy Tucker has him on so the masses can hear the truth. Glenn is laying out the facts!
‘Very happy Tucker’
And what a smiling Greenwald? –
They both are as happy as Hannity and O’Reilly not having to talk about Roger Ailes having meddled in the US election in order to get F…face von Clownstick erected.
– it’s just that you guys haven’t received your briefing yet.
Is that the reason why y’all have agreed with F…face von Clownstick?
But of course, “we’ve always been at war with Eurasia…or was that Eastasia?…”.
ha ha, I recognize that! That’s from George Orwell’s famous novel 1984.
If you ever run out of things to say, quote that line. Instantly, people will know you are a person with something to add to the discussion.
Bingo! Just reread ‘1984’. It doesn’t come off as fiction anymore.
And don’t forget about 15 minutes of hate. “Russia”
The Post even played with the original story’s headline, which was the even more false and hysteerical:
“Russian-hackers-penetrated-us-electricity-grid-through-a-utility-in-vermont”
For some on this board Micah and Morgan are the technical and security experts. For others on this board Micah and Morgan are two technical and security experts. I think Micah may have just been gaslighting “us” and “them” some.
So they tell you the CIA NSA can’t show YOU the evidence because it might compromise the “sources” and “methods” through which they “collect it all FULL TAKE” all the live long day.
SOURCES: The NSAs “sources” are like stars in the sky – there are to many to count. The NSA has so many sources willing or unwilling one need not reveal a specific “source” be it liveware or hardware to count packets traveling between ANY two exchange points.
METHODS: Snowden has already revealed the NSAs “methods” (HELLO MCFLY IS THERE ANYBODY THERE) and the NSAs “methods” (which are improving) are in the public fucking domain at this site and worldwide.
Much of the “full take” collected from those Israeli narus splitters (and via any other means) are now at the NSAs Corporate Stores Product Development Teams Offices targeting frequent shoppers just like Palantir.
Keep fighting the good fight Glenn. Never apologize, never back down.
The more vitriol thrown your way means you’re under their skin. Turn up the heat!
But Russia celebrated Trumps victory. CNN says that’s proof ;)
Glad to see you fighting the good fight, Glenn. But’s it’s hopeless. It’s like getting eaten by zombies. There dumb and slow, but there’s too many of them.
ARGHHH!!!!
“…….Glad to see you fighting the good fight, Glenn. But’s it’s hopeless. It’s like getting eaten by zombies. There dumb and slow, but there’s too many of them…….”
Ha! Great comment
When the Israelis were observed celebrating 9/11, wasn’t that also proof?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-hacking-intelligence-20170105-story.html
Bill n’ Ray get some local press out Baltimore way…
Hack: When someone in a remote location electronically penetrates operating systems, firewalls or other cyber-protection systems and then extracts data. Our own considerable experience, plus the rich detail revealed by Edward Snowden, persuades us that, with NSA’s formidable trace capability, it can identify both sender and recipient of any and all data crossing the network.
Leak: When someone physically takes data out of an organization — on a thumb drive, for example — and gives it to someone else, as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning did. Leaking is the only way such data can be copied and removed with no electronic trace.
Binney and McGovern write in the Baltimore Sun:
“………..Reportedly, Mr. Clapper will get a chance on Friday to brief an understandably skeptical Donald Trump, who has called the briefing delay “very strange,” even suggesting that top intelligence officials “need more time to build a case.”…..”
President Obama has already indicated that the meeting to discuss the intelligence findings with Trump was scheduled for Friday.
Clapper lied to Congress, and there were no WMD’s in Iraq. That’s a given, however, it’s also irrelevant to the DNC hack. Either the Russians were behind the hacking of the DNC to influence the election – or they weren’t. Because Clapper lied to Congress has no bearing on the DNC hack. Independent cyber-security firms like Crowdstrike corroborated the findings of US intelligence. The New York Times goes into detail over their investigation of the DNC hack (12-13-2016; “The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S.”) .
The Russian government had a large stake in the outcome of the election so an attempt to influence the election seems like a fairly obvious step. Clinton Erlich writes in Foreign Policy (“The Kremlin Really Believes That Hillary Wants to Start a War With Russia” http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/07/the-kremlin-really-believes-that-hillary-clinton-will-start-a-war-with-russia-donald-trump-vladimir-putin/):
“……..Let’s not mince words: Moscow perceives the former secretary of state as an existential threat. The Russian foreign-policy experts I consulted did not harbor even grudging respect for Clinton. The most damaging chapter of her tenure was the NATO intervention in Libya,……..Currently, the only voice for rapprochement with Russia is Clinton’s opponent, Donald Trump. If she vanquishes him, she will have a free hand to take the aggressive action against Russia that Republican hawks have traditionally favored…….Moscow believes that Crimea and other major points of bipolar tension will evaporate if America simply elects a leader who will pursue the nation’s best interest, from supporting Assad against the Islamic State to shrinking NATO by ejecting free riders. Russia respects Trump for taking these realist positions……….”
Besides the tens of billions of dollars in cost to the Russian economy each year because of the US-EU sanctions – according to Clinton Erlich – Russia seeks a “bargain” over the illegal annexation of Crimea (as well as their illegal military support for the secessionists in Eastern Ukraine) and the shrinking of NATO by “ejecting the free riders”. Hillary was clearly antagonistic toward Russian interests while Trump would be expected to focus on US interests. The “motive” was certainly present for the Russian government to commit the cyber-crime to influence the outcome of the election.
the “motive” is plausible for a wide variety of actors, not necessarily at the state level, or even of a russian origin.
I can think of at least 14 countries who would have at least similar if even more exceedingly motivations to hack the DNC, not the least of which may be within the US itself.
I can also think of at least 23 unique hacking operations worldwide, that could and have performed hacks that make attribution trails similar to these.
This is why this is a stretch. The yarn only becomes convincing when you toss out the realities of what the hacking operations that take place actually are, and how they have achieved superposition effects in their schemes.
The intelligence agencies, the real hackers, know this.
The ability of these official to conflate these threats and attempt attribution flies in the face of the reality of hacking operations at the highest levels.
Here is my opinion, and it a pretty strong one:
the US three letter agencies have slipped significantly in its position as number one surveillance operator. It is using methods and techniques that are ancient and irrelevant in today’s environment. The level of sophistication of counter hacking operations, make these methods inferior and more than problematic.
The ONLY way for the US intel agencies to gain any new ground at this point forward, is from humint..and to that I make this serious caution: the US doesn’t have a very good record using foreign sources of intelligence either.
You can see where this quandry will lead the US. Into a escalation of cyberwarfare.
The rest of the world sees the US as limited and weak and reckless. I can’t really ignore that is probably a very accurate description.
Lets take an example in very recent, that reflects this sentiment:
yesterday, 5 people died and 9 other seriously injured from a military person who recently went to a FBI office and reported his mental illness.
the FBI did nothing.
This does not inspire confidence that our spy agencies and law enforcement agencies are focused on what really matters.
The
“…is the only way such data can be copied and removed with no electronic trace..”
actually, its a little more complicated to describe professional means to obfuscate “breadcrumbing”.
a. it is possible to leave a trail of evidence when copying data/media…it really depends on two factors: the surveillance schemes in place to detect transit of data/media from any network
b. the skill of the operator to first know that such surveillance schemes exist at all, and then to successfully breach them with no breadcrumbing…
Now on the matter of transiting or hacking data/material remotely, the methods to obfuscate or defeat surveillance is similar but with some distinction:
a. to know what surveillance schemes are active
b. the capability of the operator to obfuscate that surveillance.
c. and when not possible to know how to achieve either a. or b, or as a matter of basic intelligence, the methodologies involve a host of methods for creating a breadcrumbs that are virtual, for effect.
Many on this board understand the technical methods I am generally discussing.
Many on this board do not.
What is important to acknowledge is that is has become common and accessible to more and more hackers worldwide to deploy a wide variety of hacking methods that do not allow attribution.
this is the real reason why the “assessment” report provided by the combined cia-fbi-nsa that was released about the russian hacking attribution, carried carefully phrased wording, such as judgements, and confidence levels. What these reports did not reveal what the manner in which it was achieved to divine the difference between virtual breadcrumbs developed for effect, and those breadcrumbs that could possibly be evaluated as authentic.
I can provide examples that are not classified at all, of similar types of hacks where attribution was not possible, or was made incorrectly and proven so. And the common theme, is the technical manner in which the hackers did in fact achieve perfect virtual breadcrumbing.
here is the reality in the new age of hacking: the only way to attribute a high level, professional hack, is to catch that person hot on the keyboard.
Otherwise, its really a crapshoot.
“I can provide examples that are not classified at all, of similar types of hacks where attribution was not possible, or was made incorrectly and proven so. And the common theme, is the technical manner in which the hackers did in fact achieve perfect virtual breadcrumbing.”
Proceed.
Glenn Greenwald, you are my hero. Stay strong.
Enjoyed your interview on Democracy Now. Well done!
I get it. You hate Hillary so much that you are blind to reality. So much for putting any trust in the Intercept!
There is not one honest news paper, or blog, or political website, that does not hate Hillary for very legitimate reasons.
So much for your perception of reality.
New York Times (The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S. http://nyti.ms/2hKidyL):
“………While there’s no way to be certain of the ultimate impact of the hack, this much is clear: A low-cost, high-impact weapon that Russia had test-fired in elections from Ukraine to Europe was trained on the United States, with devastating effectiveness. For Russia, with an enfeebled economy and a nuclear arsenal it cannot use short of all-out war, cyberpower proved the perfect weapon: cheap, hard to see coming, hard to trace…….”
The New York Times (shockingly) concludes that Assange sought to undermine HRC:
“………Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder and editor, has resisted the conclusion that his site became a pass-through for Russian hackers working for Mr. Putin’s government or that he was deliberately trying to undermine Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy. But the evidence on both counts appears compelling…….”
And has been for a long time.
Help….the Russians are coming !
Craig….the FBI didn’t even get to see the ‘hacked’ DNC server. Is there no way to get any sense into you ? Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum.
“………I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy,” Bush said in remarks he later regretted. “.?.?. I was able to get a sense of his soul.”…….”
So you needn’t feel alone in your trust of Putin.
So, is it a coup, or not a coup, craig … or is it only Trump’s hairdresser knows for sure?
*personally, we don’t take kindly to coups in Appalachia.
Craig , you got lost in translation. i’ll give you a hint : latin !
Why quote someone everyone knows was (and is) a nitwit? You might get a better reception to your posts at the NYT.
“Is there no way to get any sense into you?”
No, there’s not:
The post lightly [edited] for accuracy:
“. . .I post at the Intercept, Guardian and elsewhere because I am a political hack. . .[So if I just for once abandon my hypocrisy and] apply [to myself] the same arbitrary criticisms [of others that I have] been pressing for years, [it follows that] ‘Craig[summers] is simply an anti-[Russian], self flattering (i.e. a liar) political hack who has zero credibility when it comes to Russian hackers and human rights activism.’ “
:))
there has been some confusion in these comments about the exact composition of the group of 17 US intelligence agencies cited by the media
i think i can help clear this up
Optimus Prime and the Justice League count as separate agencies, but Iron Man does not
“The idea that you may know more than the intelligence community knows – it’s like saying I know more about physics than my professor. I didn’t read the book, I just know I know more.” *VP Joe Biden
Why, you’d have to be “absolutely mindless” according to Joe.
*that’s why I don’t ride double-decker buses, jonjohn … because there ain’t no driver on the top.
the physics community is coming out with a new textbook: “Joe’s Little Quark Reader”
Exactly the same scenario happening in the UK, not only about the ‘Russia/US election’ angle which dominates our headlines, but the determination from our political classes that ‘Brexit will be a success’. These same politicians were proclaiming the end of the world a few months ago if the UK left the EU, but now ‘groupthink’ has taken over and all the major political parties (except for the SNP) are now on the same path.
So much so that even questioning a politician on their reversal of attitude towards Brexit will have you labelled as ‘unpatriotic’ or worse, a ‘traitor’.
It seems that throughout the west, the establishment democratic/liberal movement is collapsing but the ‘blame anyone but ourselves’ trope being faithfully delivered by mainstream corporate news is taking us down a very dangerous path to possible war with Russia.
C’mon, let’s all own up at long last to the howlingly obvious: viz., that the formidable Kim Dotcom @NZ, who way back last year confidently expressed the conviction that HRC’s candidacy would finally get torpedoed by deeply compromising digital materials by then securely in the hands of Wikileaks, is in fact the 400 pound hacker of the DNC & Podesta emails. Or, if not him, then one of his anti-copyright-extremist collaborators, at any rate. —- And bravo, say I.
Which makes him capable of toppling two governments! It would certainly be interesting.
BTW, you know those “Fancy Bears”? They have a website, you know. It’s hosted in the USA, and registered to a guy in France. So much for Russia!
http://whois.domaintools.com/fancybear.net
It’s peculiar that a hacking group which is ostensibly part of the Russian government would decide to name themselves “fancy bear” and come up with a website that makes it pretty clear they are Russian.
haha…
anecdotal: my dad asked me why my dog was eating his cat’s food. I told him to provide proof. So we set up a camera…at 2am, a neighborhood racoon dressed up as a dog ate his cat food.
We laughed, and then dad asked me …hey wait…
how did we know it was a racoon dressed up as a dog?
because it could have been a cat or a possum dressed up as a dog….
hmmm..
ahhh….we settle the matter quickly, using our “common” sense.
because it wasn’t my dog or his cat, thus it had to be a racoon, or maybe a possum…
see the flawed logic.?
that’s how miserably hopeless this pathetic and shallow analysis of “intelligence” really boils down to.
we call that mysterious animal dressed up as a dog, simply
“fantasy mutt”
but we will never really know what kind of animal it ever was.
but it wasnt’ our cat or our dog….or was it…
“fantasy mutt” is about as good as we can come up with.
quantum spooky action at a distance was already taken.
Perhaps there is a problem with the intellect of Western society ?. Or they are so are behind the that they can not distinguish the real from the past ?. One thing I can say affirmatively, the West has lost respect in the East, and continued to fall in our eyes.
I can deduce that ” the West” held a very high position in your system of values previously, for you to be so utterly demolished by disappointment now. Apart from that it is unclear who’s “we” you are talking about and what’s “the east” in your opinion.
Not that I would want to get a response, but it seems like a very thick trolling attempt.
Everything on this planet that does not match with your opinion – trolling!).
– and if it will be released now – what (Russian? friendly source) gave Assange the information –
And if some ‘conversation’ about who planned the whole deal will be released –
Will Americans understand an learn?
Or will we still play this funny game of Whodunit?
Latest tweet from Trump…..FBI never got access to hacked DNC server. Què ?
‘Latest tweet from Trump’
‘Wow, the ratings are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got “swamped” (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT. So much for…’
– or wait?
Did you mean this tweet:
‘being a movie star-and that was season 1 compared to season 14. Now compare him to my season 1.
Hope Glenn Greenwald is aware and should write about such important stuff!
Sorry I wasn’t aware of US justice system. Over here in Europe the police needs to see and keep all material proof in order to make a case of criminal behaviour.
Glenn, waiting eagerly for your next article on lying MSM. Now that the USIntelligence bosses have cornered themselves in in front of the whole world, I’m curious to see how far the MSM is prepared to follow them when confronted with Trump reality.
they will follow it down to its expected ends…miserably, corrupted, and phoney
they’re just trolls fuck. i troll. its a direct response to the biggest troll and biggest threat at the moment drum roll please: mr trump. at least the washington post admits, to some small degree, that they were wrong. we don’t even expect our next president to say a single thing that is right, let alone ever admit fault, have a splinter of humility. trolls troll you, be they leftest or whatever calling you a russian spy, because they are wondering why you aren’t going after the orange elephant in the room… its good that you’re holding the post to the highest standard, but we’re way more concerned with what’s going to happen in two weeks…
its trump really, he has normalized the trolling that you yourself receive.
Great article. Informative and well written.
Feeling and emotion should have no role in journalism. The facts ma’am, just the facts. Honestly, how hard is that? What was the watershed moment for the twist-around from fact-based journalism? Or was bias -personal or political- always there, but we never noticed it?
Prior to the internet, with the ONLY journalism available to us being print/TV – without a shred of anything to disagree with, or to compare our newspaper and TV reports with …were we unable to see the bare-naked-bias that was always there?
This bias has always been a well-hidden part of journalism – but the onset of the internet, afforded us the ability to compare, fact-check, and dig-deeper all on our own.
Our independent fortitude may either save us from fake-news, or we may drown ourselves in it. The onus for real-news lies strictly with the individual seeking and consuming it, and if they have the intellect and stamina to figure-it-out, all by themselves.
Good luck everyone!
Very true. Unfortanetly the political push to eliminate “fake” news appears to be more about controlling news via internet sources, so society regresses back to time when news was officially managed and disseminated. The funny thing about “fake” news is that in the minds of many Americans the definition would be along the lines of false or factually incorrect information spread thru media outlets and presented as true or factually accurate. Ironically our society was awash in this form of “fake” news well before the internet, most commonly in the form of marketing and advertising.
Yet the false information spread by advertisers will never be confronted in a crusade against “fake” news. Instead the campaign will more ominously target information that those in power don’t agree with. The most egregious explames of “fake” news will be offered to start this crusade, yet the most independent will be the victim in this new war against “fake” news.
Why has the FBI still not examined the DNC’s servers and computers? Because they don’t want to find evidence that the leaked material might simply have been downloaded and copied on a USB stick.
Anyone investigating this hacking would first examine these servers and computers. Why has the FBI not done this yet.
Glenn, You’re correct. Thanks.
You are my favorite read— beautiful writing with excellent research. I lean libertarian, and I appreciate damn near everything the Intercept puts out. You are honestly doing us all a great service. Thank you!
One of the top items on the incoming attorney general’s to-do list should be antitrust actions against the MSM. Exactly six companies control >90% of all domestic media outlets; is it any wonder that they collude rather than compete? That six-headed monster must be smashed to pieces, as AT&T was broken up in the 1980s. Then the collusion will end and competition (along with accountability) will return.
“I genuinely do not mean to single out these individual journalists for scorn. ”
Like hell you don’t, Glenn.
Of course what Glenn wrote is true. The next sentence is:
He had and has plenty to pick from. That’s the point!
No it’s not the point.
The ostensible subject perhaps, but far from the point.
There are two competing narratives — the heterodox and the orthodox.
The truth of the matter seems entirely beside the point.
Sadly.
who said
You know, the ones who sold us WMD and failed in their job.
or was it
the ones who allowed us to be sold on WMD because they failed in their job.
hint: the one who said that wants to lead you into ___?
Could it be (and I know this sounds crazy & completely improbable) that there are bad actors in both the US & Russian governments, as well as their respective media? Or is Russia just the victim of an outrageous calumny perpetrated by the Clinton-Wasserman-Schultz machine, Mr. Greenwald-Assange?
Thank you for another lucid take down of the monsters that walk among us disguised as reputable journalists and institutions. Even the liberal idiots over at Metafilter got into the act of smearing you in some of their recent election threads. They are unhinged despicable fools who spend their time posting propaganda believing that they are the virtuous ones.
George Soros: ” as Mr Alinsky & Mr Hubbard would say, if you can’t beat em, smear em….”
http://barbwire.com/2017/01/05/obamas-desperate-war-russia-gambit/
Is Russia led by a strong nationalist? Yes….. That doesn’t fly with the nwo-globalists…..so be sure the propaganda will proceed fast & furious…..and watch GG proceed to eat it for breakfast….Godspeed GG… Thanks for putting brains ahead of emotions
But now after Trumps refutation of Assange we can relax – as the unusual confusion about who to align with and the question who is for ‘teh Russkies and who is against teh Russkies is so much easier for the Coastal Elite to define.
We are for what F…face von Clownstick is against – even if F…face von Clownstick is against for what we for or for what we are against if it is not teh Russkies and Putin could be actually gay and just being afraid to come out of teh closet or something like that and Glenn Greenwald should write that this was an unsubstantiated allegory.
I’ve just discovered the intercept – glad I have – this article is very clear, well constructed and readable – I will be sharing with colleagues, family and friends to encourage them to look into our media commentary more deeply themselves.
For decades journalists and their customers have been bemoaning depredations to their integrity imposed by the Aussie Murdock. Now, finally, perhaps for the first time since the passage of Hearst, Yankees have their own homegrown despicable media mogul to begin to bemoan. The abominable working conditions in Amazon’s warehouses have largely escaped notice; and, the favoritism which has allowed this near monopoly to thrive in hothouse conditions, avoiding taxes, while brick and mortar retailing establishments were shuttered to the detriment of communities, has largely passed without comment. Destroying the Washington Post may finally end Bezos up in the rouge’s gallery where he belongs.
And yet it continues.
Today, the Post is breathlessly reporting on Clapper’s “refutation” of Assange by trotting out a boilerplate report (7 pages) with one sentence referencing Russia, which never uses the word “hack”. The BBC somehow quoted Clapper as saying “We cannot say they did not change any vote tallies or anything of that sort…”
I’d say “you can’t make this stuff up”, but apparently, someone has.
Link to erroneous BBC quote: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38521503
Which has now been referenced in several other stories.
Actual quote: ““They did not change any vote tallies or anything of that sort,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.”
http://fedscoop.com/spy-agencies-we-cant-judge-impact-of-hacking-on-election
from TheDailyBeast
Indeed “suspicion” continues …
I found a note in my piroshki that said, “The object of oratory is not truth but persuasion.”
Putin strikes again
Alas, the BBC has gone downhill since Blair got Lord Hutton to dismiss their reporting, and Sir John Chilcot’s confirming the BBC told the truth hasn’t gotten them back on track.
Someone should give greewald a hug. He does not appear to know that russia does indeed issue fake news in order to disrupt democracies in other countries (they are also doing quite good business funding the sort of right wing nationalist parties that one must surmise greenwald supports, given his friendship with assange). On that note, he also must be distressed that assange cannot shake off the sexual assault charge in Sweden, nor can he disguise his envy that WaPo is seeing and increase in readership. Poor chap.
You really have to wonder about the two reporters (two!) who wrote that electric grid story. Neither apparently called the electric company. You almost have to go out of your way to write a story that bad.
it was easy
they learned from the pros
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qseVUcy7Wto
go to time marker 11:50
Tag team sharing:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2017/01/dachel-wake-up-ben-swann-on-us-propaganda.html#more
At the risk of repetition (with so many good comments on this) Glenn’s article reinforces the reason why the Big Lie propaganda technique is so often employed. A dramatic sounding lie gets lots of attention. The often slow and gradual unraveling of that lie garners only a fraction of the coverage.
Many reasons for this: even true stories are often disputed as a means of defense, so readers must weigh motives for denials. Plus, there is no marketing value in stories such as “Once Again No Aliens Have Landed.”
So WaPo, NYT and other complicit news outlets have no incentive to begrudgingly admit they were duped or deliberately hyped false stories. Plus it makes them look bad. No one likes to apologize or admit they were wrong, much less evil. So there is a huge asymmetry in the Big Lie process. The Lie gets headlines and is rewarded, the subsequent collapse is merely an embarrassing admission of failure or stupidity (or worse).
One reason Trump was elected is that more than a few sober citizens in the US have seen the lack of clothes on the Media Emperor. Cynicism of the “mainstream media” is epidemic. And biased or outright fabricated “news” continues to feed skepticism.
Welcome to the former USSR: where anything published as news was generally regarded as a lie. This is now trending in the USA. Rightly so.
Your comment (well written muggles) made me think of a somewhat analogous situation that in nature, mimicry; and how evolution deals with it. In a way lies, which take on the features you discuss, can only go so far before the credibility (the mimic) is identified and exploited. With humans information transfer is instantaneous – so it’ll be interesting to see how long they can maintain this ‘lie up front’ approach. Theoretically it could collapse quickly – but likely will depend on how tight the choke hold really is.
The establishment media is rotten to the core. Rotten I tell you: rotten to the core. America is in deep, deep trouble. There is no actual journalism anymore, at least not when it comes to the interests of the United States. Rotten to the core. I am speaking from what I know as a retired journalist.
Utter crap as usual from Greenwald.
Anyone who asserts his opinion without offering a shred of evidence to back it up must be highly susceptible to believing false news.
Can you elaborate? Calling someone out without backing up your claim does nothing to help your case. It leads readers to assumptions that, more than likely, end up false.
I think we have a name for that…
Well, now–cyberattacks are a federal crime, aren’t they? Wouldn’t the FBI investigate, especially if the DNC thought it was the Russians doing it? The FBI states it never investigated the DNC servers. Instead, the DNC hired a private outfit, Crowdstrike. And were only concerned about it all after HRC lost the election.
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/05/hmmm-fbi-never-examined-dnc-servers/
fact: it was the DNC that hired crowdstrike to evaluate the hack. mention of crowdstrike as some legitimate independent or federally recognized outfit was conflated by the press to the extreme…either lazily, or not, it another example of poor reporting..or rather carefully prepared narratives.
The Intercepts Micah Lee Thinks The Russian’s Hacked Our Democracy – The Intercepts Glenn Greenwald Explains Why We Shouldn’t Believe Him
Pretty funny! My feelings exactly.
“Perhaps the worst one was the facially ridiculous, pre-election Slate story — which multiple outlets (including The Intercept) had been offered but passed on — […]”
Could you explain how that goes ? Is it just about money or is it more of an ICIJ-like collab ? And how often do you resort to it ?
Let’s see how much time CNN invests in exploring why they are paying an ex CIA talking head who called Assange a pedophile.
Is the claim shared by (All 17!!!) intel agencies???? because that would convince Micah Lee!!!
Don’t you hate it when accusations of pedophilia just “slip out” of Ex-CIA agents on live TV!!!
One thing Assange is guilty of is not giving short, snappy sound bite answers. He speaks as if he’s talking to adults.
Donna Brazile, Robert Reich ( And I LIKE Bob) – many others in the DNC – TRY telling them that they cannot run against the GOP as long as they are trying to BE the GOP and see how far you get. From sucking up to Lobbyists like lamprey eels to the widespread dismissal of Grass Roots efforts, the DNC is little more than a hollow shell. No one in the Heartland has the patience for a complex argument and the Dems feel they should only have to point out how awful those mean old Corporations are and the job is done all the while putting up money grubbing Cronies like Hillary. Feinstein? Schumer? More of the same.
The essential problem is that you can’t say government is a solution when government is corrupt. The GOP have no problems with this – they are the party of limited government and the wealthy and a vast majority know this – but they enjoy hanging it over the Democrats because it is the Democrats that are asking people to trust the government to run things.
Thank you. Almost all Norwegian newspapers have mistakenly reporter same, using WP as source. When made aware of the error, they have only made small amendments to their articles. In other words, the original article has reached hundred of thousands of readers.
Thank you very much for this article – for clearing the corruption. Corrupt Democrats are the same as Corrupt Republicans, in these cases Corrupt is the noun and the party name the adjective. Thank You, Mr. Greenwald (Muyto Obrigado)
this is a switch.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/21/clintons-democratic-party-donors-recover
somebody looks to be repositioning themselves after the unfortunate election results.
Democracy Now! this morning: Glenn Greenwald on “Dearth of Evidence” Linking Russia to WikiLeaks Release of DNC Emails
In which he brushes off the fact that Murray and Assange deny that Russia was the source of the leaks. Why?
1. I heard no mention of Craig Murray; and
2. Greenwald pointed out only that Assange has duty to protect his source and his claims should be assessed with that in mind.
Not that I think it likely Assange would lie for that reason. It would do too much damage to his own credibility if and when strong evidence of the Russian government’s involvement should emerge.
Don’t you get it ? As is the case for the N.-Korea/Sony hack, no such evidence will ever emerge. Because, supposing there is any, making it public would lift the veil on some of the intel agencies’ tools and methods.
As for Assange, he twice specifically denied in Hannity’s shows the Russian government (or any governmental source, for that matter) was the source Wikileaks has been in contact with. He also repeatedly said that, for various reasons, hacking into Mr. Pizzaman’s account was childsplay to begin with. From this we can infer at least three things :
1/ Either Wikileaks can track any and all of its supposedly anonymous sources, or Assange is personally connected to the hacker, and maybe he even oversaw the whole thing (in which case the source he’s claiming to protect is also himself);
2/ The person who delivered the documents to Wikileaks is not necessarily the one who hacked Podesta’s and the DNC’s accounts;
3/ The person who hacked them is not necessarily employed by the Russian government.
Hey I just got a great idea for a new Stephen King novel about a group of fearless god fearing Intercept commenters fighting for their lives against a hive of lying intellectually challenged ever lurking like minded discussion board succubuses bent on sucking the life out of every substantive exchange…
“The Blithering”
“I heard no mention of Craig Murray . . ”
Yes, exactly. And he has stated that the emails were leaked by disgruntled democrats at the DNC. So why focus only on Assange?
You’d have to ask Gelnn, but I also wouldn’t bring up Murray. There’s no confirmation of that and it’s just too tentative, based only on his word.
“it’s just too tentative, based only on his word”
Well, so far, it’s the closest thing to actual evidence available. Are we to weigh this equally against the word of James Clapper, etc? If not, there’s really no story at all yet.
– I’m talking about social injustice here, and you’re talking about tiny bathrooms. I need my own space, John.
– Oh come on, not this again.
– Yes, and we’re gonna keep talking about it until you talk to the captain.
– I talked to the captain…
– What’s she saying ?
– She says you’re city property; you have to be supervised, even when you’re off duty, okay… That’s just the way it is. I’m sorry, I tried.
– What about your place ?
– My place ?
– Huh huh
– What about my place ?
– With the backroom
– No, no no no, that’s my trophy room
– Your what ?
– Yeah, that’s my trophy room.
– That was high school, man. Time to move on. Time to grow up.
– Easy for you to say, you weren’t ‘all city’ three years in a row.
– All what ?
– All city, three years running. Man, when you walk into that gym today, you look up on the rafters, and all my records are still up there. Single season passing yards : Kennex, 3256. Most touchdowns in school history : Kennex.
– Brags about himself : Kennex.
– Come on, can’t I relive a few glory days ?
– That’s all you’ve got left, might as well.
– Oh, I can still hear those crowds : Ken-nex, Ken-nex. I was fast, you should’ve seen me. They used to call me the white Cheetah, on the count of the fact I was so fast. Rrrrrrr… Hey, they used to call me the white Cheetah on the count of the fact that I was so fast. Like Chee-tah, Chee-tah…
Another remarkable demonstration of Glenn’s ability to organize and deliver cogent explication, analysis and argument, on the fly, while speaking extemporaneously.
Notice, also, how he avoids Amy’s probably-subconscious tendency to take the conversation in partisan directions, instead keeping it focused on the heart of the matter.
He’s extraordinarily gifted in that regard. In high school he won the state debating championship. Then spent four years in college dazzling them oin the debate team — George Washington U is very proud of their alumni.
I was on a state-champion debate team. If Glenn had been first-up for an opponent at one of the contests, our coach would have left the building and gone on a drinking binge.
So far their smear campaign has little effect. The MSM has lost all credibility and they face a guy who has the balls to put them back in their place. After all he has 45 millions followers on TWTR not 1,000 retweets. I hope this last.
GG and Scahill have pointed readers to a critical piece by Erik Wempole that is hosted on the Washington Post website itself.
I want to share an inadvertently hilarious coming from a commenter called: “the-iconoclast”
———————————-
” Erik, isn’t there a far greater issue at stake than just fake news? Ask yourself, why did voters decide that building a wall instead of breaking up banks, universal health care and access to higher education was the right prescription for the 2016 elections?
Publications like the Post play an important role in setting the agenda for the American public. This past Tuesday, when NY Governor Cuomo announced his plan to make higher education free for families earning less than $125,000, the Post buried the story and instead had front page features on Ivanka Trump’s house hunting and a controversy concerning band selection for Trump’s inauguration prominently featured on the front page. What the Post covers, as much as what it reports, is in dire need or recalculation. Is this whole Russia question really the issue that our country ought to be passionately debating today? ”
—————-
This is such a masterpiece of theatrical handwringing. Is this what we should be talking about right now, Erik? I mean sure, it is the Washington Post who are keeping the fake news story, and the Russian interference story, in the news as much as possible, not you. But does that mean you should talk about it? Why you are just keeping this story in the news, Erik! Let’s not debate this any more Erik!
The best thing is that this is the kind of stuff people write when the narrative is slipping away from them…….
Maybe I’m being a bit dense, but the comment seemed perfectly reasonable to me. Ultimately, given publicly available facts at this point in time, all one can really conclude on the source of the e-mail hacks is, “Who knows..?” Between the gross propaganda and journalistic sensationalism, is it not worth asking whether there are more worthwhile stories to cover? The commenter offers a great jumping-off point for a story or few in the second line. You seem to be implicitly accusing this person of being an insider, agenda-setter, when he actually comes off as an everyday Joe, puzzled like so many how our news media has gone from deplorable to worse.
Yeah, I didn’t get why Vic is so put off by that comment. I don’t read it as admonishing Eric Wempole not to write about WaPo’s journalistic sins where Russia hysteria is concerned. Rather I read it as advocating that a proper analysis should include the fact of issues that are not covered (prominently) instead of all this Russia/Putin madness.
Erik Wempole is the author of this follow up article about Vermon Russia hacking the Power Grid story.
The commenter is saying Erik is not responsible, yet Erik is writing the Utility followup story, thus, keeping it in the news.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/01/04/washington-post-cites-discussions-aimed-at-preventing-recurrence-of-vermont-utility-story/
By this criteria Glenn Greenwald is keeping it in the news too, Galactus. By this criteria you are keeping it in the news just by commenting about it.
Are you suggesting the best way to deal with big lies is to ignore them?
I’m amazed that anyone commenting here can’t smell obvious Correct-The-Record type deflection.
Let’s start with the opening sentence of this comment. Everybody remembers how Hillary Clinton ran on “breaking up banks and universal health care” right? How could we not have supported her against Trump, you know?
The commenter opines that Erik Wempole should stop writing about how badly the Washington Post is spreading this Russian stuff and how the Washington Post refuses to . This is an interesting time to stop talking about it, is it not? Given that the conversation has barely started? Convenient for those who want this Russian hacking story to not get busted, that is.
Has no one here noticed that GG & Scahill & Taibbi’s twitter feeds keep featuring these people who say, just like the commenter I quoted, variations on “hey now people let’s keep our eye on the ball here and focus on how bad Trump is not this Russian story.” None of these people wrote things like this when the Russian story was being spread. All of a sudden it looks like things won’t go their way. Time to change the subject.
And give me a break on what the commenter wants substituted: a story about that good thing Cuomo did?
Did everybody forget Cuomo’s disgusting veto the other day? Do you see the commenter calling for more coverage of that?
The commenter is doing the usual apologist centrist lib script here. Reconsider your objections to my objections.
On the Micah Lee controversy, where he shares his faith in the official Government claim, but backs that up with nothing…yes that does stand out from the rest of the article.
It is a question of perspective, If you are not a political junkie, if your interaction with the US government is the day to day, trains run on time stuff, then yeah….why would you doubt Obama’s government?
But if you have been following the multiple assassination attempts against Castro, South American nuns being murdered, Guantanamo, WMD, Gulf of Tomkin, then, believing the public statements of “All 17!!! US intelligence agencies appears foolish.
And the goal posts have moved, haven’t they? It was not too long ago that the Snowden revelations of NSA mass spying were met with: “What’s the big deal? All governments spy!!”
Now apparently, this one incident of spying is a Pearl Harbour level attack on the Free world.
The truth is, The Russians, the Chinese, others have very good reasons to spy on America’s government. From the mundane to the concern that the US is preparing a Pearl Harbour level military attack of their own.
But back to “all 17” US agencies. I’m sure that Obama receives very good information privately from them. But the decision to publicly damage Trump by claiming the Russians caused him is a public and political act of the US government under Obama.
Imagine the following scenario, all 17 (no let’s make it 500!!) All 500 of the departments of the Russian secret service tell the NYT that the moon is made of cheese. Is that 500 times more credible than if only one dept under Putin declared that.
The organogram of the secret service of the US doesn’t add any credibility, whether they are 17 departments all saying Saddam has WMD, and should be killed, or its 1700 departments. They all report to Cheney.
Now does the US government lie about everything? No. If they lied about everything, nobody would have believed the WMD lies, would they. But if Micah Lee feels that they are telling the truth this time, based on a gut feeling, that’s his right.
Let’s just not invade another country over it, OK?
In Micah’s case, he should doubt it because he is supposed to be a tech expert and absolutely no evidence that should convince a disinterested techie has yet been presented.
Excellent article, Glenn.
Washington Post continues their slide into oblivion:
https://twitter.com/WaPoExpress/status/817033081089564673
In a New York Times article this morning, Scott Shane hits the nail on the head (“Trump and Julian Assange, an Unlikely Pair, Unite to Sow Hacking Doubts” http://nyti.ms/2hUu941):
“……..Mr. Assange would like to counter the impression that WikiLeaks made itself a passive tool for the geopolitical machinations of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Trump would like to erase the impression that he got Russian help in defeating Mrs. Clinton…….”
Both Putin and Assange opposed the election of HRC. Whether they collaborated or not, or even if Assange knew the hacked emails came from Russia are interesting (and credible) questions. The credibility of Assange already has taken a big hit because he clearly intended to influence the election by undermining HRC. Indeed, if it was shown that he worked with Russia – a country propping up one of the biggest mass murderers in the world today and invading Eastern Ukraine to project Russian interests – the US probably could credibly arrest him since this would hardly fall in the category of whistle blowing (by the Russian government). Maybe his release of the emails is more akin to espionage in that case?
So Assange is going out of his way to promote the narrative that the emails were not given to him by the Russian government.
i opposed the election of hrc, along with the majority of american who did not vote for her. i felt it was not in my interests, and the emails helped me see that. i am so grateful for transparency and julian assange. and yet, i did not collaborate with wikileaks.
we don’t know what was hacked and what was leaked. we don’t know if scott shane is collaborating with the clinton campaign to undermine american democracy, but this is an interesting and credible question.
Seth Rich LEAKED the DNC files. Nice attempt there, kiddo. Keep hittin the head of that nail….into a single plank that has no purpose other than the have nails hit into it by those who lost control of the narrative. Hammer away!
Craig , thanks to you I just made a donation to Wikileaks…..I guess this makes me a Russian agent !
wait maybe craig is a russian agent? a fiendishly clever one who inveigled you into donating to wikileaks.
I for one believe in the authenticity of craig, pretzelattack. Nobody would fake being that dull.
“Russia – a country propping up one of the biggest mass murderers in the world today. . .” – craigsummers
Only a right-wing whack job would claim Russia is propping-up Obama.
“…….Craig , thanks to you I just made a donation to Wikileaks…..I guess this makes me a Russian agent !……”
There are a lot of people that disregard the abuse of power by Julian Assange when it is in their political interest – like many hypocritical Republicans, for example. In your case, you might not have cared either way who won the election, but support Assange’s role in exposing government corruption. Personally, I didn’t vote for either one – even though I’m a Republican,
Thanks.
Oh sh craig, look, I found the evidence pothead Americans invaded Eastern Ukraine, on Obama’s orders no less, so that constitutes an official US Invasion!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh4NRZ9K5K4&t=755s
Yeah, the MSM can be very sloppy and biased. Just look at the horrible coverage of Israel, where they constantly make retractions that are too little too late, like this one: “[AFP] has retracted its video claiming that a ‘Gaza village flooded as Israel opens dam gates,’ and has published a comprehensive article confirming that ‘no such dam exists in Israel’.”
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=147&x_article=2955
The biased reporting on Israel was what originally resulted in me challenging MSM narratives: A lie so big, so obvious, and so biased will draw most Americans capable of independent and critical thought to think: “if they are obviously lying about Israel and Palestine, what else are they lying about?”
In other news, it appears as if Donald Trump has stopped being orange.
– and concerning the IQ test –
Why would anybody in anyway want to give the impression that he or she is in anyway thinking or expressing or associating in any way or form the same thoughts, believes or ideas or even words like a F…face von Clownstick?
Besides Jackie Evancho?
Don’t you know that having the same believes that F…face von Clownstick renders you extremely… ‘uncool’.
And being ‘uncool’ – let me tell’ya is far, far worst than being an ‘early adherent of alt-right ideology’ or an ‘avid fan of Breitbart’ or a ‘Kremlin operative’.
Being ‘uncool’ means the uber-endof any career!
-(poliical or otherwise!)
This has been the problem with the whole Trump becoming president. His louder than life voice followed by the press sensationalism. Instead of poking fun sarcasim disbelief. They wound up giving him recognition and more ad space than the story itself
Given such a far reach, one might ask which is institution would be more menaced by false information — the Washington Post or the Office of President of the United States. One is a private business sifting through news of the world, the other is a public position sifting through news of the world with the power to act upon false or mistaken information.
Sure, fake news is as bad as when Jon Stewart devoted 120 minutes a week to exactly and explicitly for almost two decades. Fake news is old news. Ask WR Herast about that.
Sometimes I wonder about the ability of people to follow the bouncing ball.
So here’s a test.
IQ tests often carry some sort of “which does not belong among … “. (e.g., for a toddler, “orange, banana, apple, skyscraper:.for a middle schooler: Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Pit Bull, Taylor Swift: )
I wonder if any of the brilliant people here at The Intercept can answer this “which does not belong among …” question of Trump appointments.
A. Kelly Ann Conway
B. Corey Lewandowski
C. Jeff Sessions
D. Steve Bannon
E. Rick Perry
F. Ben Carson
G. Betsy DeVos
H. Elaine Chao
I. Rex Tillerson.
Which does not belong.
(Don’t read any further until you have an answer if you want to play along.)
.
.
.
Anyone want a hint?
.
.
.
Only one has no political experience. Only one isn’t part of the regular line up of rightwing talkers, Only one has received a medal from Vladmir Putin. Only one is total surprise.
No takers?
Too bad.
I suppose for some, straw is better than clover as long as they don’t have to expend too much energy. That’s what the cud is for — to conserve energy by masking hunger.
The answer to the “which does not belong among …” question is Rex Tillerson.
Why bring this up in an article about how richly rewarded the Washington Post is for fakeynews?
Because one, a curious one, might wonder about how richly a Trump presidency rewards Russia (and Putin). If the WP gets criticized for imputed motives, isn’t it fair to impute about the motives of others who have a history of misrepresentation?
I hope the implication here doesn’t sound too fakeynewsyish for all the purists out in the pastures.
Tillerson as Secretary of State represents a huge win/win/win for ExxonMobil, Trump and Vladmir Putin. (Use the Google machine.)
I’m not even with the CIA or the Washiington Post.
Fancy that.
Greenwald is one of the few remaining trustworthy journalists. So few in this era care about truth, and instead are advancing an agenda. He’s a valuable resource.
It’s too bad — newspapers are fading enough and have become irrelevant. This shows how desperate they have become.
Back in 2003, during the run up to the invasion of the Iraq, there were a lot of naysayers who thought it was a bad idea. Being ignorant in the realities of war, I firmly supported GWB’s disastrous decision to invade a country that hadn’t attacked the US. I admit I was a fool for supporting this illegal action. Now it seems those same people who largely (and correctly) protested the invasion and occupation of Iraq are acting the exact same way I did back in 2003. They’re almost begging for a new Cold War. I guess partisanship can make fools of us all.
the post was gung ho on the iraq war. they loved the fake news about iraqi wmds, just as the new york times did. clinton supported it, too, and some of the same people who helped engineer iraq supported clinton.
Joseph Goebbels would be proud.
People don’t care about the truth. We easily believe anything that supports our world view and as easily disregard anything that don’t. Critical thinking is just too hard and time consuming.
Very lengthy story for a simple issue. .. WAPO is a low end propaganda rag that has devolved into a sewage company.
More on the legal system (you know, evidence and all that). From the Guardian story about four black guys arrested for beating up a possibly mentally challenged white guy who might have been a Trump supporter:
Why even go to to the courts where at least some evidence might be required? Let’s just let the CPD handle investigation, arrest, and punishment. It is so much simpler, especially when you put the emphasis on the last of the three.
Well, there is the facebook video. That’s pretty damning evidence right there. But yes, of course the case will go to court. Since the victim was mentally disabled, I don’t see how this isn’t classified as a hate crime. Will the DOJ step in?
The best advice today is to not believe a word from the MSM or any professional Politician. Professional Politicians are no more than LEECHES, who have learned to LIE and Deceive the taxpayer to suck more money from their pockets. And the MSM is so desperate that they have sold their souls to the NWO and post Lies, Fake News, and False Flags to help out the true Tyrants, the professional Politicians, hoping to be a kickback for their tyranny. Just like many RINOs took money from Clinton to push the Russia Hacking Lies.
http://endingthefed.com/6-republicans-who-took-secret-payments-from-clinton-to-destroy-trump-all-new-wiki-leak.html#.WGdbkIlUy1U.facebook
By law which took effect in 2013, the government is allowed to deceive the American people with deceptive propaganda
In 2012-2013, Congress approved the domestic deceptive propaganda. This is why Wikileaks exists today. What the MSM can no longer deliver (the TRUTH and credible news), Wikileaks can deliver to the American people.
The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 passed Congress as part of the NDAA 2013 on December 28, 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAYhgUlwo2M
The NDAA Legalizes The Use Of Propaganda On The US Public
http://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5
How the NDAA Allows US Gov to Use Propaganda Against Americans
https://www.occupycorporatism.com/how-the-ndaa-allows-us-gov-to-use-propaganda-against-americans/
NDAA 2013: Congress approves domestic deceptive propaganda
https://www.rt.com/usa/propaganda-us-smith-amendment-903/
NDAA legalizes Government Propaganda on American people via mainstream media and social media.
http://worldwide.chat/NDAA_Legalizes_Government_Propaganda/uWNXUiLSIwM.video
great post!
They are using scientology-alinsky smear tactics against GG….. Its what they do…..
Can somebody name any Wapo, NYT and CNN journalist not embedded with one of the 17US intelligence services ?
Excellent question.
Please ? This wasn’t supposed to be a rhetorical question.
Wrong question. You should have asked if anyone knows even a single mainstream journalist that isn’t in someone’s pocket.
Can somebody name any Wapo, NYT and CNN journalist not embedded with one of the 17US intelligence services ?
That is a loaded question. Can you name grant-winnig european journos that got an “let us show you America” offer in private, that are not embedded either? If there was an answer, what difference does it make. Some agendas are passed through “credible unnamed sourses”, some are passed tet-a-tet down the editorial hierarchy, some ideas filtered by education system, some tabooed by the “ettiquette” and are out of discourse. People are actually believing in what they do.
In europe people are not stuck with democrats vs republicans and Liberty vs the barbarians mindset. But there are rivalling projects that are passed through generations, and there are families, that remember grudges of 500 years past like it was just now.
We will be always be captured in this whether we like it or not.
To name just three Europeans that might interest you: Paul Moreira (Fr-Portugal) , Gianfranco Rosi ( It ) and Paul Scheffer ( Nl ). Their work might interest you ?
Ah, now I see what you meant. Yeah I’m aquainted with some of their works. Pretty nice. Are they bashed as Putin’s friends/ultra-rights?
I was talking about major outlets, ngo exchanges, and the ability to prove/dispove alleged connections.
No one likely gets far in any of those organizations unless they enthusiastically toe the line delineated by their editors/producers. It is the generally corrupt modern corporate world, where ass-kissing and promoting organizational edicts, without inconvenient ethical tendencies getting in the way, is how you climb the mountain. Years of this has produced leadership that has no real character- the people of character are despised, because they make the shits think for a moment that they may actually be shits, not the wonderfully brilliant and accomplished people they think they are, which they are constantly reminded of by their scummy lackeys, who know that one day they may get to be the king shit and have all the other turds worshiping them. Character is a reverse barometer of success these days in such organizations. It is also the foundation of our rotten political system, which requires plutocrat/oligarch boot-licking to get ahead. Few truly high character, independent minded people would ever do what is required to climb to the top of that dung heap. Btw, who elects one of the most powerful positions in this country, the cable news producer? Oh, and to reply to your question, you are going to be lost looking in those places. Only choices I see are FAIR and here, along with very critical examination of numerous other outlets. And don’t trust feeds like Google News to be unbiased, I have been unpleasantly surprised at how something with such (relatively) dispirite sources can be very slanted anyway.
THANK YOU SO MUCH Mr. Greenwald. You not only gift us with eloquent words describing exactly what we already know, and think; you PROVE it, using an undeniable gift. Much respect, gratitude, and loyalty to you.
It’s too bad critical thinking/logic, and maybe philosophy, aren’t required K-12 courses.
This is how a once reputable newspaper loses its credibility, its trust and its readership ~ the lesson for all news sources should be that once you’ve lost the people this way, it’s very difficult to get them back, and that a quick buck by way of ratings grab isn’t worth such long term damage … `The second story on the electric grid turned out to be far worse than I realized when I wrote about it on Saturday, when it became clear that there was no “penetration of the U.S. electricity grid” as the Post had claimed. In addition to the editor’s note, the Russia-hacked-our-electric-grid story now has a full-scale retraction in the form of a separate article admitting that “the incident is not linked to any Russian government effort to target or hack the utility” and there may not even have been malware at all on this laptop. But while these debacles are embarrassing for the paper, they are also richly rewarding. That’s because journalists — including those at the Post — aggressively hype and promote the original, sensationalistic false stories, ensuring that they go viral, generating massive traffic for the Post (the paper’s executive editor, Marty Baron, recently boasted about how profitable the paper has become). After spreading the falsehoods far and wide, raising fear levels and manipulating U.S. political discourse in the process (both Russia stories were widely hyped on cable news), journalists who spread the false claims subsequently note the retraction or corrections only in the most muted way possible, and often not at all. As a result, only a tiny fraction of people who were exposed to the original false story end up learning of the retractions.`
Of course the solution is to put all the retractions on the front page in big type. Or, better yet, proofread, fact-check and double-check in advance.
It should be called The Washington Post-Truth.
Of course two things can be true at once: that the Washpo and others are guilty of terrible journalism, and that Russia behaves in all sorts of indefensible ways. It’s a pity that the former distracts so much attention from the latter.
Upon which “indefensible” Russian behaviors do you want to focus attention? Please let us know and be sure to provide evidence.
Yes, I would like evidence, too. The problem also is that even if people see the retractions of these ridiculous stories, Russia is still floating around in their brains much more than usual and they are casting eyes of distrust and suspicion at a country that has not only not been belligerent to us, but also has instead been the target of our aggression via NATO and other means. If we were to announce war with Russia tomorrow, a lot of Americans would believe it totally justified. Russia’s power relative to us has been greatly exaggerated by all this bullshit.
If it weren’t for the facts that WE are the ones bombing anyone we feel like across the globe, engaging in torture, letting police kill our black citizens with impunity, keeping prisoners in GITMO, breaking treaties with Native Americans to lay waste to the environment for profit, and so on and so on and so on, we might actually have the moral authority to speak out, for example, against Putin’s autocratic ways and the appalling treatment of the LGBT community in Russia, but we don’t.
A part of this dynamic that no one seems to mention is that when we use our power to isolate, undermine, and propagandize countries like Russia (as, for example, we have done to some in South America), the pressure creates internal tensions that lead to increased authoritarianism and decreased freedoms such as freedom of the press.
Another way we spread “democracy” across the world, I guess.
“kill our black citizens with impunity” Ha, I had a good laugh at that one. Looks like the falsehoods extend even into the comments section.
You must live under a rock.
Great comment. It reminds me of how other insular groups (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientology, for example) misunderstand the efficacy of ostracization.
Just as things don’t become proven without scrutiny, relationships don’t auto-magically get better because you exclude someone from the discussion.
Here’s quite a good summary:
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2016/russia
Sorry Peter, but based on the link you provided, Freedom House is either incompetent or has an agenda against Russia. The whole report falls apart in the first paragraph. They fail to mention that only Russia (and Iran) are in Syria legally by request of the legitimate government in Damascus. As a side note, the United States and it’s allies are in Syria illegally.
They also qualify Western backed terrorists (al Qaeda, ISIS, etc) consisting primarily of foreigners as the “opposition”. Technically they are the opposition, but they are also human beings. It would be correct if I said Assad was bombing human beings, but it would strip out so much context that it would render it useless.
At that I point I quickly skimmed through it until I ran across their reference to the National Endowment for Democracy. If you are involved with Freedom House, you are obviously familiar with the NED. If you are not, do yourself a favor and find an impartial summary of the NED.
In any case, thank you for providing the link. I wasn’t aware of them and I do have a thing for compiling propaganda organizations.
Freedom House is an organ of the neoliberal elite including past board members Paul Wolfowitz and fucking Donald Rumsfeld. It is listed in Manufacturing Consent as excessively criticizing states opposed to US interests while being unduly sympathetic to regimes supporting US interests.
I still see no evidence for Russian aggression against us.
And btw, Freedom House gives the US a score of 15 out of 16 on civil liberties! HA HA HA HA! What did they take off one point for? The minor matter of habeas corpus?
Rumsfeld is a neoliberal? lol And since when did russia become our friends?
Hey, huh, you gotta know the terminology if you want to talk politics.
Peter, Peter, I’m no Putin fan; he’s too autocratic for my taste. But “Freedom House,” really? Now, let’s take a look at part of their indictment:
I changed only one word in that; “Putin” became “the President.” And with that we see how perfectly Freedom House describes the United States.
They also give Israel extremely high marks for freedom! Israel!
FH is nothing but a propaganda mill. I would never cite them other than ironically or to prove their hackishness.
And it should be something the USA has never never done. Otherwise it becomes defensible.
Thanks for writing this. I’ve been a big fan of your work since you had your own blog. Your “problem” is you rightly look at everything through the same critical lens. Keep up the good work.
Jonathan Turley: The Washington Post and The Crackdown On Fake News: Recent Controversy Raises Question Of How Alleged “Fake News” Will Be Sanctioned
While I strongly disagree with Turley’s sympathy for what he claims is WaPo’s understandable “mistake,” his larger point is important, my emphasis:
Mr. Turley is deeply confused. As the headline in this article makes clear, what the Washington Post publishes is ‘false news’. This has no relationship to ‘fake news’ although the terms are confusingly similar. The key point to remember is that fake news does nothing to advance the US government’s agenda and quite rightfully should be suppressed. False news on the other hand, advances the right agenda, but simply dispenses with the facts while doing so. This is a perfectly legitimate activity, which while perhaps not meriting a Pulitzer prize, does constitute protected free speech.
True, dat. Our courts have held that they will not rule on what is “political truth.” It’s not their role to find political statements to be either true or false for purposes of meriting First Amendment protection.
Fake deadly news, Americas responsibility:
9/11
War on terror.
You are murdering us, when are you going to stop!?!
Greenwald is mainstream-controlled-opposition. The fact that he used Marty Baron’s tweet on pizzagate as ‘fake’ news, without any qualifiers, tells me all I need to know.
Pizzagate isn’t fake; just as the Franklin Cover-up isn’t fake, just as the Savile case isn’t fake, just as the Marc Dutroux case isn’t fake, just as the Reagan/Bush White House male prostitute story isn’t fake, just as Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert pedo case isn’t fake, just as the Epstein orgy island pedo story isn’t fake, just as the McMartin Preschool case isn’t fake, just as the Presidio case isn’t fake, just as CIA Finders case isn’t fake, just as the West Point day care case isn’t fake, etc.
No, what’s fake is Greenwald’s legitimacy.
Pizzagate is utter bullshit. Your invocation of the McMartin preschool case, however, is apt — it shows how dangerous baseless moral panics can be to civil liberties and human well-being.
Careful there Mona. You’re hyperventilating.
Careful there Mona, you’re hyperventilating.
The world stand in horror watching how America have become a land of stupidity and lies. American terror and war is murdering human kind based on the most laughable bullshit ever told, and dumbass ameritards play along without thinking twice.
America is the bane of humanity, please leave the rest of the world alone.
From your instructive writing I can tell you are a fine projectionist of your own reality as well! Chew on it a little ….
You’ve mixed up things for which there is evidence (the Jimmy Saville child molestations saw many people come forward with stories of their abuse at his hands, for example) with stories for which there is none.
Jumping from that conflation of fact-and-likely-fiction to “Greenwald’s legitimacy is fake” is verbal acrobatics of a truly bizarre kind.
Mixing fact with fiction is the hallmark of a sophisticated propagandist, but it has to be executed more slickly than this “Jo.”
Good point, and it’s really food for thought regarding “fake news.” One of my dad’s more unpleasant friends once told me the key to his sales success was getting people to agree with him on a few things, and then slip in the crucial deal-making lie while they were nodding “yes.” But he knew not to be too transparent about it, and was indeed more “slick” than his competitors in that. More professional media outlets probably do this more than people recognize, particularly in framing situations benefiting the establishment.
That’s a really good point, and it gets more complicated determining what is correct when you have writers/journalists/techs such as Micah Lee writing pieces at places like The Intercept about disproving obsessive Russian involvement in visits to his personal blog (an argument that seemed legitimate) then being commingled with the assertion (based on their authority as a technology expert tech at The Intercept and elsewhere) that Russia likely was responsible for manipulating the US election.
In this case I’m not claiming that Micah is trying to make that case surreptitiously (it’s certainly not done convincingly) by adding that personal opinion, but what it does do is muddy the waters and provide legitimacy for something where, using Micah’s own words, “the evidence presented is evidence of nothing at all.”
Pizzagate is fake and Alex Jones is a fraud.
I defy any of you to explain the bizarre emails of billionaire Herb Sandler and his daughter Susan to John Podesta. Nobody has claimed Wikileaks or the Russians falsified them. I submit that much of the #FakeNews hysteria is a coordinated diversionary response to these inexplicable code messages. When you have the founder of the CAP implicated, leftists close ranks, period. Also, if you don’t know of what I write – consider yourself too uninformed to opine, and consider a nice cup of shut up until you aren’t.
As deplorable and reprehensible as I find the media’s conduct to be, I think we, the consumers, also must examine how our own choices and actions contribute to the decline of journalistic integrity. We shun any news story that does not support our world view and unquestioningly (gleefully) share stories that attack our “enemies.”
Today’s landscape was decades in the making and is the result of a mutually complicit public-corporate partnership where journalism is merely one more form of entertainment. There is no profitable business model for the fourth estate to function as a truly independent check on power.
Unless we’re willing to choose substance over sensational drivel and insight over celebrity scandals, our future is bleak. The “fake news” model is profitable and there are no consequences for corporate media to engage in it. Story after story gets debunked and there’s no outcry from consumers — so where’s the market incentive to do better?
If integrity in journalism is important, then we must let news agencies know and we must hold them accountable when they break our trust.
The hacking related anti-Russia hysteria propaganda virus is spreading –
Exclusive: IP address at Ontario power utility linked to alleged Russian hacking
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/exclusive-ip-address-at-ontario-power-utility-linked-to-alleged-russian-hacking-1.3226290
‘The first casualty of war is truth’
Once again Glenn you’ve written an excellent, lucid, and well reasoned article. You provide many great examples, yet this sentence really stood out above the rest:
“As the grand media failure of 2002 demonstrated, American journalists are highly susceptible to fueling and leading the parade in demonizing a new Foreign Enemy rather than exerting restraint and skepticism in evaluating the true nature of that threat.”
The dissemination of false information by the “trustworthy” MSM is an essential tactic in the pre-emptive perpetual warfare strategy. It is obvious when looking back at the Iraq debacle and it is now ominously confronting all Americans as McCain, Lindsey Graham, and the Democrat propagandists whom are all in bed with one another try forge a future for us that involves the prospect of nuclear war with Russia. Yet there is another example the epitomizes the very point that you are making, whose evolution of events receives little scrutiny. That example is Syria.
In 2005 the former Prime Minister of Lebanon was assassinated in an explosion. At the time reports stated that the explosive devices used were so high tech that the assignation couldn’t have been carried out Hezballah, but had to have been carried out sophisticated institution like a state military. Quickly the media blamed Assad. Before any evidence was provided implicating Syria the international community and popular protests in Lebanon were demanding Syria withdrawal its troops from Lebanon, which had been under occupation by Syrian forces since the break of the Israeli war against Lebanon. Assad stated that Syrian troops were only in Lebanon to protect the country from invasion from Israel. Yet Assad quickly responded to pressure and withdrew from Lebanon. One year later, in 2006 after Syrian troops had withdrawn, Israel invaded Lebanon. Israel’s pretenses for the bombing of Lebanon were widely promoted by the media (ie the kidnapping of soldiers), yet when those very pretenses were latter challenged, by none other than the families of the Israeli soldiers that died, the media was non-existant in its coverage of the duplicitous pre-tenses for war. The media also conviently ignored the part it played in creating the popular sentiment necessary for the war by laying blame on Assad for the assignation of a former Lebanese statesman. Later the media uncritically accused Assad of using chemical weapons against his own people, which almost lead America to directly enter the Syrian war to over throw Assad. Due to public pressure in Britian and Russian diplomacy we never officially enter that war (although we did so clandestinely as reported by Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books). Yet the shocking tidbit lost in all this is that Assad was know to posses chemical weapons, yet when Russia brokered a deal to destroy those stock piles, they were sent to a lab to the U.K. which showed that Assad’s chemical weapons did not match those used against Syrian civilians. Once again the media was silent in reporting this very important information. Instead they helped foster a war and ignore or are silent in publishing information that contradicts their initial reactionary inaccurate reporting.
So once again we see the same play book in action. Grave and menacing accusations are made to incite wars and when those initial accusation turn out to be false, they are under reported leaving many misinformed and occasionally many dead from a war.
The solution is simiple, the American public needs to ignore those who engaged in this behavior in the past, demand evidence of wrong doing when serious accusations are made against a country and wait until thorough investigations are undertaken before considering war. We need to be weary of actions that illicit war cries for immediate misplaced reactions.
Great post Mark!
Posting false stories are dangerous, actually anyone spreading lies when it comes to government, should be shamed in public.
I read in a EU online newspaper that 2 French agents reported that Iraq did in fact have WMD’S. Seemed they manufactured this, saying they thought the USA and UK would eventually find out.
Wish I still had the link to this story, but it’s on a long gone laptop.
Liars are the lowest!
“Liars are the lowest!”
I wd agree dareisay but once you know you they are liars they are no longer a threat – perhaps criminals are worse? (Trmp v. Hlly)
Thanks Glenn for having the stones to actually tell the truth.
“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.” – George Orwell … of course, “the media” is 100% complicit. “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.” – George Orwell … and, of course, his prediction for the future – “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” This is our “last moment” to fight the politicians and the globalists. Believe it.
Never quite followed the logic of Orwell’s “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed,” as “Maisie has gained five pounds” is something I wouldn’t want printed but it’s hardly journalism.
In your possibly-laudable fight against the globalists, please, please try not to clear the way for even more corporatist warmongering for the Deep State. Hint: Obama and Trump are on the same side.
Orwell wasn’t talking about the printing of information about the citizen. He was talking about printing information about the powerful, who run things.
I don’t understand what’s difficult to follow in that line. That is one of the most perfect definitions of Journalism I’ve ever heard.
Breitbart printed lots of things about the powerful Barack Obama that surely don’t qualify as journalism, just as Huffington Post prints lots of things about powerful Republicans that were little more than smear-campaigns. Neither “side” of the PTB presumably wanted these things printed, but to call them journalism is asinine.
Orwell’s quote is far from a “perfect definition,” as there are so many exceptions – even given your (arbitrary) parameters.
Maisie, you’re being a tad too literal-minded. AiC is right — Orwell’s formulation is superb.
Nonsense. It’s an incomplete statement to which many exceptions apply.
If he didn’t mean it literally, perhaps it was poetic flamboyance? Don’t be ridiculous.
Maisie, Orwell enjoys the reputation he does among sophisticated people of good faith and morally sound values for a reason. As between that cohort on the one hand, and your peculiar literal-mindedness on the other, I’m going with the wisdom of this crowd.
That’s fine, I’m okay with being an outcast to that cohort! I hope they look at me with scorn so I can feel especially non-conformist!
I reckon if he’d just said it more clearly (“Journalism is printing truths the powerful don’t want out because they reveal their abuses of power” or something) I’d probably let it slide.
Of course he’d go “And you are..?” But that’s your point, not mine.
Mr. Orwell’s definition was probably relevant back in the day. Today, however, he would write: ‘Journalism is publishing false news. Everything else is just fake news’.
I suppose Orwell doesn’t spell it out for you, and I can see how from your perspective it can look like a cardinal sin.
I feel bad for your boyfriend Maisie:
Maisie’s BF: Dear Maisie, you look as pretty as the morning.
Maisie: Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a human being. How can a human being look like a morning. I can’t even see a morning. I can see human beings. You’re crazy.
Maisie’s BF: I was just trying to give you a compliment. You know, use flowery language.
Maisie: You’re being completely absurd. I want you to say what you mean, and mean what you say. Put some effort into it. At least say I’m as pretty as the sky. That’s something that I can at least see. “Pretty as the morning” is totally ridiculous and absurd, and doesn’t make any sense in English.
Maisie’s BF: I didn’t invent this saying. People say things like this. My father used to say it to my mother.
Maisie: Your entire family is ridiculous and absurd. I suggest you stick to reality and be specific. Stop wasting my time with your meaningless words.
just kidding Maisie
I had fun writing it :)
Of course there’s a big chance you’ll find my post totally meaningless :D
mona is going to find this to be monumentally incorrect and completely, “totally meaningless” …
@Waitwut “That has gotta be the least perfect, least precise definition of anything, anywhere, by anyone, ever. ”
Looks like I. Nailed. It.
It’s funny how you made a prediction forty minutes after the post you point to as confirmation, which was written by someone else (as you well know), even though Mona had already made points counter to it. That is one of the more creative versions of confirmation bias I’ve seen play out.
Your unironic posts are like an orange-buttercream frosting.
When one reads ‘Latest First’, one sees replies before the main post.
I skip your handles, read what AiC said with bemusement, and thought of Mona.
On another pass through teh swamp I could not stop seeing your response (like when CS posts short).
My claim is genuine. You pile on the confirmation because your multiple personas lack entropy.
That has gotta be the least perfect, least precise definition of anything, anywhere, by anyone, ever. Comes off as a meaningless literary flourish, typical of pseudo-intellectual drivel – not that I generally dismiss Orwell’s words in this manner… I’m just puzzled how hollow quotables like this one become gospel, solely due to their source.
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.” – George Orwell
I tried looking around for the context in which Orwell said this and I found that there are questions about whether Orwell said this at all or someone else did. And that many people have said similar things.
But this is a pithy statement full of meaning and it captures the truth of real journalism, fake journalism, sold-out journalism and propaganda nicely.
Real and courageous journalism is printing something that the powerful want to keep out and printing news for the sake of printing truthful news unadulterated with any other motive. Everything else is just PR.
The first amendment protests the prescription from the government. It doesn’t protect propagandists though.
And it doesn’t protect them from the people they no longer chaos to serve.
Time for the people to take a hand.
Glenn, Excellent. But I think you left out that the Washington Post has a history of being a mouthpiece for the CIA. I believe it’s in Roger Stone’s book “Jeb! And the Bush crime family.” Carl Bernstein has also dug into the CIA’s use of American reporters as spies and couriers, though shied away from fingering his own paper.
McCain says they ” believe ” the russians have hacked them. A theory , a desperate fairy tale to explain the unimaginable. My battery died on me too, those Russians are at it again..
Marty Baron. Hmmmm. He edited the left-leaning Boston Globe for 11 years. Now helms the left-leaning Washington Post. No bias in him, right? I mean, why would the son of Israel Jews want to create problems with Russia…which is protecting Israel’s neighbor (Syria) now?
Similarly, why would the NYT pick Jews to cover the Mideast, basing them in Israel, some with kids who serve in Israel’s armed forces?
There could be no bias, right? It’d be as fair as Adolf having posted Goebbels to Tokyo to cover events in Japan during WWII.
Anyone declaring The Washington Post to be “left-leaning” likely was dropped on their head as a child.
That’s your only quarrel with Shlomo’s comment?
She already addressed the rest here:
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/04/washpost-is-richly-rewarded-for-false-news-about-russia-threat-while-public-is-deceived/?comments=1#comment-331434
Ah. Missed that; shoulda known. Thanks.
Glenn Greenwald has an intellectual conscience. This is what distinguishes him from the MSM walking corpses of journalism that he herein decries.
No wonder they call him alt-right, Russian, and/or anthropophagous green space lizard…they correctly sense that Greenwald is everything that they are not….
Where the hell is that f-cking “RESET” button?
Trump to revamp intelligence agencies: report
If only this was about a President Sanders doing these things one could smile.
Didja see this?
Schumer: Trump ‘being really dumb’ to Fight with Intel Agencies | Rachel Maddow
Rachel the Enabler helps Godfather Chuck drop not-so-vague hints about termination with extreme prejudice of the president-elect by the CIA.
These people are so shamelessly vile that. . . well, they’re really, really vile.
Ack, gack, I can’t make myself watch Maddow. At all times I found her “chipper and perky” shtick incredibly annoying, and now it’s downright insufferable.
So, she and Chuck insinuate (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) Trump can come to no good end taking on the intelligence community?
Chuck: “Let me tell ya: you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at [sic] gettin’ back at ya.”
Her mugging and pipe organ voice got on my last nerve a long time ago. She’s a wholly owned creature of her master, MSDNC. Watching the election night coverage with her and Matthews was toe-curling in its partisan silliness and shill-iness. What the hell, it’s all infotainment and propaganda– and thus offers morbid amusement.
Agreed. Even back in the day when she was sometimes airing worthwhile segments, I found her persona far too cutesy, almost suggesting vapidity. Her presentation undercuts her rather high intelligence, as does her fealty to the Democratic Party.
Pretty funny that Schumer is saying Trump should be as terrified of the Intelligence Community as Schumer himself is.
Probably good advice from a cowardly survival standpoint, and no doubt Trump actually agrees beneath all this absurd theater*. The deer-in-the-headlights look on Donald’s face when he first went to the White House spoke of a Bill Hicks moment in my opinion.
*Yes, I said THEATER:
Bill and Hillary Clinton will attend Trump’s inauguration because of course they will
Well, they attended his last wedding so why not? It’s theater, indeed. But is it kabuki or theater of the absurd? I vote for grand guignol.
All I see is a bunch of super-rich, super-powerful people manipulating the public into thinking some kind of real kerfuffle/robust debate is going on, so as to dissuade the downtrodden populace from uniting and directly challenging the corporatist, warmongering Deep State which controls both Parties.
So yes, a propagandistic grand guignol, as you say.
Yeah, well, so far, his cabinet nominations have been acceptable to the Owners.
Maybe he’s already seen the film.
Yep, I think so. That look at the White House was, well, pure fear.
What has followed has been careful pretense of “anti-establishmentarianism” versus “stalwart institutionalists,” all of them really preserving the status quo.
And you’re so right about Trump’s selections – look at these “rebels”…
Trump’s Team: Who’s who in president-elect’s Cabinet, White House
I know you and Doug aren’t Sanders fans. But can you give credit where it’s due? While the rest of the Democratic Party runs over the cliff into Russophobia, Bernie stood on the floor of the Senate reading Trump tweets pledging not to cut Social Security or Medicare. You know, issues voters actually give two shits about.
I honestly approve of Sanders’ domestic policy objectives, but his foreign policy and support for the military-industrial complex makes me utterly detest his neglecting the financially draining and murderous elephant in the room: 773 billion dollars for fiscal year 2017 going to military and “defense,” and not one peep from Sanders about cutting this corporatist warmongering boondoggle down to a reasonable size so as to easily finance democratic socialist causes and promote peace.
If he talks about closing military bases and drastically reducing the defense budget, I’ll be with you cheering him on. I know you think this makes me a purist, but I hate killing and financing violent unrest and can not support either.
Chuck ‘I know Anthony Wiener is a great man’ Schumer …
Israel first, second, third, etc.
Well, of those 17 intel agencies, we could easily combine at least two pairs into one. Marine Corps Intelligence could easily be folded into the Office of Naval Intelligence, while the National Reconaissance Ofiice could easily take over the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (or vice versa). At the same time, I’d spin off the Open Source Center from the CIA. That can result in cutting some executive jobs and saving a few million.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Intelligence_Community
I’d also streamline the DNI’s role and have fewer people solely on his payroll- get the support staff from other agencies.
Of course, if the CIA is making all this stuff up, I’d be willing to fire most of the CIA staff (excepting open source people and those not involved), and send an FBI investigative team to raid Langley. (Any CIA member aiding Islamist terrorists in Syria would face punishment up to the fullest extent of the law.) Then, I’d put the FBI in charge of intelligence. (Hey, they handled a lot of intel in WWII- and they handle counterintelligence today!) As a final kicker, I’d turn the Camp Peary training facility over to the FBI to help teach local police and law enforcement and name it after former FBI agent John O’Neil.
Alas, Sanders simped out, accepting a boat and house in exchange for omerta.
Sanders did no such thing; that is a baseless accusation. You are posting some moronic and ugly commentary, especially the bit above about Marty Baron.
Antisemite much?
What boat, and what house? Crap you make up in your head, are not facts.
I’m a true democrat and I know Russia hacked the election. There is no possible explanation as to how Trump won. That is why I voted for him. I was deceived by Russia thinking that I was reading real news. Geez, I’m so stupid. I want to change my vote now. Obama please help me, I was confused and wanted to make America great again. I fell for it. Please help me change it all back. Time out okay.
Glenn keep up the great reporting!!
NYT is resolute about finding every possible Russia connection to make vis-a-vis anyone named Trump: Ivanka Trump’s New Washington Home Once Belonged to a Putin Foe
Gotta keep that Russia/Putin hysteria front and center!
The kicker? It belonged to an opposition backer, and not a fan of Putin.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1WaXXJW8AYtfti.jpg
Yeah, NYT makes that point in the headline. But they still have to contrive a way to put Russia/Putin in the story, even in covering Ivanka’s D.C. home.
Best story of the year.
According to the Daily Beast, Trump suggested the Death penalty for WikiLeaks releases (“…Trump in 2010: ‘Death Penalty’ for ‘Disgraceful’ WikiLeaks” http://thebea.st/2jadET5):
“………Donald Trump once suggested that the death penalty should be a punishment for WikiLeaks’ releases of information, according to newly unearthed comments the president-elect made to Fox News in 2010. CNN’s KFILE team uncovered the remarks, in which Trump called the leaking site “disgraceful” after it revealed documents stolen by Army Private Chelsea Manning, known at the time as Bradley Manning. “I think it’s disgraceful, I think there should be like death penalty or something,” Trump said. On Wednesday morning, Trump took to Twitter to defend WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a day after Assange claimed in a Fox News interview that the Russian government was not its source for the leaked emails from John Podesta’s inbox and the Democratic National Committee’s network. Trump has dismissed the intelligence community’s assessments about Russia’s involvement and intentions in the cyberattacks, siding instead with Assange…….”
Why are you deflecting to Trump? What have you to say about the points made in GG’s article?
Does Trump’s assholery somehow vindicate the evidence-free claim that the DNC and Podesta’s emails were hacked by the Russian government?
Using your rationale, most Dems were rooting for Wikileaks when it was uncovering Republican shenanigans but now they are anti-Wikileaks because it uncovered Democratic shenanigans. Therefore….? What? Proof to you that the Russkies hacked the Vermont power grid and Podesta’s emails?
“……..Using your rationale, most Dems were rooting for Wikileaks when it was uncovering Republican shenanigans but now they are anti-Wikileaks because it uncovered Democratic shenanigans. Therefore….?…..”
The hypocrisy is breathtaking. If a Bernie Sanders supporter had leaked the DNC emails, I would have jumped for joy. I’m a Republican through and through – and the emails exposed the partisan lying and crooked DNC party leaders like an Anthony Weiner text message.
The issue of a (likely) Russian hack changes that significantly. I don’t buy that the DNC hack is “evidence-free”. It’s not proven however. We’ll see if 17 intelligence agencies can convince (the village idiot) Trump Friday.
Thanks.
Craig it was a Bernie supporter who leaked the Podesta mails to Wikileaks. You’ll hear about that Friday…
I have never seen a President-elect that is a bigger liar than Trump. He even over shadows “crooked” Hillary and the DNC by a significant margin – and that is a challenge!
What I find disturbing is that Assange is not even a US citizen and thus has no legal obligation towards the US, unless we want to claim global jurisdiction, which would be the height of arrogance.
Assange has a political agenda and that involves influencing an election (for the good of the world).
If one takes the time to think about it, when it comes to politics, a free press may only be a press of opposition or lose its position as the fourth estate.
By turning into mouthpieces for government, without a hint of critical thinking or retroactive remorse when caught in the act of spreading fake news, press outlets fold in the first estate as propaganda outlets, thus losing de facto any credibility and respectability.
Humans have this ability to learn from experience, i.e. who in their right mind would still read the WP after all the BS published in the past? I personally learned about the fakeness of that WP article right here, without ever having read the original piece (thanks Glenn).
What I’m saying is that those still reading the WP are either newbies who haven’t yet figured it out, or sufficiently biased and uncritical to tolerate unfounded governmental leaks as news material. Any amount of retraction would naturally fly over their heads unnoticed and is therefore unnecessary, save for ethical pretense.
Thanks to the Internet, we now have access to alternative news outlets which, when used properly, function as prophylactics against fake news. In the old days we used to call it propaganda but in newspeak it’s “fake news”. Same thing, really.
So many thanks to Glenn for reporting such propagandist behavior. But there’s no need to insist so much on the lack of adequate retraction, as it comes with the territory. Would anyone waste their time complaining Goebbels never retracted his BS?
Quite simply, Glenn: you are the BOSS. Please keep it coming.
Glen, great article, no pandering, just telling it like it is and thoughtful, intelligent internet articles are hard to come by. Bravo and I’m a new fan!
Glenn repeatedly has expressed concerns about Democratic Party and anti-Trump media elites’ need to “snap out of it” in order to become a viable opposition force to Trump. They need to find their way out of their current craziness, the seemingly unending Russia, Berniebro, etc. feedback loop that has these elites looking everywhere but in the mirror for the cause of their current misfortunes.
Up to more recently than I care to admit, while having longstanding, fundamental disagreement with these centrists’ approach, I thought they at least had a better grasp of reality and were significantly less susceptible to manipulative narratives than the Republican right. Their recent behavior, however, has permanently disabused me of that notion.
In fact, I see many significant parallels, principally the toxic mix of self-interested power and true believers willing to spread the message, as well as the blaming of Others (Russians/Berniebros for the centrist-left vs. minorities/the poor/immigrants for the right). Self-reflection is non-existent.
I have thought for years that those calling the shots in the Democratic Party believe in nothing, and that Clinton was its personification. As currently configured, the party offers nothing but defensive politics and certainly offers nothing of interest to me.
Long time no see, rollo. That’s exceptionally well-stated; I just did a screengrab to tweet to someone who needs to read it.
He’s been holed up in a confidential location in LA
Hey, Mona. Still lurking around, trying to figure it all out. Can’t say that I have quite yet. :)
Good job.
Now, on the matter of extracting yourself from your socialist, “racism is everywhere” delusions will be an internal sysiphean effort in Fakery Removal.
Good luck.
The idea of news media outlets sensationalising their content is nothing new, but the age of social media exacerbates it to a level that transforms it into a different beast altogether.
In New Zealand, I think we are experiencing this as well, but I suspect mainly for the purposes of boosting traffic and revenue.
The most glaring example was an incident a few months ago at a secondary airport near Auckland city. You might notice that, sometimes, jet engines blow a little bit of smoke as oil is burnt off having settled overnight. This is what occurred one morning. Within minutes of this completely normal occurrence, there was a ‘breaking news’ strip on the website of the New Zealand Herald and on social media that there had been a plane crash at this airport, and that every fire appliance in the city of 1.5 million had been summoned to attend the emergency. Needless to say, the story was stepped back over the next hour, the fire engine turnout was retracted, then the fact it was a crash was retracted to being an ‘on the ground emergency’ to… what it actually was which was a standard engine start. However, by then the damage had been done, they would have garnered thousands of clicks and advertising interactions based on a false story.
Next was the case of a family of four who drove their car off a 200 metre cliff. Once again, breaking news strip about a family who had driven off a 200m cliff, social media coverage, and thousands and thousands of clicks. Turns out they had driven down a bank and were OK.
Sensationalised news in the old days was designed to entice people to view your television news show, or buy your newspaper more often. The instantaneous nature of the internet and social media promotion of news stories means the purpose of sensationalism now is to make you click on the news story right away because instead of having one newspaper that you are trying to increase the readership for once a day, or a nightly news show you are trying to increase viewership, you are now having to try and boost the ratings of each individual story as soon as they appear.
Sorry Mr. Greenwald, you sound both naive/sheltered and self-serving. So where to begin and how to educate you? Ask any person born or raised in a country fundamentally transformed into a thuggocracy or banana republic or progressofascism or progresso-totalitarianism, and they will tell you, once the thugs start eating, they eat their own first, before they go after everyone else. As long as you were towing the line, you were safe, you were one of “them” and you were comfortably numb to the plight of the disgruntled and those who disagreed and/or were alarmed and frightened by the turn of their country (ie for 8 years millions of people like myself — a legal immigrant and escapee of another thuggocracy — have sounded the alarm about progressofascist turn of this country under obama regime, and have been outraged and disgusted by the extremist transformation of USA and its institutions, such as its fourth estate, and we have suffered leftists’ humiliations, vilification, demonization, McCarthyite smears and attacks from obama footsoldiers, calling us racists, xenophobes, misogynists, homophobic, for our beliefs and understanding of the #FakePresidency of obama — as Middle Eastern woman fighting islamisation of my birthland and fighting for human rights and women’s rights in my homeland, that would a nifty trick to be called a racist/xenophobic/misogynist and yes even, a SAVAK sympathizer!) yet no one, not you and not any of your friends defended us and our right to free thought and free speech! That is until today, when you are finally once again troubled by fascist behavior of your friends, the progressofascists! . . . . As my “burned” generation of children of hopenchange revolutions, say to our parents generation: What difference, at this time, does it make, to have woken up, to finally understand, to finally be as disgusted or frightened as the rest of us at what you yourself have wrought, when everything is lost and all is gone?? History repeats itself and it is thus that we humans NEVER learn from that history.
The New York Times this evening published a Trump tweet:
Donald J. Trump ? @realDonaldTrump
Julian Assange said “a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta” – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!
5:22 AM – 4 Jan 2017
15,334 15,334 Retweets 48,315 48,315 likes
Interesting that THE Donald sides with Assange who had the political motivation to interfere in the US elections to undermine HRC. Assange really has no credibility. What is just as interesting is how some long time Republican critics of Assange and WikiLeaks believe him when he says that the emails were not delivered by the Russians.
What is even more interesting is that you haven’t been sworn in already as DNI, since you know everything.
YOU ARE A CLASSIC FOOL, advertising yourself as such, loudly & proudly.
Are you not listening? There is no Russian conspiracy of any matter. They’re was no Russian involvement in the election. Neither Assange nor the Russians interfered with our election. The single incident that occurred is that Assange revealed the true nature of the left to the American people. Should we not know the truth? Do we not have that right? The fact that Assange or even the Russians is/are responsible holds relevance to our elections. It is simply a matter of punishing them now because we know what they are capable of and motivated to do in the future. It’s had no known affect on our country yet.
When has Assange published false information?
Same question for the CIA.
Never, if a complete lack of evidence to the contrary matters.
Routinely, as a matte of course, on matters great and small.
“……..When has Assange published false information?……”
It’s irrelevant to his releasing information specifically to influence an election. Those are two different issues. Just as Robert Mackey wrote in his article (“What Julian Assange’s War on Hillary Clinton Says About WikiLeaks”):
“…….IN RECENT MONTHS, the WikiLeaks Twitter feed has started to look more like the stream of an opposition research firm working mainly to undermine Hillary Clinton than the updates of a non-partisan platform for whistleblowers…..”
Just some quick research and it becomes apparent that Assange is anything but “non-partisan”.
How do you know WikiLeaks caused Hillary to lose the election? You don’t. Perhaps her loss was due to a number of factors, including her incompetent campaign staff. She lost in ’08 as well, ya know.
From reading your posts I can’t help but note that logic isn’t your strong suit.
“…….How do you know WikiLeaks caused Hillary to lose the election?……”
I didn’t say that HRC lost because of the release of the emails although I have said it might have been responsible because of the closeness of the voting in the upper Midwest and the number of electoral votes up for grabs. It actually took very few votes to change the outcome. So reading isn’t your strong suit. We each have our weaknesses.
I agree that her loss was due to a number of factors. She was a very poor establishment candidate. I completely missed that Trump was going to win. Even the day of the election, I thought HRC would win pulling away. It just seemed logical to me…….
Thanks.
Assange has waaaay more credibility than HRC, the felon.
If you call his leaks and journalism interference in the election, then I’m going to call the 24/7 media storm against Trump a nuclear war (and Clinton still lost that).
CNN even called Assange a pedophile today https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/816673293205983234 What a lie and defamation! We’re commenting on an article about blatant lying from WaPo and others, too.
Craig, you accuse Assange as having no cred, yet you point to no false docs from him with proof. Relating to the true info Assange posted:
“It’s irrelevant to his releasing information specifically to influence an election.”
I did look at the article you mentioned. An interview was in there where he called Trump unpredictable, and he noted where Clinton was a liberal warhawk in Libya and her actions against freedom of press. He mentioned in his interview with Hannity that he is absolutely for truth and would publish info against Trump if he had any. He crushes corrupt people in power, and he has compared both Trump and Clinton to awful illnesses. If you want Wikileaks to publish news on Trump, then you gotta give leaks. Otherwise, you don’t hear much on Trump.
Some speculate Assange posted like he did because Clinton would kill him, but I’m not sure about such speculation since his family would be a better target to leverage him. Now that could explain why he seemed pro-Trump, he’d be against Clinton if she wanted him dead or jailed. Neither is good to him, he has warned that Trump is likely to abuse powers over press or more.
Or perhaps he also loved doing work to expose what was in the documents because it’s against corrupt higher ups. No threats against him required at all. That works.
But the E-mails showed collusion and corrupted journalism between DNC and the big media…
Those actions of CNN and their ilk remain the disgusting story, even though they did well at disregarding it. Tell me more about how such big media outlets have credibility while Assange has none. After all, how dare he undermine Clinton with truth while the mainstream media blast their undermining of Trump all day on the TV and disregard negatives about the DNC and Clinton.
And it is funny how republicans praise Assange now! Although it’s nice that they praise the truth when it benefits them, a real test is how a man reacts to hearing unpleasant truth about him. Both parties in general have failed that, but I look forward to repentance on both sides.
As always, don’t use [email protected] for your password, and goodnight.
Thanks Alan for your comment. Trump did have the establishment and the media, in general, opposing him from the start. In fact, Trump had little going for him during the campaign, but there was a populist surge behind his candidacy for several reasons – and he won.
There is the content of the emails, and there is the hacking of the emails; who was behind the hacking; and for what purpose. The content of the emails is a separate issue. I have no problem with exposing the corrupt DNC, however, I have a problem with the Russians (likely) hacking the DNC, and Assange publishing the emails to influence a US election for political reasons.
Thanks.
Dear author – you know the shock you feel about being turned on with extreme vitriol for breaking from your lockstep? Thats how I feel every single day. Do you seriously believe this is an exception? This is the rule, follow the groupthink or be DAMNED. That is the terrifying reality of the left.
Washington Post cites ‘discussions’ aimed at preventing recurrence of Vermont utility story
So there’s a duel going on at The Post’s website — between a more recent story that features correct information and a more dated one that oversells the hacking threat. The result is a clicky version of Russian roulette: If you choose the wrong version, you get the wrong news. […]
The Erik Wemple Blog today asked top Post officials for interviews on the screw-ups, though we didn’t get any sit-downs. Kris Coratti, a spokeswoman for the paper, issued this statement: “We have corrected the story, prominently displayed the correct information after further reporting, evaluated what transpired, and had the appropriate discussions internally to make sure something similar does not occur again.”
“Again” would be the third time, considering that The Post was forced to publish an editor’s note over a Thanksgiving-weekend story fingering Russia for assisting in the spread of fake news.
Now my blockquotes are failing.
Pedinky-fingies!
Get this poster help! Stand back, provide room to breathe!
You, you and you, go for help. You, call 911!
Fyslexia?
Specifically, fyslexic dingers.
Te, moo!
Arriba and Viva Russia (and Vladimir Putin) while the usa governance and the dead six kosher-usa mainstream media lapdogs that are devotionally practicing the fabricating/manufacturing of manipulation, propaganda, disinformation, false news and fake news, even at a high diplomatic level leveling accusations and fabrication of narratives/fake-news that all the usa is able to come up with is no evidence which is the epitomy/epitome of UNSUBSTANTIATED PLUS SUBSTABTIATED FALSEHOOD against Russia for standing for what is right. — Alejandro Grace Ararat.
“Anti-racists” say there’s a RACE problem. They say it’ll be solved when non-Whites pour into ALL & ONLY White nations and “assimilate” to get a brown mixture.
They say only White nations have this RACE problem; they say non-White nations are fine.
If I object to my own genocide these “anti-racists” say I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they’re anti-racist. What they are is anti-White.
Anti-racist is a codeword for anti-White.
Anti-white is a term unironically used by racists.
The notion of “white genocide” is unironically spewed by racist morons.
Holodomor
So, you’re answer – unironically, I presume – is to cite a “white genocide” carried out by….wait for it….other white people to justify another (presumably) white person dribbling trash into the thread.
Actually, now that I think about it, it does sort of support one of his statements,
They say only White nations have this RACE problem;
It seems they also have “ethnic” problems as well. But we already saw that in places like Germany in the 40s.
“The notion of “white genocide” is unironically spewed by racist morons.”
Are Jews not White? They look White.
Did not know you thought of yourself as a racist …
I enjoy your use of the word “unironically”.
Nah. I’m the only one I know who says that. I want your grandchildren to be mixed-“race” — all of them! And the more in the mix, the merrier.
Happy Miscegenating New Year!
I forgot: I want a third of them to be in mixed-“race” same-sex marriages and 20% to fall in love with Muslims.
You seem to have a pretty broad definition of genocide.
Come on! Everyone grow up. Has there EVER been a time since the Guttenberg Bible that media wasn’t biased and full of crap? Ever? Truth is not what sells newspapers. Hearst made a fortune with his false stories and propaganda. So does the NYT and the Post. Part of growing up is realizing that media lies. People lie. Politicians lie. Benjamin Franklin, one of our first newspaper editors, said it best: “believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” Follow old Ben and you will have better friendships, a happier marriage, and a less stressful life.
Another CIA front NEWS organization.
Late to this party, but Wall Street coddling warmongers like Obama and Hillary are not the “left”, and the media that supports, defends and lies for them aren’t either.
It’s good to see so many Trump supporters here though.
I hope quality journalism and opinions based on facts become habitual and desired.
I too am enjoying the self destruction of the corporate media.
But for the sake of sanity, their record of deceit and factual inaccuracy doesn’t automatically prove that everything their detractors say is honest and true.
Some seem to believe that rather troubling idea… and it serves many of the same interests who use the corporate media in the same exact manner from the “opposite” ideological side.
For example, Trump attacked Republicans in the House for getting rid of the ethics investigations… so skepticism about the media supporting and defending those Republicans in the House is crucial too.
Thanks Glenn. I have also been accused of being Putin stooge when I called for reason in my comments as
D. Hume called three and half centuries ago:“If reason is against man, he will soon turn against reason” into superstition and magical thinking, the only available and acceptable option within totalitarian culture like, an American commercial culture of worshipers of profit.
The basic goal of provocateurs like Wapo, NYT, TheHill and others as Glenn described and documented is that we accept evidence-free McCarthyite slanderous construct of “Enemy of America”. Only because they say so in very emotional way calling for exigent circumstances as to circumvent the rational thought process and hard evidences.
Once we accept their lies and their arbitrary determination of who are “American Enemies” we give them credibility and accusatory power. The power to accuse anyone of anything since in our own mind anyone behavior or opinions could be consistent with conceivable treachery of our enemy, releasing us from a rigor of rational analysis and necessity of evidence based conclusion that is a foundation of any moral judgment.
All of those apparatchiks of the political media must be exposed for what they are not journalists but paid influence peddlers.
Welcome to the world that conservatives have been living in for the past 20 years or so. This is a well-known tactic used by leftist everywhere.
Thank you for focusing your lens on this! The msm are having a temper tantrum. They are all refusing to admit defeat and pillorying anyone who disagrees with their Alinsky progressivism.
The Post needs to be stripped of its DC newspaper of record status and liable laws need to be strictly enforced. The msm was an unelected 4th branch of president Obama’s regime.
The Washington Post–all the news the CIA thinks you should believe.
WaPo= boywhocriedwolf!
So is a subscription to WAPO at 75% off a good deal?
and shouldn’t a subscription to WAPO come with a warning label like “Repeating the lies we tell can be hazordous to your reputation”?
I believe Rush is way ahead of you.Years ago he called it “the drive-by media “.
GG vs. PMC = No Contest
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/01/glenn_greenwald_and_the_the_politicalmedia_complex.html
The FBI Never Asked For Access To Hacked Computer Servers
Link again, courtesy of FDAP (Fyslexic Dingers Assurance Policy):
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alimwatkins/the-fbi-never-asked-for-access-to-hacked-computer-servers?utm_term=.xswXm3Vyg#.lvOwO30ZR
Excellent post! great link!
i was curious as to how all 17 intelligence? agencies just happened to agree on everything!
un bucking felievable!
sorry for double post but i just saw this amusing piece by one of propornot’s betes noires MoA:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/01/the-enemy-du-jour-is-always-hacking-.html
short but sweet.
That’s a great post. With regard to the NYT’s Nicole Perlroth, see Glenn pwn her on Twitter. She claimed he censored what the NYT could publish of the Snowden documents, and got her ass handed to her.
He’s still waiting for this evidence she swore exists.
And Glenn still won’t talk about the cause of all of this evil in the mainstream media. It’s simple, all of this is the result of leftists resisting the loss of power.
Face it Glenn, leftists always turn on other leftists, especially if they speak the truth.
Look at your pathetic defense. You claim that you should be cut some slack b/c you’re one of them, a bona-fide leftist. Never forget that Hitler and the Fascists turned on their homosexual comrades in the ‘Night of the long knives’.
But Glenn, you will force the People to choose between you or obama… and people like obama…he got everyone on medicaid… What a joke
random thoughts:
– saw brennan on the PublicBS newshour last night. the anchor brought up assange’s assertion that the leaks – the ones HIS site received before anyone even knew they existed – were not from russia and were instead from a disgruntled leaker (a claim similar to one made by craig murray). brennan then let loose the most repulsive and reptilian smirk and chuckle before basically stating “who should he trust; us or his lying eyes?”
it just keeps going back to the (probably rove) bush staffer and the quote about “we make reality and you just report on it after the fact”. also known as “make a conclusion first then fill in supporting ‘facts’ after”.
– not sure if anyone else recalls the reports of clinton staff vandalizing various offices and leaving “porn bombs” on work computers after bush’s “victory” in 2000. just makes me think of all the stories of “intel agents are staging a mutiny against the incoming trump administration” and CIA hatred of him and etc. etc.
i wonder how many of these anonymously sourced “stories” are just childish trolling akin to obama’s assertion that russia is “smaller” than the US and “produces nothing but oil and arms” (which still puts them ahead of the gulf states who have to buy their arms from the US and UK). it all feels like a case of “if you don’t play by my rules i’m leaving the playground and taking my intel toys home”. and of course there’s the 600 million dollar elephant in the room:
https://www.thenation.com/article/amazon-washington-post-and-600-million-cia-contract/
– insert obvious comment about how failure = success in establishment circles here: ______________________________________.
He’s a smirky guy. And 17 “intelligence agencies” agree! 17! count’m. 17! holy cow – and 0 government agencies disagree. wow. They all say the same thing! SAY, WAIT A MINUTE! So Americans are paying 16 agencies for doing what 1 agency can do?
They all agree. Zero dissent. Sure. What a con job.
The 2016 Oxford Dictionary “New Word of the Year” was Post-Truth. We are now experiencing what this means and reality is upside down. Commenters yell at each other and facts almost never are central to their statements. If someone told me a few weeks ago that Trump would compliment Assange and that Dems would scream “The Russians are Coming!” to their base, I would have laughed. Welcome to unreality.
It doesn’t matter to me I long ago stopped assuming the US mainstream media was ever telling the full honest truth.
you’re so eager to defend bloodymir putin….
putin has you on a retainer, doesn’t he?
And you’re one of the idiots Glenn was describing.
Don’t you think it’s a retainer??
Maybe it’s putin’s naked torso that turns glenn on a great deal…
That must be it!
If there wasn’t any dirty laundry from the “Democrats” there really wouldn’t be a problem…..
That’s why the “Democrats” are making such a fuss about it. Nothing more than covering their own dirty laundry with this reaction.
And…it fits right in with the GEO-Political campaign against the Russians…
jaaaaaaack…
wallstreet is picking you clean, burying you into debt
congress hoes are foreign policying you to pieces
the mil-indu-c-plex is bankrupting your unborn children
and you are frettin’ the putin?
jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack…..
The “get the lie out there” , knowing that most people will never hear the retraction, or alternatively, never learn the back story or the rest of the story, has been a leftist/Democrat tactic, for as long as I can remember. If Independents or Republicans are guilty of this, please show some examples. But whoever is, knowingly or negligently putting unverified fear provoking stories, or deliberate distortions, partial truths, incorrect information, or ignoring stories that are true, but which do not support the publication’s political narrative (something that a major news organization should not have), is damaging, not supporting understanding and denigrating our national political conversation.
welcome to 3rd World USA
http://www.zdnet.com/article/like-the-sound-of-10-gigabit-internet-everywhere-then-move-to-estonia
For starters, here in SC, the media repeated the claim by our Republican AG of hundreds of fraudulent voters requiring the use of photo ID instead of our old, reliable voter registration cards. Not long after, the State Law Enforcement Division (Yes, they use that acronym) investigated the alleged voter fraud. Guess what? Most of those cases were not fraud at all.
One more example- it would be bad enough if only Democrats were pushing this CIA story. Unfortunately, a number of prominent Republicans (and parts of Fox News) are pushing it as well.
Great work, as always.
Another nail in the coffin of the public’s distrust of the media.
Why assume WaPo is part of the media? They are part of the PR Department of the Democratic Party. That is PR not Media.
According to our local news (in Burlington, Vermont), the malware signature the government provided Burlington Electric WAS detected on a company laptop, which was not connected to the electrical grid (I believe Vermont’s on an isolated grid anyway, as we didn’t lose power in this state when the rest of the Northeast did in that big blackout 12 or so years ago). So that one shred was true, though an expert says the malware signature traces back to hundreds of IP addresses and only two are Russian, with most being Chinese or *gasp* American., so it’s impossible to say the malware originated from a Russian “hack”. So yeah, the rest of the story is completely fabricated. Post is taking the blame, but our utilities were notified by the government so ultimately it seems the Obama administration is behind this garbage.
What we have been witnessing for the last decade is the reincarnation of Hitler’s Big Lie theory. Funny how the very people who propagate this devious form of disinformation call anyone who disagrees with them Nazi’s.
The irony is too rich to ignore.
For 8-10 years WaPo has done this and a lot more in support of socialism. Their writers are highly biased like most of the MSM and social media snowflakes. Good Bless you for what you do. Maybe Pravda or CCTV will eventually by WaPo. Should be cheaper for the Chinese than launching their own “fake news” site!!
Thank you Glen, your commitment to truth is heroic in this day and age of the end justify the means.
A real American hero
So now that you live in Brazil, you no longer feel like an American or like defending anything American. I get that. But to focus your story on the Vermont electrical grid and defend the Russians is unconscionable. Russians have been hacking us for years. This time they hacked our ELECTION. That is a crime, and it’s a serious crime. It’s indefensible. It’s also indefensible to defend Russia’s hacking and by inference, defending Donald Trump’s many delusions.
More and more Americans see what is happening. Is it any wonder that newspapers are going broke and begging for subscriptions? I knew this Russian thing was bogus from the beginning. The administration was unable to produce a shred of evidence lending credibility to their fairy tale.
So more and more of us will generally ignore the mass media because it is a waste of our time. We will seek the truth in social media and use our judgement to ascertain the truth of events. Newspapers were once a great force in America; now they are more of a sick joke than anything else.
You forgot to mention how the “pizza gate is fake news” fake news, was a FAKE story of WAPO………
Anyone who would believe this garbage without any form of substantiation or even attempting to validate a source as being ‘reliable’ is indicative of their intelligence on a whole. These MSM folks are laughing all the way to the bank and attempting to derail Trump at the same time. However, it does far worse for those who succumb to the want for this to be real, vs the truth. It shows that these folks don’t care about their country and it will be the death knell for the Alt-Left of the liberals/Democrats as they would rather fight and scream obscenities than to issue a retraction or let the truth be known in some place other than under the Public Notices in the Classifieds section.
Sad state of affairs when these want to be citizens and mostly college grads would not know the truth if it hit them in the face. Karma is fickle, but it always comes ’round again…Keep your head up people.
A little tidbit in that WP story about the hacking of the utility has gone unnoticed but it really puts the Russian government’s role into question. Supposedly the way they linked it to those wraskally Wruskies is that in both this hacking and the DNC hacking the same IP address was involved. Are we to believe the KGB does not know how to hide IP’s? Did Putin task the hacking to interns who did not know to hide their IP address?
Impressive analysis not only of the incursion but the politicization and the journalistic malfeasance accompanying it. Sadly, the latter two may be the most egregious.
I’m a regular at WaPo….it’s a rag. I love rubbing commenters noses in this stuff.
This came from the web ‘journalism’ culture: publish first and find the sources after publishing your viral piece. We do not have people like Ben Bradley on the WP anymore. I do not know if the historical media outlets are still reliable anymore. We have the Guardian involved in fake news and this is very hard to take in.
For a moment there I thought this was symptomatic of one side of the totalitarian, corporatist warmongering theater that has infected both Parties with a charade of differences intended to distract the populace from the not-gonna-stop-under-Trump nefarious activities of the Deep State, but from the comments I have learned this is really all down to “globalists, liberals and leftists” who are being vigorously challenged by the wonderful and morally stellar right-wing.
How stupendously fantastic it is that although Trump is plainly staffing his cabinet with establishmentarians and military lunatics devoted to just as much corporatist warmongering as Obama, in fact it’s really just a pretense to cover a secret plot to undermine the corrupt “leftist” status quo! Even though it’s going to look suspiciously like Trump is just another imperialist puppet of the Deep State (like his good friend Hillary Clinton), I’ll be comforted by the knowledge that underneath these mere “realities” he is staunchly opposed to the system, a veritable hero for our time!
So, Glenn, your attempt to provide sober analysis of this situation has largely convinced both sides of the propagandized aisle that you think Donald Trump is okay and the left are a bunch of weenie-heads. Let us now bow our heads in reverence of American foolishness, before shaking them in utter disbelief at the imposed triumph of binary thinking over the populace of the United States.
Just whom should Trump stuff his cabinet with, neophytes who have never held a position in the appropriate fields? You find those working within the system who do not like the way it is and want change, but go along out of necessity. Why don’t you wait for some results, then pass judgment on his selections. At the moment, you just look like an idiot.
From my perspective you’re the one looking like an idiot, actually supposing Trump or any of his selections to be anti-establishment or challenging to the Deep State in any way.
They are, as I said, establishmentarians or military lunatics – just the type Obama and Bush before him lavished with power to realize elite goals and imperialist agendas.
You have a gift for stating things, Maisie. That’s exactly what Glenn is hearing, especially on Twitter. It’s such utter bullshit.
Why, did you know that the gay and Jewish Mr. Greenwald has long been a member of the Alt-Right?
No, really, neoliberal hacks are actually saying that.
Stop using “social media” for “news!!”
Mr Greenwald, you have been denigrating us, now it’s your turn.
Look up “useful idiots”, Soviet Union. Now look in the mirror..
A point left out of the article is that journalism is a ‘bottom of the barrel’ major in college, often pursued by people who lack the intelligence to succeed in more challenging majors such as math, science, or engineering.
Many journalists no doubt had trouble passing high school algebra, if they passed it at all.
So the best way to understand their tactics, including rushing to print anything that makes Trump look bad, and minimally retracting their own ‘fake news’ stories when proven false, is to see them as not very bright people with the maturity level of fourth graders, driven by a failed leftist ideology instilled in them by uncritical ‘group think’.
Don’t give them any more credit than they deserve — which is not much. A good portion of the readers of mainstream media articles are smarter, more educated, more informed, and much more honest and mature than are the authors of the articles.
I think journalism students want to be journalists because it lends them authority. But now that the mainstream press is losing some of its influence (Hillary lost) those in the press are becoming ever more angry.
The whole “fake news” meme is an attempt to block any internet outlets or blogs having influence, other than the establishment’s outlets. It’s also an attempt to control the message and to sway the electorate (which didn’t work all that well this past November.)
thats what i see
msm casting dispersions on everyone bit themselves
also trying to get back attention for the facetime calculations that madave needs to calculate the ad dollars for rationalising the bills to sponsors
I, too, loath journalism today, but this screed is absolutely ridiculous. Writing is thinking and to write well one needs to develop strong critical thinking skills. This false notion that only mathlites are intelligent is ignorant — and ironically — comes from right-wing circles of group-think which you decry.
That’s a disgusting, stupid and ridiculous comment of the sort I see made more and more often by people who have been conditioned to see higher education as vocational training and university degrees as work permits — and who are dismissive of the liberal arts and humanities while worshiping the gods of Science, Technology and Progress. It’s pathetically shallow and narrow-minded.
Doug, I largely agree. But with the caveat that journalism majors should have doubles. That is, they should hold expertise in history, military science/history, computer tech, economics, science or something else besides journalism.
Because many journalists are ignorant, just not for the illiberal reason Dan Austin stated.
Wow, you mean our major media outlets cannot be trusted implicitly?
That’s the theme of this Donald Trump Victory Lap song…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkLDW3cOTIY
you actually take the drivel they put out as truth? funny thing happened while are media like benghazi and that phony video were chanting the russians are coming, i read a article from across the pond showing how this lunacy was a sham the day after obama pronounced it! first off they would have gained nothing as both hillary and trump are good freinds with russian business’s and the government! they do hack like we do and china does but a election to them means nothing! just 2 weeks ago assange said he got the emails from a disgruntled dem employee in washington who had access to podestas emails and new his password, which was password go figure, as for the dnc a kid with a laptop could have broke into it as they had the worst security protocal of both parties! but the real irony of this is obama claimed russia interfered in the election when it was clearly the dnc and msm who made sure she got the nomination and had all kinds of racial slurs in them! don’t fall for the video baloney again and never play the pea under a shell scam! as with the movie, the more the more you look the pea is not under any of them! lol by the way if you want to beat the pea scam! don’t chose one shell, put your hands on 2 shells and say the pea is under the one not touched! lol
Pretty cute, Devon. Here’s my vote for Video Of The Year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT0Rjc6jKCg&feature=youtu.be
As for fake news, this sums it up nicely:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMX4NmCJGm0
The Through the Looking Glass world of american politics is getting curioser and curioser. Now Republicans are joining forces with, of all their most (previously) despised villains, Julian Assange, to rail against the liberal media.
The two apparently agree that the MSM ‘colluded’ to boost Hillary and malign Trump. WaPo is sensitive to the charge and is mounting a somewhat emotional campaign to discredit the claim.
This may be more grist to the already busy mill. Stay tuned.
Whatever comes from a government source is “Fake News”. Whatever comes from mainstream media is “Fake News”. Folks, it’s now a world of seeing is believing.
What about “settled science” can’t be understood?
It’s all the same regardless of topic.
what point are you trying to make?
The same assumed intellectual authority as the fake “Russian election theft” to undermine Trump is very similar to climate fraud authority. Same echo chamber and technique.
no it isn’t. the climate change denial movement is by far the strongest in the us, britain, and austalia. the science journals are not an echo chamber, and the fossil fuel companies are not credulous, helpless victims.
Clearly you’re clueless. “Deniers”, “97% science consensus”, “settled science”.
It’s all the same fake media/political coding.
The national inquirer makes a lot of money too. WaPo has adopted it’s business model….except the national inquirer is more honest.
Thanks for an excellent and well written article.
Papers that were once great are now Nationl Enquirer wannabe’s. Journalist’s are obsolete as they no longer dig for the truth wherever it may lead. To cut costs I suggest the NYT, WAPO, and the White House gaggle be replaced with Amazon Echo’s (WAPO cuts cost by buying their own product) and simply record the story Democrats want out there. It’s all the cheerleaders are doing anyways. Outsourcing, gets the same fiction, no overhead and no Obama healthcare costs to worry about, and the same news is released.
We don’t need no stinking evidence. Even if it wasn’t The Russians, it was.
Wow…thoughtful and well reasoned. I was particularly struck by the parallel with the treatment of climate change skeptics… ‘ where anyone dissenting or even expressing skepticism… is the target of coordinated and potent smears; where…skepticism is literally equated with treason. And the converse is equally true: Those who disseminate claims and stories that bolster this narrative — no matter how divorced from reason and evidence they are — receive an array of benefits and rewards.’
there are no parallels that are meaningful. nobody is in jail for spouting fossil fuel
company propaganda. nobody’s career has even been hurt, despite many sad tales that aren’t accurate.
You have egregiously misread GG’s statement. He was not drawing a comparison with climate change skeptics. He did use the word “climate” but just in a very general and nonscientific sense, and you affixed the second and third words on your own. Here’s what he actually wrote:
“The malice of this campaign is exceeded only by its blatant stupidity. Even having to dignify it with a defense is depressing, though once it becomes this widespread, one has little choice.
“But this is the climate Democrats have successfully cultivated — where anyone dissenting or even expressing skepticism about their deeply self-serving Russia narrative is the target of coordinated and potent smears; where, as The Nation’s James Carden documented yesterday, skepticism is literally equated with treason. “
The blame game will lead us no where, yet it seems nobody is mature enough to acknowledge any level of truth so we just keep circling the drain. I guess this is what you get when all you do is coddle your children. You get a bunch of stupid kids on the Internet who are great at proselytizing, yet they and their readers have no critical thinking skills of any kind. So it devolves into the kindergarten playground popularity contest levels of discourse, where rumors and gossip rule society.
Truth doesn’t make money. And there are no consequences for spreading lies. If anything you’re rewarded because attention = money on the Internet.
Nothing will change unless people decide to change it. And the people working in the system benefit from the status quo. These jobs and the systems they function inside are self preserving, so even your outsider who gets the job will have to play ball if they want their pay check. People don’t act against their own preservation despite all the myths we tell kids about sacrifice. That behavior is mythical because it’s so rare and weird for a person to sacrifice their livelihood. So things will keep going as they do until these systems collapse on themselves or outside forces, i.e. People, change it from outside.
What changes would you suggest?
I hope that WAPO continues making Fake News. Regardless of what success if finds itself with the outcome, the reality, is it providing daily evidence to the American Public that corporate Media CANNOT be TRUSTED ANYMORE.
Thank Your WAPO for your Progressive Suicide.
I’m one who recently dropped them completely after 30 years.
Jesus H Christ now it is happening right here on The Intercept the day Glenn makes this very valuable submission.
Micah Lee is arguing, evidence free (or self-refuting), that he believe it is likely the hacks/leaks were directly ordered by Putin or the Kremlin, and he seems to be able to divine their purpose as well in suggesting it was to benefit Donald Trump.
I mean seriously, The Intercept with the exception of Greenwald and a handful of others who don’t write on these sorts of topics, is totally losing its collective mind.
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/04/the-u-s-government-thinks-thousands-of-russian-hackers-are-reading-my-blog-they-arent/
Is he really saying that though. He’s saying that it is “plausible,” but that there has been no smoking gun evidence provided thus far.
I think Micah is using a venerable rhetorical practice: accepting certain opponent premises in order to discredit them on other grounds.
GG and Scahill do a version of this by including disclaimers “sure Putin might have liked to have done this and maybe it happened but…”
BUT. We need proof, and you people give us none, and it’s on you, not us.
To want them to say more than this is silly.
Wanting more than that is silly.
No, Vic. Micah actually believes that it is plausible and likely that Russian agents acting on government orders interfered with the recent election in order to boost Trump’s chances of victory.
And the “evidence” he cites when challenged is no evidence at all — merely a recitation of the unsupported claims we’ve been treated to endlessly.
I just checked out Micah’s participation in the comments section of his article. His answers there to queries are deeply unsatisfactory, and go way beyond just the “likely” bit. Did I misread, or did he actually say he wishes that Russian hacking could be definitively proven because he would LIKE that?
So I was giving him WAY too much credit.
Fuck this guy. Do with him as you see fit. (flicks finger)
Thanks for the heads-up.
I just read Micah’s piece, which systematically tears apart the “suspicious IP” portion of the joint report’s “evidence” and then gratuitously informs us that it is plausible and in his opinion “likely” that. . . what rr says above.
This is complete nonsense for which Mr. Lee needs to be taken to task. Off, now, to see if commenters have done so adequately, yet.
My first impression of the Micah Lee article is that, operating with the premises of the people who claimed Russian hacking and acting like he believes them, he then shows that well, they are insufficient as proof.
Anyway, whether that is Micah’s idea or not, that’s what the article said to me.
He does say, it’s “likely,” which is complete horseshit.
“I mean seriously, The Intercept with the exception of Greenwald and a handful of others who don’t write on these sorts of topics, is totally losing its collective mind.”
It is as if Micah knows the real truth but can’t acknowledge his source. He can acknowledge his fact-free conclusion because, he knows …
It’s the kind of thing one would see on a CFR field trip to the CIA. Here’s the truth but you can only allude to it …
Yeah, that’s kind of a multiple-personality article. Puts out good reasons to be skeptical of claims of Russian involvement, but for some bizarre reason includes evidence-free personal beliefs, and even non-“allegedly” claims. It’s very odd.
Either believe something based on actual evidence and criticize a source of a claim, and don’t believe that claim until the evidence is presented. Or don’t bother with that and just believe as a matter of blind faith, in which case the article would be much shorter. Pick one ffs.
Might be interested to make two articles out of the one; one only using the proper skepticism–the other the blind faith/implied truth weaseling. Maybe Micah needs to do this so he can meld his two personalities (or consistency of writing) or choose which should be dominant or keep on keepin’ on. Like Identity, Secret Window, Fight Club, and the underrated Mr. Brooks.
The corporatist Dems are now sounding like rightwing red-baiters and McCarthyites. They’re even throwing around the word “treason” and using it against those who are skeptical of their claims. Like I said below, history doesn’t just repeat itself; it twists before looping back, like a mobius strip.
It’s partisanship over principles–all the way down.
Of course, partisans will be partisans and pols will be pols–it’s the “journalists”, the news media, who are the real villains because they have abandoned their watchdog role and are enablers. If this republic crashes it will be due to their whoring and avarice.
At the heart of it all is activism which has become a political strategy used to impose minority views on the majority. To an activist, the end justifies the means.
Bezos, Amazon, The Washington Post and the CIA Connection
https://www.thenation.com/article/amazon-washington-post-and-600-million-cia-contract/
It’s looking like President Trump us going to bust up Bezos monoploy like Teddy Roosevelt did in th early 20th century. It will work for a while, but poll after poll is telling us that the public does not trust or believe much of what the leftist / democrap papers are printing anymore. So in a short time with the appearance of the new media, they will become like the NY-Times.. irrelevant.
“The only cure for ignorance is time and consequences”. The ‘intelligence’ community has spent the last 50 years creating fictional scenarios in order to build the greatest war machine on Earth. Given the size of the USA military budget{…approx. 10X Russia’s}, there is no doubt that this ‘production and marketing’ have been a huge success.
However, the consequences of such a campaign inevitably{…time} will be exposed and reviled{…consequences}. Unfortunately, the American people have replaced the “Magic Military Marketing Machine” with the ’empty ignorance’ of a showman who would be the envy of PT Barnun.
PS: “…and the Oscar{s} goes to Vladimir Putin, for the best script and director! Donald Trump gets Best Actor, with Julian Aaasange as Best Supporting Actor.” Good night America, and be safe.
I’m going to use social media for “good” and share this article. I find the Washington Post to be irresponsible. I read it (not as a sub) and take it with a grain of salt. One of the most depressing things for me however was how the Rolling Stone handled their infamous rape article. I believe, and please correct me if I’m wrong, that even after the writer contacted the editor to do a retraction (after being called out by fellow journalists) RS kept the article up on their website for approximately four months. Obviously, RS profits due to ad click revenue so they reward themselves by keeping the article up. /shakes fist at RS Anyway, really enjoyed your article. Between the two hours I spent yesterday listening to Camille Paglia interviews and reading this article I feel like there’s a bit of hope for our society. =)
WA Post owned and run in the image of goofy liberal Bezos, pretty soon I will quite amazon, because I am tired of this goofy left wing mfer.
Bezos a lefty? He’s about as left as Obama.
Yellow journalism or the “yellow press” is nothing new. It’s just that their lies get distributed much faster nowadays and have to be dealt with in real time. Maybe we should bring back the pejorative label of “yellow press” and hang it around the necks of its practitioners.
The author should keep calling out the fake/false news and the propaganda coming from much of the MSM, or from any other source.
I am increasingly seeing WaPo being referred to as Wash. Com-Post, also the NY”Tabloid” and the “Clinton News Network”.
Only a matter of time before those responsible for pumping out fake/ false news and propaganda will lose all credibility and then their profits will plunge because only a small number of people (i.e., only the highly partisan or gullible) will still read or listen to them
I get the impression that the newspapers of record get the story directly from the White House, and barely do any vetting or fact checking. The rest of the media just spread the lies around the country. Just like the old Pravda and Izvestia in the Soviet Union.
Media Induced Mass Hysteria is a mental illness whose only cure is Meme Magic.
One cannot heal the miscreants; one may only laugh as they destroy themselves – but LOUD, and continuously.
Laugh at them with us, Sir.
Laugh. Laugh until they die.
Thank-you again Glenn for your clear, incisive reporting: always of exemplary standard and vitally relevant to navigating the morass of mainstream media. I rank you among our world leaders (with Snowden, Manning and others).
It is said that the Washington Post belongs to Amazon. So do not buy anything via Amazon.
Unfortunately, Amazon has crippled even the brick and mortar big box chains that crippled local merchants — so thoroughly that it can be damned difficult to avoid doing business with Amazon.
“Amazon: The Earth’s Company Store”
Break ’em up. That’s what the anti-trust laws are for. Bill Clinton did it to Microsoft, with far less justification.
“I’ve been transformed, overnight, into an early adherent of alt-right ideology, an avid fan of Breitbart, an enthusiastic Trump supporter, and — needless to say — a Kremlin operative.”
Um, congratulations and welcome aboard?
Kidding, but to quote John Clane “Welcome to the party, Pal”. Not the Republican Party (obviously) but to the party attended by people who’ve been smeared by the MSM/Dem machine. Some were smeared for being prominent conservatives, and others, like you, for being apostates from the orthodox faith.
Let’s face it, the elites on both the right and the left are corrupt right down to their marrow. Can liberal democracy survive this state of affairs?
Indeed, given that the elites run the show: Do we still live in a TRUE democracy?
The Elites ? Is that a gals softball team ? A Rhythm & Blues quartet ? An invading species from a distant Galaxy ? A new micro crap eating algae to clean toilets ?
Who the hell are the Elites ?
None of those. The elites are, by definition, ‘them that runs the show’.
I can’t see the US seeing out the month with the warmonger in the White House. He came in to destroy the US and I really believe he is about to achieve it as US troops follow a globalist liar and loser rather than their own constitution. Oh well never mind.
Imagine Greenwald’s transformation after losing his free bodyguards and being subjected to years of Zersetzung torture. No doubt he’d whip out some of those NSA docs in a flash.
You cant expect the state news service to embrace the truth when the truth continues to go against the service.
Who was it that said the headline makes the news important? Charles Foster Kane or William Randolph Hearst? It must be fun to run a newspaper.
Great article and kudos to Glenn for bravery. Notice the comments are filled with praise for you from right wing people coming from Drudge. All we ever asked for was fairness and accuracy and that is what you are giving, and even though we disagree politically we respect you for this. Not surprised by the way you are treated by the left for leaving the plantation even once. This is how we are treated all the time.
Very very well said, Tom! I feel like dropping Glenn an email and saying just that. And I teach at the largest evangelical Christian university in the world and also came here via Drudge.
Glenn,
I have to respectfully disagree with you. These people are incapable of feeling humiliated. To them the retractions are just standard operating procedure, which will allow them in the future to say “we retracted those claims” when confronted about their fake news reporting. You give Marty Baron too much credit. The ability to be humiliated is not part of the DNA of people without a conscience.
Hiding Truth and spreading falsehoods far and wide is how obama got elected twice and how hrc was promoted.
A sign of the times………
If it is not Russia’s fault, then blame global warming!
……..or both if possible.
no it isn’t. a worldwide agreement among scientists with the relevant expertise
is not comparable to propaganda foisted on by mainstream media in a few
western countries.
One of the benefits of the Russia story was to get Facebook to add functionality that will use “fact checkers” to tag stories. Given the Democratic history of these fact checkers in accordance with everything you’ve documented here, it seems that there is a real risk that these “fact checkers” will only further obfuscate the truth in the service of political goals.
this what happens when the DNC gets purchased by the Saudi’s and MB. False news stories about Russia, when the real Global threat is Islamists.
Who is paying them to write this? they doing it for free?
Who is paying Hillary and Obama to tout how muslims were a big part of America, another lie………This is NOT our fathers Democrat party
Who is paying them, you ask?
From the Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/amazon-washington-post-and-600-million-cia-contract/
The credibility built up by the Post under Kay Graham and Ben Bradlee as the gold standard of journalism is being pissed away by the new Bezos regime. Just as these robber barons leech away the assets of businesses they take over, they use up the credibility capital of the Post.
The public is very easy to fool. Stupid uninformed morons. The dominant media has always lied.
“I genuinely do not mean to single out these individual journalists for scorn. They are just illustrative of a very common dynamic: Any story that bolsters the prevailing D.C. orthodoxy …”
There is a short and comprehensive characteristic for the boosters of D.C. orthodoxy – presstitutes. The presstitutes work on special orders from the highest echelons of power. The presstitutes happened to be the loudest mouths about fake news.
“Truth exists, only falsehoods need be invented.” Georges Braque.
This video featuring the power of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the DNC over the MSM is compelling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tb4y9owTEU
Why doesn’t anyone say what is obvious about all of this: Russia is now an apostate to the Left. Once you turn your back on “communism” you are vile and evil. Who cares that you were much viler and more evil thirty years ago now we hate you with the same intensity as an Islamist hates the being that has renounced their faith in the Prophet. No difference at all.
Facts mean nothing when dealing with a religious fervor.
Somewhere Stephen Glass smirks.
Somebody tell BO not to get too excited about Russia on his way out the door. The previous POTUS relied on fake news to decide about military action and at that time the headlines read “Weapons of Mass Destruction…!”
Good article. Now if we could just get some liberals to read it …………
It seems like those still grieving the election would rather comfort themselves with baseless invective from Democrat Party surrogates then consider Greenwald’s arguments.
The WaPo are presstitutes for the DNC. And they’re shameless, rather blatant about it lately. Thank god that woman didn’t get elected. She would never have been held to account by the media.
I believe you just highlighted the true threat of this dynamic. It goes right to the heart of our government’s integrity. If the Fourth Estate will not honestly hold to account the representatives we elect, then the entire democratic process is nothing more than a charade.
speaking of propaganda – whats this we’re hearing about Marty Baron and yellow journalism? First we objected it was marty’s test market to help a dying media. Then it was a manifestation of a frustrated fiction writer. Then it was the yellowness of a cowardly actor without a spine who prefered sensationalism at the expense of respect for the sake of the rush. Now it’s about a guy who prefers the yellowniss of the golden showers of profits-or-not?
Considering the financial and social pressure coming at you to conform to the false Russia narrative, your adherence to the truth and rationality is simply amazing. Keep up the great work.
Below, Craig Summers states:
This James Clapper.
Intelligence agencies lie, all the time. Including U.S. intelligence agencies.
craig’s back on crack, again?
http://www.zdnet.com/article/no-smoking-gun-for-russian-dnc-hacks/
As a verifiable (thanks to Wikileaks) fact, we all know James Clapper is a very famous liar who should have been removed from office by the President within hours after his direct lie to Senator Wyden was revealed.
That Clapper carried on in office perhaps speaks more loudly than any other evidence that something has been seriously rotten in DC. To remind us why, these are the statutory penalties for perjury for ordinary people (never mind appointed top officials):
Section 1621 covers general perjury, and stipulates that anyone who “willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true” is guilty of perjury and shall be fined or imprisoned up to five years, or both. Section 1001 covers false statements more generally, without requiring an oath. The section stipulates that “whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the government of the United States, knowingly and willfully” falsifies or conceals information, including before a congressional committee’s inquiry, may also be fined or imprisoned up to five years. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/07/what-happens-if-you-lie-to-congress.html
US intelligence agencies, as -Mona- said above, are professional paid liars on behalf of whoever is in office. Use of these agencies can therefore be regarded as a test of character for whoever that someone is.
My hope is that the next administration will be conducting personal interviews with analysts who supposedly concluded the heist of DNC info could have only been originated by a particularly named state actor by a hacking operation. (Especially since it cannot be logically proven that only strikes by one actor using one method could succeed.)
We can forget the Podesta email hijack, which could have been performed by virtually anyone, given the modest understanding of password security by Mr. Podesta, who apparently believes his computer needs be guarded only by angels. Just think; he could have become WH Chief of Staff. Again.
Given the evidence so far offered by the government itself (rather than nefarious sweet nothings poured by unknown “officials” into the trusty ears of WaPoo editors), my guess is that the headline “assessment” was totally disclaimed precisely because it is factually baseless. No bun. No beef. Just a dollop of political hot sauce.
Unfortunately the laws say “may” be, not “WILL” be.
So, I guess your saying the the ALT-Right has been met by the ALT-Wrong
Great article. Shared it on a bunch of Facebook groups. Can everyone do the same?
On a related note, who actually trusts the presstitute media anymore? Oh, sorry, should not insult prostitutes – far more honest than the mainstream media. https://freedomfromconscience.wordpress.com/2016/01/03/the-media-lies-sorry-but-it-is-true/
I love the one about Hillary Clinton discovering a SECRET SERVER between Putin & Trump- well, because if ANYONE would know about HIDDEN SERVERS,…
I think it is time to hold the Washington Post, NY Times, and other tabloids accountable for producing a fraudulent product. They represent themselves as one thing but are really something else entirely. (Think Bernie Madoff.) State AG’s should pursue for criminal action.
Thank you for your unwavering dedication to truthfulness in a world bent on hiding it.
To bad the truth is still being hidden, especially by those who claim to be truth tellers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh1zvsTb9_U&t=22s
Actually anyone could have predicted MSM news outlets turning to running outright falsehoods/known lies/sensational half-truths, just like a tabloid. AND, while the MSM media’s mgt may be in bed with Dems/libbies/etc., truth is, it could have gone the other way easily. But you can sell sensational BS to ppl ready to believe anything about their political opponents, and Dems/libbies are the easiest to con b/c they WANT to believe things are true even when they are not. Ie, they tend toward accepting propaganda more than cons. So you can see why the BS is served up to their tastes. The forces behind this shift from news reporting to BS story-propagating are entirely economic. When ppl used to buy actual papers, the papers’ constituency was the ppl who paid their bills: their advertisers and the paper-buyers (ie, us). So naturally, the paper sought to serve the interests of the reader and knew the reader would not be pleased when given bad reporting. So the stds were much higher than today: fact-checking, greater objectivity, etc. Papers were mostly only compromised by the interests of their advertisers. Now, along comes the Internet. In the spirit of competition, papers start publishing on-line and do so for free because it’s a near-perfectly competitive marketplace. The cost of “buying” another paper is simply to load a new web address. So the price of the product (ie, news), falls to 0. But the cost to produce it remains real, and high. Suddenly, reporters’ jobs are getting replaced by robo-copy-writers. What writers are left are competing fiendishly now with each other based on whose story can attract the most web visitors now that paper sales have plummeted to being an incidental source of income. The real money (what is left of it) is now in selling online ads. Being that their sole primary revenue source is advertising, the paper is now serving the interests of their advertisers almost exclusively. This means no expose stories on Amazon, etc., as they are major buyers of ads online. And as for news stories: we are not paying for them so why should reporters care if we are informed correctly or not? They don’t. To keep their jobs, their copy needs to attract clicks. Standards be damned. It matters only that you attract those clicks so you can collect ad revenue. No ad revenue, no job. You’re mid-career as a journalist or maybe just starting… you NEED the money. What would you do? You’ll write *anything* that can attract those clicks and to heck with the truth. That is what has happened. So now, we have no real journalism anymore in the US. It’s all about ad revenues. The reader/citizens’ interests no longer even factor into the formula because the reader/citizen is not even paying for the product. So if you want someone to blame, O reader, look in the mirror. You, and all of us, are indeed paying a price for all this “free journalism”: the price is knowing the actual truth. Now I believe little from the news except maybe the weather report. That’s about it.
Intending no disrespect toward Mr. Greenwald, but:
Intelligent Americans do not take seriously any “news” offered by the Washington Post so-called “newspaper”. The WaPo is, instead, one of several Democrat Party house mouthpieces.
There are liberals so enraged by Trump’s victory that they will use the complicit media as a weapon against the American people. They are willing to ignite, agitate, invent tensions between Russia and America leading to war if necessary. No gaggle of evil men in America has ever been such a threat to America as the liberal elite and their liberal media foul mouthpieces.
oh yeah – and that is a very dangerous mental disorder
it IS the IF I CANT HAVE YOU NOBODY CAN syndrome
it is deadly
and the perps running that game on America are seriously deranged enuf to project their loser suicidal urges as “Americans want to be heroes & die (instead) in our vengeance.”
total mental breakdown.
As bh2 notes below, Wikileaks has issued a retraction demand to CNN regarding on-air commentary calling Julian Assange a “pedophile.” This rancid defamation began at the time WL began releasing the Podesta emails. McClatchy, late last October:
Who is running this dating site? Todd and Claire Hammond:
Thank you Mona.
Wow, I’d already forgotten about that sordid episode.
Recipe for: Pasta Posta ala Propaganda
Ingredients:
1 completely fabricated tale of a (target) enemy’s dastardly deeds
1 very large and prominently placed misleading headline
3-4 large dollops of heavy duty credibility desperation
6 well-rounded scoops of narrative hubris (preferably oligarchical in origin)
1 Very tiny pinch of buried at-the-end-of-story counter context
10 or more generous sprinklings of official sounding “unnamed sources”
1 appropriately sycophantic in-house stenographer
Mix all of the above ingredients into a dense mass of manipulated text (and graphs – if required), to resemble an alarming: “The Imperial empire is at risk” pseudo-investigative article. Let this mass of media (dis) information fester and ferment for several news cycles – making sure that your now very sticky stew of bubbling BS has adequately reached its intended coagulation of deep state purpose – and is now being faithfully replicated by fellow corporate infotainment compatriots – especially the cable news cabals and their local ‘big hair’ affiliates. Once this highly stupor’ed state of agreed upon manufactured “facts” and the associated mainstream media frenzy concerning them has been achieved, you can then belatedly (and quietly) throw out a faux (non)disclaimer about the actual ingredients of the entire composted dish you’ve so carefully concocted. for general consumption. Note: This last step should have little or no lasting substantive effect on the perceived validity or flavor of your original steaming pile of “Pasta Posta ala Propaganda”
Recipe (dis)serves tens of millions
Thank god the chef is retiring in a couple weeks.
Don’t forget the handful of rigid assertions that wilt into a glutinous mess the minute heat is applied. ;-}
Ah yes, forgot that very important ingredient/step.
Nothing worse for all those squawking telly-tummy’s than a steady diet of overcooked Fake Snooze. Give em a real bad bout of indignation.
Makes ’em gassy too. ;-}
The fact that the executive editor of the Washington Post considers #pizzagate fake news, while knowingly promoting actual fake news stories, is the only thing anyone should be paying attention to. Obvious misdirection is obvious, so: Alinsky much?
Aww, you think pizzagate is real. Cute.
Aww, you think people capable of lying for a living would never do anything like make backroom deals, undermine the law, or conspire together – secretly – to hurt children. You and your attempt to downplay are not cute. Fake news was invented by the Democrat party, and it’s finacial supporters, the day after the NYPD got Weiner’s laptop.
I suppose you think Fast&Furious is purely a series of coincidences, and that abortion for underage girls should be kept secret from their parents…
Only a pedophile would make a joking reply to potential crimes of child abuse.
Only a willfully ignorant asshole would believe such an absurd accusation.
The Washington Post is fake news.
Note posted to Washington Post: It is at the point where you must be aware of the stupidity disease. The next time you carry a story with the source listed as “US official(s)”, for the integrity of your paper do not carry the story. There is so much fraud, fake fear and outright lies submitted by “US official(s)” that it just doesn’t work anymore. You should know this, but since you have decided to carry such stories that magically disappear into oblivion, keep in mind that you are already working from an integrity that is at 0, which is the same as the National Enquirer.
“The malice of this campaign is exceeded only by its blatant stupidity.”
That could be said of the entire DNC. Great article Mr. Greenwald, thank you for having the courage to stand up to the Ministry of Truth!
Glad someone is willing to say what we already knew. Stories have gone beyond accelerated release to keep up with the fast news cycle.
I wonder if any of the ‘[fill in the blank] who wish to remain nameless’ sources actually exist.
Beyond forwarding a false story, much of the news appears to be completely made up.
I applaud Greenwald for staying on this story. A tidal wave of McCarthyite invective engulfs anyone who questions the neoliberal neocon line that Russia is enemy #1, an existential threat to the US, and, more particularly, that the evidence that Russia hacked the DNC and Podesta is flimsy at best and the evidence that Wikileaks obtained the material via Russia is nonexistent. This needs to be fought by all honest journalists and the public, and we need Greenwald to continue taking a leading role in the fight as long as this assault continues. For the Dems, it all comes down to keeping control and fighting off the social democratic challenge of Warren, Sanders, Ellison, and Gabbard. For Republican parnoids like McCain, it’s all about war, war, and more war, mainly to keep feeding the armaments industry’s insatiable hunger for more taxpayer money.
” ‘Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,’ [Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer] said on MSNBC’s ‘The Rachel Maddow Show.’ ‘So, even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this. … From what I am told, they are now very upset with how he has treated them and how he has talked about them.’ ”
washingtonpost.com, “Trump alleges delay in his briefing on ‘so-called’ Russian hacking; US official says there wasn’t one”
Glenn, while there are those that criticize you, there are also many find your adherence to the principles of journalism a reprieve from the noise makers who perceive truth a threat. Let their cries ring out as an anthem to you and those like you for a job well done.
I wonder what is wrong with major media nowadays. Was that the author/reporter assumes full responsibility of the news article he/she’s written and once the news was published and found to be false the medium/organization has to publicly retracts with apology to its readers? It seems to me the term “False/Fabricate” news has been changed to “Fake” news to release the responsibility of author/organization, OR major media organizations have evolved with time to become rumors spreader entities.
Let’s not forget the WAPO blockbuster declaring Hagzilla the new president at the end of October? It was her strangle hold on Michigan,Ohio and Pa that did it.
This is great seeing the ugly end of the Clintonite stick whacking at Glenn, he can take it and fire back but its use shows the bankruptcy of the Clintonites and their government/media quislings.
This blatant lying attack has multiple targets including anyone who disagrees, undermining Trump’s presidency, Putin’s Russia and most importantly the Amerikan public’s access to the truth and the facts. The retractions or corrections printed after these breaking propaganda offerings are spewed on the public are rarely read and the propaganda is what is retained by most readers. This is the legal psyops we can expect from the Clintonite forces even as they are dragged out of the DC swamp and removed from power.
The only powerful force opposing this nearly universal PTB lying plot is Trump and his close advisors who have stared the Clintonite CIA in the eye and called their bluff without blinking.
Perhaps Glenn and other voices could at least acknowledge they are in agreement with Trump on the critical issues of liberty and truth because he is the only powerful supporter they have.
Oh, my. WL tweets notice it is suing CNN for defamation.
Gawker II?
Sorry … failed to include the twit link: https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/816673293205983234
Wow. On that same tweet thread, Sarah Palin sez:
“To Julian Assaunge: I apologize.”
I can hardly wait for the next round of Pulitzers to be announced. How about “in the False News category the winner is….”
The list of those in the running for that award would be to long to attempt to print.
It’s the Washington Post. Surely no one takes them seriously!
What a clear and concise article, it sums up perfectly what I have witnessed since the election: media (mainstream) has been trying to hype to Russian threat, without any regard to journalistic integrity.
I can assure you that the advertising in the Washington comPost is influencing me less than the Russians did
of course WAPO makes money distributing fake news but what’s even worse is that poor, dependent newspapers like our Denver Post pick up (or are told to pick up) the fake news stories and blare them in front page headlines which makes the DP look silly to its readers. I think it’s sad that small town papers like the DP have to rely on fake news sources like WAPO and AP.
Marty Baron is a neo-liberal warmonger. Pure and simple. When he was editor of the Boston Globe, during the run-up to the Bush – Cheney invasion of Iraq, the Globe was front and center promoting the counter-factual nonsense that supported the invasion. Protests began and continued in Boston from Autumn 2002 up to and after the invasion, well into 2005. Immediately after one of these protests, in which more than 5,000 marchers blocked traffic and carried signs through all the major streets of downtown Boston for several hours, the Globe reported Nothing, absolutely Nothing about it! They did run a photo of a “hippie” holding a sign agains the war in Los Angeles.
I called Baron’s office and asked to speak with him. I’m not sure why (maybe because my name sounds Jewish and I work for a major institution) but he called me back. I asked him why the Globe was blacking out any coverage of protests in the streets of Boston involving literally thousands of people, and he said (and I quote): “There is no empirical evidence of an anti-war movement.”
That is Marty Baron for you. The prime mover of un-truth. No wonder he got a slew of Pulitzers and promotions. Along with people like Judith Miller he represents the absolute and ultimate prostitution of journalism to the fascist state.
the russia stuff had to slide into media hysteria when it became obvious that “17 US intelligence agencies” didn’t seem to care very much about “russian cyber” until after clinton lost
We ought to get together and offer a reward to anyone who can produce solid evidence that “17 US intelligence agencies” actually concluded that Russian operatives, at the behest of the highest levels in the Kremlin, conducted cyber attacks on the DNC and/or the Clinton campaign.
I don’t believe, for a second, that the agencies did reach such a conclusion, jointly and severally, and the “Grizzly Steppe” report constitutes the thinnest of pretenses that it is the case.
I’m more disturbed to know that we have more than 17 intelligence agencies than about the democrat lies. 17??? 17? How many do we need anyway? Seems like 15-16 extra ways to spend tax dollars unnecessarily to me. DC is overgrown and out of control. I wish someone would jerk a rope about the federal purse and stop the bleeding. It’s disgusting.
What you don’t believe that Coast Guard Intelligence (which is part of the 17) is not up to speed on the wily ways of Boris and Natasha Badenov.
Damnit, we now have released video evidence. Hopefully you have secret clearance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLbrGopJgDA
;^)
The fact of the matter is the Washington Post got caught, again. This is not something new? It’s been going on for decades so why is it only now that someone is reporting on it?
Answer: The Democratic party and their globalist backers have now fully exposed themselves in their zeal to try to stop Trump from becoming president. Now they are trying to rebuild themselves in the public eye to try to use it as a launching board to try to make a comeback. Why else does an acknowledged Democrat/socialist supporting writer make an article like this? Surely it’s not due to some sense of journalistic integrity. What’s been omitted from this article could fill volumes in any library.
” I was one of the first journalists to condemn the misleadingly “neutral” approach to reporting on Trump and to call for more explicit condemnations of his extremism and lies.”
Oh ya, there’s an unbiased statement. Isn’t it odd that nothing that Trump is advocating isn’t something that has already been done successfully in the past and some also done by Democrats, yet today that’s “extremism”. Nope! No bias there, just pure , clean, neutral, journalism. No doubt.
your confusion could fill many volumes
Yeah, hopefully digital volumes. It’s bad enough to waste electrons, but wasting paper and ink on such cluelessness would be inexcusable.
So you’re saying that Glenn Greenwald wrote this article in order to rebuild the Democratic Party and to help the Democratic Party make a “comeback?”
Hilarious, no?
Another one who clearly has no clue who Glenn Greenwald is, and certainly no knowledge of his 10+ years of media criticism.
As for this constant shrieking about Glenn’s “bias” & etc., rather than repeat myself I’ll link to my comment to the last clueless twit raising the same point in this thread. It’s been showing up in darn near every thread of late.
That’s it. Glenn is a Russian operative, obviously, but he moonlights as a reverse-psychology writer for the Democrats, to earn extra money for dog treats.
HA HA HA! I think he is playing eleven-dimensional chess, Doug!
I’m not sure yet whether GG is a Russian operative, but those dogs are clearly sleeper agents. Hope The Americans features them and their traitorous canine ilk next season.
P.S. An image came to mind from a Simpsons episode where Russia says “we were tricking you!” or something and then drops a facade to reveal Soviet stuff with Lenin breaking out of his tomb. I imagine now Greenwald breaking out of his Brazilian tomb and roaring, speaking only Russian. Not sure who’s been translating for him since, but he’s clearly Lenin’s reincarnated zombie, maybe.
I mean, this is obviously a serious problem but at some point it’s just absurdly humorous. Eyes rolling several orbits in the head. Head turning around chuckling in sad smirk like the Exorcist. A kind of dark humor and a long sigh. Waiting for the next utter BS MSM thing to be so utterly inane as to defy reason or proper journalism. If I couldn’t laugh even in woe I’d die in depression.
P.S. again, not sure if GG is a Russian operative, only because I find it more likely he’s a natural-born North Korean mole who underwent facial reconstruction surgery. Like in that Brosnan James Bond movie. Very likely, especially since I’m an anonymous government official, I say I say! 17 intel agencies agree with me. Proof? Evidence? What tired old-fashioned things to ask for. Hopefully the WaPo finds my post here and makes a proper article about it.
John…
WTH are you smoking bud?
the cruxt of GG’s article does not lend itself to the point you are not making…
Since a lot of journalists spread propaganda instead of practicing good, honest journalism, how do we take control of the free press guaranteed in our Constitution? Do journalists need to be licensed and held accountable for not following accepted sourcing protocols? But how do you keep a licensing board from trying to suppress free speech? I don’t know what the solution is, but the current situation is not working.
Coincidentally, Amazon (also owned by the WaPo owner Bezos) just received a $600 million contract from the CIA.
This is not the first time a company with financial ties to the CIA has helped to spread fabricated propaganda. The first example that comes to mind is back when a company receiving money from the CIA claimed to have proof of Snowden’s leak helping terrorists (which was reported by NPR’s Nina Totenburg wordfor word without any due diligence on verifying the story or reporting on the conflict of interest).
AUGUST 9th 2016: Hayden: Trump presents ‘clear and present danger’
http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/08/09/general-michael-hayden-on-trump-lead-live.cnn
General Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and NSA defended his letter signed by 49 other Republican national security officials saying Donald Trump is unqualified to be President and a clear and present danger.Source: CNN
Good! That tells me the people are winning. :o)
Even Hayden is sometimes right.
The only qualifications to be President are living in the US for 14 years, being 35 years or older, and being a natural-born citizen. Everything else re: “qualification” is subjective dross.
Life in the BRICS is pretty sweet, eh Greenwald? I guess you have nothing at all to say about the far worse media manipulation, assassination of reporters & political terror that goes on in Russia daily?
You are engaging in classic whataboutism, which is ironic considering its association with the Soviet propaganda during the Cold War.
Greenwald actually wrote an entire piece addressing the accusation you toss at him:
Why Is The Daily Beast’s Russia Critic Silent About So Many Hideous Abuses?
The process of propaganda is not such that it is a lie ….. but more about casting doubt on the truth. The Security State Trolls that work highly credible sites like The Intercept are good at casting doubt. Study their smug and smooth elitist attitude of “I have information you don’t have”. They are easy to spot. I learn from both great Intercept articles and the trolls. The trolls give a good idea where their masters are heading.
Well said, Glenn.
Why on earth would anyone pay attention to that rag? You’d be better off getting your news from Mad magazine.
What’s with that MSNBC Griffin dude? I’ve seen picture of pedophiles I’d trust more.
I fail to see how this is not an illegal act. It’s one thing to post opinion and quite another to print fiction and call it journalism.
Conservatives should be doing two things (1) boycott the Washington Post and (2) Boycott any other company that Jeff Bezos owns (like Amazon).
“Conservatives should be doing two things”
should read
“People should be doing two things”
Propagandizing Americans by our government, was illegal until Obama repealed Smith Mundt law in 2013.
When President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law in early January, he authorized implementation of the Smith Mundt Modernization Act, eliminating the domestic dissemination ban. In contrast to the alarmist punditry that surfaced last May—critics said that a repeal would allow the US to subject its own citizens to propaganda—the actual change has prompted little discussion outside of public diplomacy and international broadcast circles.
@Hillfarmer
No, that is a matter of objective truth.
No.
No it hasn’t. Not as a Democratic propaganda term, not as identified with a POV and movement to blame all of the Democratic Party’s woes on Russia and/or bogus Internet conspiracies. Not as an (overblown) phenomenon now frequently lamented by mainstream news outlets.
Oh dear. Pedinska, that’s easy to do.
502 error first time I tried to post this: Let’s try again: Pedinska, it’s easy to mess up this linky thing.
It’s gotta be the cold. We have an actual Siberian blast in Seattle with wind chill in the teens.
The cold causes 502 errors or screwing up links?
There’s been a flurry (pun) of link errors as cold can cause pedinska-fingers i.e. screwing up links.
There’s been a flurry (pun) of link errors as cold can cause pedinska-fingers
Cold doesn’t cause Pedinska-fingers, the fyslexia is already IN the dingers. :-s
Mona, actually Doug told me that some of my links have cookies that are attached to them when I visit the link to read the story. When I plop the link into the link magic formula, if I don’t remove those extra characters – and that assumes, unwisely, that I would be able to identify them in the first place – it won’t open for anyone who doesn’t have the damn cookies on their computer.
So there’s some mendaciousness going on at some sites where the stories reside and it can’t all be blamed on errant polar plunging….fyslexic dingers (I’m so relieved!)….or something. :-s
But if you all want to continue to call it pedinska-fingers, I am….um….honored. :-)
Yeah… they called us “Conspiracy Theorists” before and now they call us “Fake News” propagandists.
What’s the difference?
My answer would wholly depend on who “us” is.
I was with you until the 4th paragraph from the last then realized that radical lefty mistreated by radical leftists
Why should ‘journalists’ be pro trump or anti trump?
It is not Russia that America is at war with. It is MSM that America is at war with.
“Each now bears a humiliating editor’s note grudgingly acknowledging that the core claims of the story were fiction”
First paragraph. Your being able to say this makes me happy this morning.
I love it unreservedly when these media people all decide to bravely march together into the valley of the shadow of death, and then get slaughtered. Metaphorically of course!
Me, too!
But keep in mind, mainstream pundits and journos, like DNC party hacks, can only fail upward.
The slaughter is indeed only metaphoric, as in their getting owned on Twitter day after day. Their jobs are secure, which somehow makes it funnier.
I know it isn’t enough, but it gives me hope.
“And as someone who is very publicly in a same-sex, inter-racial marriage — with someone just elected to public office as a socialist — I make for a very unlikely alt-right leader, to put that mildly.”
Actually, I was unaware. And now that I am, I still don’t care.
When I think of Glenn Greenwald, I think “independent voice (usually in the wilderness).” And I thank you for that.
“skepticism is literally equated with treason” ……. same crap happens regarding “climate change”, “global warming”, “whatever the latest BS label is…today”
I heard a rumor that Hillary Clinton is in direct contact with Vladimar Putin. I am checking my sources for validation. Another rumor I heard is that they are
secret lovers. Better check my sources before I pass these rumors along.
‘Whatever the motives, the effects of these false stories are exactly the same as those of whatever one regards as Fake News. The false claims travel all over the internet, deceiving huge numbers into believing them.’
I am not sure about this conjecture of Greenwald at all. In fact, I believe it’s opposite: these fake news stories from WaPo make people move away from MSM outlets in huge numbers.
Counting tweets and retweets (how Greenwald cements his article) doesn’t tell the whole story. I think (and this is also conjecture) that people tweet and retweet stories like WaPo’s fake news when
sensation*(truthfullness+1)>y
That is: when the sensation of a story is high enough, it doesn’t matter how truthfull the story is as it will lead to a treshold higher than y and thus a tweet or retweet.
But instead of conjecturing, I prefer raw evidence, for instance by Gallup on how Americans trust their media: http://www.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx
I would be very curious to know if that number would even be lower after the trick that WaPo played with their Russian stories.
Willem , I completely agree with you that US MSM is doing more for the popularity of Putin than any Russian propaganda ever could. Sometimes I even wonder if the Kremlin is not behind these WaPo, NYT, CNN and BBC stories…
Vlad Putin inviting Mothers and their children to Kremlin holiday parties while the US GOV and MSM hysterically immolate themselves on the CIAs Alter to Misattribution with Intent.
Glen I greatly appreciate your integrity, bravery, and professionalism.
If the truth is “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”, then there is little truth written about controversial subjects in mainstream journalism. The economic model of the media has been ravaged and now they feel little choice but to serve power. Of course, the fundamental problem is that we hold nothing sacred except the pursuit of power, and truth is easily a casualty. We better wake up or we are headed to a very cold, dark, and lonely place.
Seems to me the oligarch owned US press is following in the footsteps of O Globo in Brazil and Clarin in Argentina they could go up there and give seminars.
I am gleeful about it all, its is so amateurish and and smells of desperation.
Like it or not Trump represents an insurgency which has deeply wounded the heart of power – really really I never thought the day would come in my lifetime when I would see the Imperial US so deeply rocked.
It’s going to be a wild ride but the post war US global hegemony is over and the goal of Project 2020 – that is “Global full spectrum domination.” by that date is now severely off schedule. We should all be grateful for that.
Nah… we (the public) were not deceived by the obvious foolishness from any MSM.
Mr. Greenwald
While these “fake” stories published by the Washington Post should be severely criticized, no one should make the jump to equate the media blitz to blame the Russian for everything (after the election of Trump) to the Russian government hacking the DNC to influence the results of the US elections (if the idea of this article – by a lawyer – is to cast doubt on the conclusion by the 17 US intelligence agencies in the government that Russia was behind the hacking).
To reiterate, Crowdstrike initially identified the DNC hack by Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear which they had identified numerous times in the past. They had considerable experience with both. This was corroborated by two other cyber security firms. So there is evidence of Russian hacking (although not proof). According to Edward Snowden, US security has the capability to identify the hackers (published in the Mackey article). Sam Biddle published an example of US signal intelligence used to identify the Russian government intrusion into the computer of a US/Russian journalist a year before she was murdered. US intelligence clearly has the capability to identify the hackers. The US correctly identified North Korea hacking into Sony.
Additionally, Russian had every incentive to support Trump. Sanctions by the US and the EU against Russia cost tens of billions of dollars to their economy each year. Trump has criticized NATO and promised detent with Russia. Trump clearly admires Putin. To Putin, Hillary was viewed as a threat. She criticized the elections in Russia and threatened to impose a no-fly zone in Syria. Under her watch, the US, France and Britain overthrew Ghaddafi and supported the opposition in Syria. Assange opposed HRC as well, so it is certainly not out of the question that Assange worked with the Russian government to influence the elections.
Obviously, the New York Times, the Washington Post and many other publications view the election win by Trump to be the biggest political (and geopolitical) disaster of the twenty-first century. For example, Trump could initiate the third Intifada by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. Trump clearly is clueless about those kinds of sensitivities surrounding the IP conflict – or worse – he doesn’t care. Trump represents everything that the Democrats detest in the Republican Party – and far worse. So while the bitter Democrats may be going off the deep end to blame Russia for everything, they rightly view the “coup” by Russia as a particular damaging to their political agenda.
You forgot to mention the conclusion of 17US intelligence agencies came with a disclaimer. What was good enough for Obama is not good enough for Trump. We will see on twitter what the agencies produce coming Friday ! The times they are changing my friend.
Thanks. I enjoy your opinion.
There you go again. Present some evidence for something, you do, but then you go and ruin it by citing the “additional evidence” that it makes sense, at least in your limited world view.
Evidence is evidence. Motive is not evidence, it is just motive. Maybe you read too many of those old police/law stories where “means, motive, and opportunity” are cited as overwhelming evidence of guilt. None are evidence of guilt. Lack of two of them can demonstrate innocence, but motive is just plain worthless.
I liked how you quietly slipped the false statement about North Korea and the Sony hack in there. But the fact of the matter is that this is yet another example of exaggeration and phony propaganda.
https://www.wired.com/2014/12/evidence-of-north-korea-hack-is-thin/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/24/no-north-korea-didn-t-hack-sony.html
http://gawker.com/a-lot-of-smart-people-think-north-korea-didnt-hack-sony-1672899940
This response was intended to be directed at craigsummers. No idea how this happened.
I also am about to slip in a quote from Edward Snowden (“If Russian intelligence did hack the DNC, the NSA would know, Snowden says” http://bit.ly/2aurlJe ):
“……..“If Russia hacked the #DNC, they should be condemned for it,” Snowden wrote on Twitter on Monday, with a link to a 2015 report on the U.S. government’s response to the hacking of Sony Pictures. In that case, he noted, “the FBI presented evidence” for its conclusion that North Korea was responsible for the hacking and subsequent release of internal emails…….”
Well said. Being exclusively motivated by perceived motivations of others on this (and apparently other forums, I’ve not checked) simply provides the “means and opportunity” to spread these argly-bargly rationalizations – thankfully, to very little effect.
Actually, evidence of motive is generally admissible in criminal cases in most jurisdictions; a jury may consider such evidence in deciding whether the accused is guilty of a crime. However motive by itself is never legally sufficient to support a guilty verdict.
Yes, I know. The folly of allowing motive as evidence (when it plainly is not) is apparent from the number of those falsely convicted of serious crimes. Add complete shit like bite mark analysis to motive, and sometimes you can even convict a white guy.
So if a man is on trial for the murder of his wife, you would not allow evidence of the $5 million life insurance policy he took out on her a week before her death?
I would expect the detective to uncover that fact and investigate the husband, looking for sufficient real evidence that he did it.
OK, but you didn’t answer my question. Should the jury know about the insurance policy or not?
I think the jury should know about it because there really is no way to keep that from happening. But if evidence is listed or summarized in a mutually reinforcing manner, it should not be there because it is not evidence.
Motive is a proper point of evidence; jury’s reasonably do want to know “why” a an accused would have done X.
But by itself, it’s not evidence of much, not without a whole lot more.
Assange says their source was neither a Russian nor a state — and I’ll believe him about WL matters over the U.S. intelligence community pretty much any day.
Assange has absolutely no credibility in this case. He understands what is at stake for him if he can be connected to the DNC hack for political reasons. In fact, is there any doubt?
I don’t expect an answer so it’s OK.
Of course they do but that does not make it reasonable. Motive can used to affect the emotions, putting a dubious case over the threshold.
Your right Mike. No one ever cited motive in a criminal case (Wikipedia):
“……A motive, in law, especially criminal law, is the cause that moves people to induce a certain action.[1] Motive, in itself, is not an element of any given crime; however, the legal system typically allows motive to be proven in order to make plausible the accused’s reasons for committing a crime, at least when those motives may be obscure or hard to identify with. However, a motive is not required to reach a verdict.[2] Motives are also used in other aspects of a specific case, for instance, when police are initially investigating.[2]…..”
I never said it was evidence in the DNC hack, but simply the reasons why Russia might be interested in a certain result for the election. “Motive” is important in Law – and that is what we are talking about in the hack of the DNC – breaking the law. Easing or eliminating sanctions, a potential 300 BILLION dollar deal with Exxon, a free reign in Ukraine etc. Russia had a great deal at stake in these elections.
What you said:
You are using that as evidence.
And of course I know that motive is allowed in the law. I am saying what it is not, not what the law says about it. Seriously, how could motive ever move you to “beyond a reasonable doubt” if you were not already there?
“………Seriously, how could motive ever move you to “beyond a reasonable doubt” if you were not already there?…..”
Lets just say that if this was Sweden, there would be no geopolitical reasons beyond just disgreement with US policies. Russia has a lot more at stake. That’s all. It’s not meant to convict Russia. I said there was no conclusive proof in my original post.
JOINT ANALYSIS REPORT “DISCLAIMER: this report is provided ‘as is’ for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within.” http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2016/12/23/DHS%20disclaimer.jpg
Plainly none of the “17 agencies” is willing to publicly stand behind these disclaimed assertions. But you are, nevertheless. Remarkable.
I believe DHS is out front BSing the pretend ass Vermont power grid to take the edge off explaining why they’ve been domestically hacking the very US elections infrastructure Crowd (attribution as a service) Strike HAS YET to issue a report on.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/georgia-donald-trump-cyberattacks-dhs-232648
Interesting. Got anything else to go with that link?
Sorry. I don’t think there’s a braille version.
You are just going to have to do better
Thanks.
A lot of opinion and little real fact. Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear are easily obtainable by anyone on the dark web. These are not “exclusive” Russian malware. Whether of not US intelligence can identify any hacker is dubious at best and just like your post, mostly opinion and little fact. It is, fact, that Podesta was hacked through his own stupidity. I have little doubt that the same can be said of the DNC. The fact is that either of these intrusion can easily be defended against. And I do mean easily. Through technology and user awareness. It is the user awareness that always falls short. And this is everywhere.
And regarding Russian intensives. It was HRC and the current administration that encouraged the interference in the Ukraine, the toppling of stabilizing dictators in Middle east, Supporting the overthrow of one of Russia’s closest allies in the Middle East. Seriously what did they think was going to happen? They did not think which is and always has been the problem with the Obama foreign policy. They view the world through their very own brand of rose colored glasses and ignore the reality of this very dangerous world. Sometimes, bad people keep the peace in dangerous parts of the world. That my friend is just a fact we all must realize.
The Media cares not about the health of the world or it population. What they only care about is bringing about their own brand of ideological government control. And those who get trampled on be damned. As far as Jerusalem, do you really think there is anything that can be done short of complete capitulation that the “Palestinians” would make peace over? That sit is completely naive. True peace is only achieved when those who would make war against you are crushed beyond any hope of retaliation against you, or view any attempt at attack a futile (i.e. mutually assured destruction)
As far as HRC, she represents everything that Republicans, Concervatives and average Americans detest about the Democrat party and their Media enablers and far, far, far worse. If the record of HRC were that of a Republican, that said republican would very likely be in jail right now.
Liberalism and globalism is dying a slow death around the world. Europe is following slowly behind the US as France, Italy and soon Germany wake up the reality that the current course is an absolute failure.
Keep living in your dream world, it is getting smaller and smaller every day.
“…….Keep living in your dream world, it is getting smaller and smaller every day…….”
Speak about dreams. Globalization has been going on for 500 years – and you think Trump (or anyone else) is going to reverse it ? That’s laughable and ridiculous at the same time. It might slow from time to time, but never stop or reverse the momentum. The world is far too interconnected – and still getting more so day by day.
People migrate toward better economic opportunity – and the west has a great deal to offer – freedom, democracy, human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and good economies with opportunity to succeed. It’s by no means perfect, but look around (the world).
I enjoy your point of view. It’s refreshing on this site, but “globalism” is not only irreversible, but gaining momentum. You are not alone though. Islamists, Christian fundamentalists and many others oppose globalization. Sorry, they are 500 years too late!
Thanks.
While I disagree with almost everything Mr. Greenwald stands for, he is totally correct in his argument against the fake news published by the Washington Post. Craig Summers, on the other hand, is totally delusional. Just because the DNC and John Podesta don’t exhibit any cyber security skills and knowledge whatsoever, it is not the fault of Russia for, supposedly, accessing their emails. Both fell for phishing emails that any sophomore in high school could have written. There were no “hacking” needed to gain access. The 17 intelligence agencies claim is more fake news. It was the head of the combined agencies who made the claim. There is no consensus by those agencies as to who actually accessed the emails and gave them to wikileaks.
Really? What on earth do you think he stands for?
Read the article. He tells you:
They, of course, know all of this is false. A primary focus of the last 10 years of my journalism has been a defense of the civil liberties of Muslims. I wrote an entire book on the racism and inequality inherent in the U.S. justice system. My legal career involved numerous representations of victims of racial discrimination. I was one of the first journalists to condemn the misleadingly “neutral” approach to reporting on Trump and to call for more explicit condemnations of his extremism and lies. I was one of the few to defend Jorge Ramos from widespread media attacks when he challenged Trump’s immigration extremism. Along with many others, I tried to warn Democrats that nominating a candidate as unpopular as Hillary Clinton risked a Trump victory. And as someone who is very publicly in a same-sex, inter-racial marriage — with someone just elected to public office as a socialist — I make for a very unlikely alt-right leader, to put that mildly.
Go ahead an attempt to prove with links that “17 US intelligence agencies”–and I want you to provide a link that shows either all 17 individually by name are in 100% agreement on the question of the hacks/leaks and who is to blame, or that all 17 have signed a statement that definitely demonstrates a uniform consensus among all 17 as to who is to responsible–together with the proof for those assertions by one or all 17.
Thanks in advance. I know you won’t be able to because that “consensus” does not in fact exist between 17 named intelligence agencies, nor have even one of them presented proof attributing provable culpability on the part of Russia’s government.
But you go ahead and try, it should be good for a laugh at what passes for “proof” or “consensus” in your mind.
Here’s an even better way to frame what you Craig Summers believes:
“I Craig Summers believe, that 17 intelligence agencies (who I cannot name) all believe (even though I cannot prove that consensus of belief attributable to each agency, that the Russian government is (in)directly responsible for the DNC AND Podesta hacks/leaks, even though not a single one of those agencies as presented public proof that establishes said culpability on the part of the Russian government or its agents.”
“Further, I Craig Summers believe all of those uncorroborated anonymous allegations to be both true and fact, because I want to believe what the “intelligence agencies” tell me anonymously, and without proof, because I’m a believer in things I can’t prove. Quite simply, I believe things other people tell me, particularly when they are authority figures who I happen to believe in choosing to believe even absent proof to corroborate their or my beliefs. Because, well, I want to believe.”
the consensus was all worked out at the last Justice League meeting
Bob Clapper speaks ON BEHALF of the 17 US intelligence agencies (according to USA Today):
“………The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities………”
That is a consensus. Maybe in time, disagreements with that statement might emerge from the intelligence community. However, until then, that is a consensus.
Thanks.
You really can’t be this stupid or brainwashed are you?
You don’t even get the guy’s name right–assuming you are referring to “James Clapper” the head of the DNI and this article:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/16/fbi-agrees-cia-russia-hacked-help-trump/95528318/
Second, Clapper doesn’t “speak” for all “17 intelligence agencies” he “oversees” them. Whatever the fuck that means. Do you actually even know what the ODNI does? Here I’ll help you:
Clapper is a bean counter first and foremost, not a spy. He’s the head logistics guy for procurement and dissemination of information to President. And a proven liar.
Moreover, all that article indicates is that the after meetings between James Comey of the FBI, who incidentally is in the hot seat personally for his little “new Clinton e-mails” disclosure that many are blaming for swaying the election, and John Brennan of the CIA, have engaged in a “consensus”.
Now personally John Brennan and James Clapper have both been caught lying to Congress, and between the 2 of them and James Comey’s “interference” I wouldn’t believe a thing the three of them state on any topic under the sun.
Similarly, in case the dumb guy who now can’t seem to remember to how to link to his proof doesn’t also know how to count–what the FBI, the CIA and DNI” add up to is 3 agencies not 17 separate “intelligence agencies” nor does it indicate a consensus among all 17.
rrheard
You write:
“…….Second, Clapper doesn’t “speak” for all “17 intelligence agencies” he “oversees” them…….”
Then you quote the responsibilities of JAMES Clapper:
“……The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) serves as the head of the Intelligence Community (IC), overseeing and directing the implementation of the National Intelligence Program (budget) and acting as the principal advisor to the President…..”
Serves as the HEAD of the intelligence community. He speaks for them.
Hillary Clinton:
“…….”We have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin, and they are designed to influence our election.”……”
PolitiFact (“Hillary Clinton blames high-up Russians for WikiLeaks releases” http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/19/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-blames-russia-putin-wikileaks-rele/):
“…….However, as the head of the 17-agency intelligence community, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, headed by James Clapper, speaks on behalf of the group……….Clinton said, “We have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin, and they are designed to influence our election.”……the Director of National Intelligence, which speaks for the country’s 17 federal intelligence agencies, released a joint statement saying the intelligence community at large is confident that Russia is behind recent hacks into political organizations’ emails. The statement sourced the attacks to the highest levels of the Russian government and said they are designed to interfere with the current election……..We rate Clinton’s statement True…….”
So do I. You can fuck off now
Thanks.
Your post begins with a very revealing use of ironic quotes (“fake” news). The news was fake, absolutely false. No quotes were needed.
You then parrot the Democrat line, inflating the tiny amount of factual content of the “17 U.S. intelligence agencies” report in an attempt to confer respectability on the outrageous notion that Trump and the Russians are in cahoots.
The final third of your post is an embarrassing compendium of your own fantasies about Trump’s motivations and likely actions, supported by nothing but hot air.
I had high hopes when I voted for Obama in 2008. I now regard him as the worst U.S. president of my lifetime. He is an unmitigated disaster in virtually every area of presidential performance.
The possibility that “the New York Times, the Washington Post and many other publications view the election win by Trump to be the biggest political (and geopolitical) disaster of the twenty-first century” shouldn’t be much cause for concern, given the fact that these newspapers have demonstrated their utter lack of credibility.
Everything you write if very arguably true. Just for context, Assange has explicitly denied that the leaks were from any state actor, including Russia. Personally, I admire and tend to believe people such as Assange and Snowden, who certainly have taken the road less traveled.
For more context, if the DNC had nominated Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, or even Joe Biden, Trump would be nothing but a memory. Obama was still fairly popular and it should have been easy.
Craigsummers [lightly edited for accuracy]
Mr. Greenwald
While these “fake” [justifications] published by [me] should be severely criticized, no one should make the jump to equate [my constant] blam[ing of] the Russian[s] for everything ([before and] after the election of Trump) [with anything other than my undying love of] the [U.S.] government[.] [As everyone has proved to me repeatedly, leaking] the DNC [emails] to [inform] the [electorate is simply a truth I cannot ever believe. My objectives have always been to try and] cast doubt [,or just simply lie about, any source that disagrees with] the [highly speculative and unproven assertions] by the 17 US intelligence agencies in the [U.S.] government that Russia was behind the hacking).
To reiterate, [blah, blah, blah, blah…….blah, blah-blah-blah, fart, blah]
Obviously, [I have not idea what the word] “coup” [means, but simply prefer to use] Russia [as it i]s a particular[ly easy target to advance my] political agenda.
Great article Mr. Greenwald. I think you will get justice against the smears down the road. Hillary and
the democrats made a big point about Trump being a Putin lackey during the election. You noted post-election that American voters didn’t wake up every morning worrying about Putin. Democrats and those attacking you are doubling down and believing these things to the point of near insanity (as you mentioned your Jimmy Dore interview). Democrats will go into the 2018 and I suspect the 2020 election thinking that yes, American voters do wake up afraid of what Putin will do. In a conspiratorial way, the Vermont story was all about making Putin a more realistic threat than the abstraction that we must fight against Putin to ensure Lithuanian (who?) borders. If Trump doesn’t totally fall on his face in the next two years, the democrats will once again lose.
And oh about your crazy remarks on Jimmy Dore. Trump is appointing a more protectionist trade representative and reading recent democratic recations, you’d swear maybe NAFTA is not such a bad deal. Or even earlier with Carrier democrats didn’t want government tax breaks for private companies, even though they have many times done the same (like in blue Oregon giving major breaks to Nike and Intel).
While I am grateful you wrote this article clearly showing the hypocrisy of the main stream media, I am still in shock that not even the local Vermont papers have discredited the original story. After Wapo’s 2nd story saying that the malware was not likely Russian or that the laptop might not have been infected I kept googling looking for any of the major media outlets to put out a story, but I haven’t seen a single one. I didn’t vote for Trump or Hillary, but the mainstream media is just looking for any chance to discredit the Trump victory. Shameless
Nothing remotely compares. Too true. Including the Snowden reporting. I usually read the comments before commenting but damn…
“Indeed, in my 10-plus years of writing about politics on an endless number of polarizing issues — including the Snowden reporting — nothing remotely compares to the smear campaign that has been launched as a result of the work I’ve done questioning and challenging claims about Russian hacking and the threat posed by that country generally. This is being engineered not by random, fringe accounts, but by the most prominent Democratic pundits with the largest media followings.”
“Along with many others, I tried to warn Democrats that nominating a candidate as unpopular as Hillary Clinton risked a Trump victory. And as someone who is very publicly in a same-sex, inter-racial marriage — with someone just elected to public office as a socialist — I make for a very unlikely alt-right leader, to put that mildly.”
I have been Russia watching since the Ukrainian coup. And over time I saw what our media, administration, and pundits were doing regarding Russia resembled to me the build up to the justification for the invasion of Iraq. The big difference is now the absolute hysteria around the issue of “Russian anything” and with it the unhinged attacks to anybody questioning the narrative, or in the case of Glenn and others, simply asking for some facts.
Democrats have been playing the public for fools for a long, long time. Their corrupt tactics know no bounds. They have been caught in the act and that is one of the reasons they lost the election. Now they are squirming and qvetching and it looks good on them. Talk about fake news, they invented fake news, anyone with half a brain can check it out. Here’s a flash for you, I have just been informed, can’t reveal my source, that Hillary and Putin have had a torrid love affair and it’s still going on, this is a story the MSM will not tell you about. This could turn out to be a rumor but where there is smoke there is fire, just saying. Even Drudge won’t tell you about it…I wonder why? Maybe there’s no truth to it but it does make one wonder. Rumors ‘and fake news are easy fodder for a gullible public.
Alas, there is nothing new under the sun.
In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.
– Autobiographical dictation, 10 July 1908. Published in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3 (University of California Press, 2015)
Look at the tyranny of party — at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty — a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes — and which turns voters into chattles, slaves, rabbits, and all the while their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction; and forgetting or ignoring that their fathers and the churches shouted the same blasphemies a generation earlier when they were closing their doors against the hunted slave, beating his handful of humane defenders with Bible texts and billies, and pocketing the insults and licking the shoes of his Southern master.
– “The Character of Man,” inserted in autobiographical dictation 23 January 1906. Published in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (University of California Press, 2010)
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable. –H.L.Menken
I would challenge your math, Glenn. Those who want to believe false news such as these will indeed follow it, and retweet, to still others already in the bag. But those numbers will diminish, as the POst cannot expect to grow an audien ce that way. WAPO is now irrelevant to at least 50% of American 2nd-hand readers, and thaT is quicking drifting into readres of first resort. Just start keeping count, and come back in year, then 2, then 3.
The WP developing the same fatal credibility practices as CNN which is hurting them dearly. The beginning of an end with the air of desperation now. Not good.
The Lawrence O’Donnell show last night was literally stating that Trump’s praise tweet of Putin was tantamount to Treason.
So, not only is skepticism treason, but apparently any positive acknowledgment is as well.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/01/03/lawrence_odonnell_trumps_tweet_praising_putin_could_be_treason.html
Thanks. I watched but got have way it was so insane. Lawrence O’Donnell accused Trump of treason over a tweet. Treason is a crime punishable by death. The tweet had no state secrets, no revelation of undercover agents in the field, no announcement of new secret weapons. Trumps simply wrote Putin is smart.
Saying Putin is smart on twitter is now a crime potentially punishable by death.
The utter insanity that has overtaken democratic party mouth pieces.
Good read, Glen. The original Fake News that encouraged The Left to create more of it is Anthropogenic Climate Change:
1. Create false, unproven narrative.
2. Propagandize that the narrative is factual and “settled science.”
3. Crucify the naysayers (or the intellectual challengers), i.e. “Deniers.”
4. Re-establish the story despite prevailing facts that contradict (i.e. no warming in 18 years).
The incentive to Russian hacking false news for liberals is increased credibility among the Leftist Elite. The incentive for man-made climate change is actual currency – fictitious carbon-trading markets and payoffs of shake-downs by Developing Countries by Developed Countries.
Great of you to point up the corruption here.
I am not so sure about these media outlets not hurting themselves by running BS stories. I for one have lost all respect for the major newspapers in America. I use site blocker and have NYT, LAT, WaPo all blocked. I just got sick of being lied to continuously. This whole Obama and the Democrats could do no wrong approach has blown squarely up in their faces. They just refuse to admit it will in the long term doing even more damage.
The Fourth Estate is dead
Its good that Glenn Greenwald is exposing and shaming the Washington Post on this anti-Russia propaganda that is intended to de-legitimize Trump’s Presidency.
The fact that Glenn is being attacked is because he is succeeding in exposing the Washington Post. He should continue to expose them.
In fact, those inclined to look will find that a lot of the war on terror news stories published by the holy trinity of the NYT, the Washington Post and CNN easily fall into the category of fake news. All it takes is some digging and someone willing to expose these fake news purveyors.
But the Intercept should also do an article on the dangerous new US Government Department of Truth and Propaganda created by Obama’s new law, the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act .
“In a time of deceit , telling the truth is a revolution act”( George Orwell ) Here are some of your truth tellers, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Glen Greenwald to name a few. Who do you believe the CIA, FBI, and the NSA!
The hero is really the villian and the villian is really the hero, WAKE UP AMERICA.
Speaking of propaganda, and another problem independent of “fake news” (however defined), is the fact that corporate mainstream media “cabins” the “realm of possible discourse” and thereby the potential solutions to problems in who they choose to give a “platform” to.
Case in point, Al From and the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/04/why-populism-wont-help-democrats-win-again
If there’s more explicit case of being a moral and intellectual dullard strapped up to a politically clueless meatsack, it’s Al From. And that’s not even getting into his bona fides as a propagandist who couldn’t catch his own ass if he had two giant baskets surgically connected to each hand.
It isn’t a problem that the economy is growing fast enough, it is a problem that the fruits of wealth created by all aren’t distributed in a much more egalitarian fashion–which is the only way a “capitalist demand-based economy” [and I’d argue the “right kind of consumption is vital as well”, which is all of them, is going to survive. And that simple fact eludes idiots and architects of the disaster that is the Third Way Clinton-Blair form of “liberalism”.
I mean just read his deluded shit:
No you fucking dick, those aren’t the “first principles” of the Democratic party, these are the first principles of the Democratic party that you’ve completely abandoned:
During Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s January 11, 1944 message to the US Congress on the State of the Union, he said the following: