Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. Every step in investigating the flow of information from the conspiracy involving Corsi/Stone/Russian hackers/Assange to conservative media is getting worse and worse. THIS is a major outrage, and a sign of the utter collapse of American journalism. Now, @CNN is involved...

@CNN 2...do not underestimate what we are talking about here: Two conservative political types were in contact with Russian hackers - directly or indirectly - who were engaged in a direct assault on American democracy. They did not run to the FBI. They did not reveal what they knew...

@CNN 3...they rubbed their hands in glee and proclaimed "how can we take advantage of the fact that one of America's enemies is engaged in a cyberwar against us to make sure we get tax cuts." In my view, this is treason. It is aiding and comforting the enemy. And these people should..

@CNN 4...at best rot in jail for the rest of their lives. Americans DO NOT work with Russians to undermine American democracy. Traitors do.

Enough rage. So, back to timeline: On 8/2/16, Corsi said in an email to Stone that, as part of the plans to coordinate with Russian hackers...

@CNN 5...they would push the "Hilary is feeble, suffering neurological problems, can't handle it." It was all a lie. KEY to this is knowing if they were literally operating off of information from the hackers that they had discovered she had pneumonia. If that email exists, the....

@CNN 6...crime is even worse. But moving on.

Within days, Drudge launched the "She is so feeble she needs to be helped up the stairs" using a photo that was months old that was actually of her slipping on stairs and being caught. It was a lie. Then, about the same time - not later...

@CNN 7...as I first believed, @seanhannity beagle pushing the same lie that had been derived from Russian hackers as described in the Corsi/Stone email of Aug 2. Then, all of conservative media was flooded with this conspiracy theory.....

@CNN @seanhannity 8...I remember thinking at the time, "Where the hell is all this coming from?" There was LITERALLY no proof that Hillary had any medical problems. Her real medical records had been released, while Trump's had not (unless he had every disease known to man, as his letter said.)....

@CNN @seanhannity 9...but it flooded around and flooded around, an online assault based on a fantasy that traced back to Russian hackers who were in direct or indirect contact with Corsi.

So what does the non-conspiracy media do? Talk about "the controversy," of course - a "controversy"...

@CNN @seanhannity 10...that was ginned up by enemies of America, dirty tricksters, Russian hackers and the rest. Now, a break: The absolute key. Roger Stone, AFTER the communication with Corsi which conveyed how to best aid the Russian hackers in there next attack, RELEASED A DOCUMENT that....

@CNN @seanhannity 11...made the VERY argument that the Russians wanted made. The conserv media DID NOT reference Stone's role in this. Then, when the mainstream media covered it, it went like this: "Conser media spreading this story, Trump repeating it, Clinton campaign says it came from Stone..."

@CNN @seanhannity 12...the only FACT was buried deep deep in the stories, after paragraph after paragraph repeating the garbage that Russian hackers wanted Corsi to tell Stone to spread.

One bad example: @CNN and @brianstelter. The reason Stetler is the worst here is that he is a media....

@CNN @seanhannity @brianstelter 13...reporter keeps posing as a political reporter. He wrote a story that he did not know had almost EVERYTHING in it..Trump and conservative media pushing a conspiracy theory, the HRC campaign says they come from fake documents pushed by Stone. He did not know the origin of....

@CNN @seanhannity @brianstelter 14...this was Russian hackers. But we ALL knew at that point that the Russians were spreading disinformation as part of an electoral interference. And then??!!! To run a story saying "Democratic candidate denies rumors." WTF is that? Since WHEN do we get responses to RUMORS?....

@CNN @seanhannity @brianstelter 15....what should have happened is what, I'm sorry, I did. A full frontal assault on their lies. Pointing out the reasons they were lies. Not "some people say this, some people say that."

Journalism is supposed to be about judgment. It is NOT "one side says this and one side...

@CNN @seanhannity @brianstelter 16...says that." Watch: "CNN has been infiltrated by Russian spies." Will they report that with a comment from CNN spokesperson saying "We have not been infiltrated by Russian spies."?

The ABSOLUTE lesson here: Modern journalism is crap. We have created a situation where....

@CNN @seanhannity @brianstelter 17...in a total lack of recognition of the real world, we present "some people say fantasy. Others say reality" as actual journalism.

It. Is. Not.

Before you seek a "response" you need proof that the original allegation is true. The failure to do that is why American media...

@CNN @seanhannity @brianstelter 18...was overridden by Russian propaganda and conservative lies. I truly believe that the reason why I was so viciously attacked for my pre-election Russia reporting - all of which has been proven correct - by members of my profession is that they no longer do reporting....

@CNN @seanhannity @brianstelter 19...I have mentioned before - when my Russia stories went up, the Newsweek site was taken down by hackers. They were identified by law enforcement as Russian hackers. Were they? I dont know. But what i DO know is that we were hitting a nerve. And the press ran....

@CNN @seanhannity @brianstelter 20..."Oh, there is no link between Trump and Russia, and what about Hillary's health (pushed by Russian hackers) and what about her emails?"

Goddamit! If the media does not see how badly they have been manipulated, how terribly they performed, how they reported on peoples...

@CNN @seanhannity @brianstelter 21...opinions rather than doing shoe-leather reporting, were doomed to have this happen again.

Final note: Pre-election, I spoke to dozens of sources about Russian interference. And each one said I was the only reporter to have contacted them. How is that possible?

Done.