Russia hoax

The Todd connection

Featured image The public shaming of Ronna McDaniel by NBC/MSNBC’s partisan talent represents an almost unbelievable failure of self-knowledge. One wants to shout Look in the mirror, you fools! The mob in this case was led by Chuck Todd, who is himself a pathetic excuse of a journalist. Todd’s role in this episode rankles. He was among the many of his tribe who promoted the Steele Dossier and the Russia hoax during »

Disinformation, Theirs and Ours

Featured image The terrorist attack in Moscow that killed more than 130 apparently was the work of ISIS-K, one of several ISIS franchises. That is what our intelligence agencies say, and I have no reason to doubt it. The fact that ISIS was able to upload video footage apparently recorded by the terrorists would appear to confirm that ISIS was responsible. The London Times reports: A Russian disinformation campaign is attempting to »

The Evolution of Electoral Fraud

Featured image In 1962, there was a Senate race in South Dakota between Republican Joseph Bottum and Democrat George McGovern. The seat was open due to the death of Republican Francis Case. I was just a kid, but I remember that election well. Bottum was the favorite, but in the closing days of the race the Democrats spread a rumor that he was an alcoholic. That ploy may have been crude, but »

13 ways of looking at disinformation

Featured image In March 2023 Tablet published Jacob Siegel’s “A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century.” Subhead accompanied by the profile of a blackbird’s head: “Thirteen ways of looking at disinformation.” (The subhead and graphic allude to the Wallace Stevens poem.) Siegel’s magnum opus runs to some 13,000 words. I meant to include Siegel’s column in my take on “The year in columns.” Indeed, I had devoted a separate post »

No relation to Minerva McGonagall

Featured image Former FBI Special Agent Charles McGonigal helped kick off the Russia collusion hoax and appears to have been engaged in some serious projection. McGonigal was charged this past January in the Southern District of New York with committing federal crimes in exchange for “concealed payments” for illegal services provided to sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. McGonigal was separately charged with taking $225,000 in cash from a naturalized citizen with business »

Comey’s hip new media tour

Featured image Matt Taibbi posted his subscribers-only assessment of “Jim Comey’s hip new media tour” on May 31 at his Racket News site. On a day when the perversion of American law enforcement is the only story, Comey has earned another moment in the sun. Taibbi’s eloquent derision of Comey and his media hosts is now available in the video narrated by Jared Moore below. Quotable quote: “This stuff makes Central Television »

The Russia Collusion Hoax Lives On. Or Does It?

Featured image Years after the claim was exposed as a clumsy fraud, most Democrats still believe that Donald Trump likely colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election. Rasmussen finds: The first question in the survey asked, “How likely is it that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russian agents during the 2016 election?” Forty-three percent (43%) believed it was likely, including 26% who thought it was Very Likely. Forty-seven percent (47%) »

The case of Jane Mayer

Featured image John Durham’s detailed report on the Russia hoax should destroy the (positive) reputation of the FBI. It is devastating. One has to go beyond the four corners of the report to assess the impact it should have on the (positive) reputation of the establishment press, though its positive reputation has been crumbling for decades. The press was of course an integral part of the Russia hoax all along the way. »

A note on the Durham Report

Featured image The 306-page report issued by Special Counsel John Durham seems a bit muted to me. The Durham report renders judgment in his report’s executive summary: “Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report.” You don’t say. »

Durham Report Rips FBI

Featured image As Steve noted earlier this afternoon, John Durham released his long-awaited report today. The report is long, over 300 pages, and I have not had time to read it all. It is embedded below; you can read it and draw your own conclusions. While measured in tone, the report’s Executive Summary is harshly critical of the FBI. Much of what it details has already been in the public domain, but »

The disinformation hoax

Featured image In late March Tablet published Jacob Siegel’s “A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century.” Subhead accompanied by the profile of a blackbird’s head: “Thirteen ways of looking at disinformation.” (The subhead and graphic allude to the Wallace Stevens poem). It’s a long-form essay that runs to some 13,000 words. The introduction is followed by a table of contents with links to the chapters: I. Russophobia Returns, Unexpectedly: The »

A Twitter Files footnote (18)

Featured image If you’ve been following our coverage of the Twitter Files, or following the Twitter Files themselves on your own, you know that Hamilton 68 was an offshoot or tributary of the Russia hoax. Here is a contemporaneous 2017 Reuters story on the launch of the Hamilton 68 site. It may seem obscure, but Matt Taibbi has just posted the useful video companion below depicting MSNBC repeating Hamilton 68 lies 279 »

13 ways of looking at disinformation

Featured image Last week Tablet published Jacob Siegel’s “A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century.” Subhead accompanied by the profile of a blackbird’s head: “Thirteen ways of looking at disinformation.” (The subhead and graphic allude to the Wallace Stevens poem). Siegel’s magnum opus runs to some 13,000 words. The introduction is followed by a table of contents with links to the chapters: I. Russophobia Returns, Unexpectedly: The Origins of Contemporary »

A Twitter Files footnote (11)

Featured image With a little help from Andrew McCarthy I wrote about former New York Times investigative reporter Jeff Gerth’s four-part Columbia Journalism Review retrospective on the bigfoot media’s promotion of the Russia hoax in “The deep meaning of ‘no comment.'” Aaron Maté took up Gerth’s series in the February 15 RCP column “Unchastened by Russiagate, the NY Times Doubles Down in Its Special Counsel Coverage.” Now Maté has interviewed Gerth in »

A Twitter Files footnote (10)

Featured image The Twitter Files lie at the intersection of the law enforcement and national security establishment, the bigfoot press, social media, and the Democratic Party. Reporter Matt Taibbi has immersed himself in the Twitter Files courtesy of Elon Musk. By my rough count, Taibbi has posted 10 or so of the 15 Twitter Files threads so far. Taibbi has also compiled a summary of each of the threads here at his »

The deep meaning of “no comment”

Featured image Former New York Times investigative reporter Jeff Gerth has written a lengthy retrospective on the coverage of the Trump presidency and the award-winning journalism supporting the Russia hoax in particular. Indeed, we regularly mocked the coverage of the Russia hoax, as in my five-part mock epic Dossiad ridiculing the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer. It is useful to have Gerth’s 24,000-word series as published in four parts by the Columbia Journalism »

Notes on the Twitter Files (15)

Featured image Matt Taibbi has posted the fifteenth installment of the Twitter Files. It is a thread that comes in 42 tweets that can be accessed via the first (below) or read in unrolled form via the Thread Reader app here. 1.THREAD: Twitter Files #15MOVE OVER, JAYSON BLAIR: TWITTER FILES EXPOSE NEXT GREAT MEDIA FRAUD pic.twitter.com/bLRpDpuWql — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023 Taibbi’s thread addresses the Hamilton 68 “dashboard” fronted by »