Thread by @Wilson__Valdez

The difference b/w the Glenn Standard he applies to believing anything that goes against his narrative ("I just need to see 100% rock solid proof, beyond a reasonable doubt") & the casual smearing he does of people he sees as "enemies" is so comically glaring.

People point out something obvious about Glenn ("Hey you've spent an awful lot of time defending white supremacists.") & he will respond indignantly w/ a demand that the commenter produce a notarized copy of Glenn saying "I love White supremacists" or else it's a lie & a smear.

But here when it comes to Bellingcat, someone he sees as an enemy, he just casually declares them "a propaganda arm of the CIA & State Dept." Source? None. Just pulling out of his ass. Because the opposite of the Glenn Standard applies when he's the one making the accusations.

So why does Glenn hate Bellingcat so much? Well b/c his entire shtick relies on maintaining his narratives through (extremely contrived) plausible deniability. Yes, there is mountains of evidence that RU did this thing & they're the only ones w/ the motives to do it but NO PROOF.

And rest assured, there already is sufficient proof, but Glenn pretends there isn't. And then lambastes anyone who points out the obvious as something akin to 'blind stooges, taking US lying Deep State at face value'. But Bellingcat takes it to a step that even he can't deny.

A few examples. When RU proxies in Ukraine shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17. Glenn was basically silent before calling for his usual "need see solid proof." In fact, the Russian government found him so useful that they included him in their pushback.

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1020134321947017216

But then @bellingcat published intercepts of the Russian proxies admitting on tape that they had done it. Case closed. You'd think if you were a journalist just waiting for proof, you'd celebrate having this rock solid proof, but not Glenn. He just never mentioned it again.

And then there was the time RU intelligence brazenly poisoned Sergei Skripal in England. Yet again, it was completely obvious by both motive & method (a Russian developed nerve agent) who was behind the attempted murder. And yet again, Glenn's line was, "NO PROOF. SHOW ME PROOF!"

In fact, he even went as far as to do an interview w/ Russian state TV (while he was in Moscow visiting @Snowden) proclaiming how everyone is innocent until proven guilty & he, as an honest journalist, was just waiting for proof before making such a serious (obvious) accusation.

But then, yet again, @Bellingcat identified the suspects and surprise- they were GRU officers. There it was. Case closed. So how did Glenn respond to the 'proof' he claimed to be seeking? Well of course, he just never talked about it again.

bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

So TL;DR:
Why does Glenn have such a seething hatred of @bellingcat? Because they provide the inconvenient 'proof' that his rigged plausible deniability game claims to be seeking & destroy his narratives (which always conveniently seem to be exonerating Russia & PUTIN).