1/ Great, and important, @NateSilver538 series of tweets putting the latest RUSSIANS!! stories into context and perspective. That's rarely if ever done by the outlets pushing these stories because a news cycle driven by tweets & 4-minute cable hits rewards hype & punishes nuance:
2/ The reporter who originally wrote about the Internet Research Agency - to well-deserved applause - is @AdrianChen. He's since spent 2 years urging people to stop exaggerating their reach & sophistication, warning that they're crude, primitive and tiny - not masterminds: 
3/ Another key point @AdrianChen has been making is that exaggerating the Internet Research Agency's reach, size, influence & "meddling" is akin to how the terrorist threat was exaggerated: to justify more spying power, bigger security state agencies, and more militarism
4/ It's been so obvious all along where all this exaggeration, hype & inflation of The Russian Threat is by design headed, whereby totally pedestrian, low-level "meddling" is depicted as some kind of 9/11 or Pearl Harbor: toward more security state power. theguardian.com/world/2014/apr…
5/ These are why many of us have been resistant to depicting Russia as a Grave Enemy that did something unlike anything US (& Russia) routinely do: not because we love Putin or are Kremlin assets but because we don't want more militarism, Internet control or a new Cold War.
