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15 Apr, 27 tweets, 8 min read
"It was a blockbuster story....The Kremlin had spread money around [Afghanistan] for militants to kill US forces. It sparked a massive outcry from Democrats...But on Thursday, the Biden Admin. announced that U.S. intelligence only had “low to moderate” confidence in the story."
Remember this as you watch cable stars claiming to be "journalists" yet again treat a U.S. intelligence agency assertion, completely unaccompanied by evidence, as Truth.

This, apparently, is what they mean by "Real Reporting™": blind faith in CIA pronouncements.
There's a new government report out today that makes a claim about Russiagate: the eternal crack pipe of the corporate media. The claim has no evidence: just a CIA/DHS assertion.

Just watch how many media figures on Twitter are now treating it as Gospel: not to be questioned.
Remember: this discredited RUSSIA BOUNTY story wasn't just treated as Gospel by the CNN/NBC/NYT axis.

It was a main argument used in July by pro-war House Dems & their key ally, Liz Cheney, to try to block Trump's withdrawal plan from Afghanistan:

theintercept.com/2020/07/02/hou…
Debunking bullshit propaganda reports from the corporate press is one form of Real Reporting™ -- a very important form of it -- because media propaganda deceives and misleads people, while the debunking illuminates and informs: the core purpose of journalism.
It's good that the Daily Beast noted the US intelligence assessment of "low to moderate confidence" in the Russia bounty story. But they were also one of the many, many outlets uncritically hyping and pushing it:

Look for journalists today hyping the new CIA claims about Russiagate as Proven Fact -- they're all over the place already -- and ask them how they know it's true. Do they need evidence or do they just blindly believe the CIA? It will tell you a lot about how the press functions.
What's most amazing about this is that this "walking back" by US intelligence agencies is happening **on the same day** they just published a new evidence-free Russiagate claim, and it doesn't cause media stars to be even a tiny bit skeptical of it.

If you don't know that US intelligence agencies exist to spread disinformation and lie, then you know literally nothing about how the US Government functions.

And if you claim to be a "journalist" but mindlessly treat all US Govt claims as true with no evidence, you're pitiful.
Hilarious - The Washington Post's fact-checker @GlennKesslerWP gave Trump "Four Pinocchios" in part for saying he wasn't briefed on the Russia Bounty story, but also for dismissing it as unproven "Fake News":

washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
Working on an article on how -- even on the day a CIA leaked story about RUSSIAN BOUNTIES fell apart -- major journalists are mindlessly repeating a new Russiagate claim from USG as Gospel, even though it has no evidence. Hardest challenge is picking examples - so many of them.
It's been true for decades but got way worse under Trump: the primary attribute of US corporate journalists is that they worship the CIA and FBI and treat whatever these security agencies tell these journalists to say and think as True without any skepticism. Just look today!
This time I believe the US Government is telling me the truth - 😇
"Right now, I want to hear their plan for Taliban and GRU agents in body bags" -- @SenSasse, June 29, 2020, calling for the US military to kill Russians and Afghans based on the now-discredited story of RUSSIAN BOUNTIES.

politico.com/news/2020/06/2…
A mix of state TV and disinformation. CNN, June 28, 2020. Watch what they do:

Watch how pro-war House Democrats and Liz Cheney used this Russia bounty story to try to block Trump's withdrawal plan from Afghanistan. This is @sethmoulton in July. Listen to what he said:

Not only was there no evidence presented for this Russia Bounty story -- one that the CNN/MSNBC/NYT axis stated over and over was true (like the Brian Sicknick/fire extinguisher tale and many others), it was long clear this story was dubious. From Sept:

Do you see how often these media outlets disseminate utter falsehoods and fabrications? The reason they're obsessed with ranting about disinformation on Facebook & demanding censorship of others is so you don't realize how often they do this:

This is where the most disinformation comes from. Right here. Over and over and over.

It's so fucking infuriating. These are the outlets which demand the internet be censored in the name of stopping disinformation -- so that the only ones who can speak are them -- yet they are the ones who spread the most Fake News of anyone.
This is the individual in the US media most responsible for spreading deranged conspiracy theories, Fake News, jingoistic hysteria and CIA propaganda to millions of people over the last five years. Watch her in action:

Watch Maddow's show tonight (I know, it's hard) to see if she acknowledges that she went on air over and over and unquestioningly ranted to millions of people about a dangerous and inflammatory CIA story for which there was no evidence presented. She's done this repeatedly.
(I apologize in advance if any of the journalists I've criticized here for mindlessly repeating CIA propaganda and deceiving millions of people end up reading mean tweets as a result or suffering other forms of "harassment" and "trauma. Trying to do better).
⛄️
One of the NYT reporters who originally broke the Russia bounty story (originally attributed to unnamed "intelligence officials") say today that it was a CIA claim. So media outlets - again - repeated CIA stories with no questioning: congrats to all.

nytimes.com/2021/04/15/us/…
Four years of propaganda from the CIA/Media/Democratic-Party axis condensed into 1 minute and 20 seconds from NBC News. This is what was done over and over:
greenwald.substack.com/p/how-do-big-m…

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More from @ggreenwald

Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
15 Apr
This is an incredibly important and illuminating thread, brilliantly constructed, showing how the NYT/CNN/MSNBC/WPost axis spoke about Trump's attempt to withdrawal from Afghanistan in the exact opposite way as they are depicting Biden's. Just look for yourself at what they are:
Let me add one amazing example. Look at this:

On the left, beloved liberal @NewYorker writer @sbg1 warned *just 6 months ago* that opposition by Generals to Trump's withdrawal announcement was some grave crisis. *Today*, she heralds Biden as courageous for defying his Generals!
These media people are absolutely craven and bereft of principles. They deserves the loss of trust and scorn the public harbors from them. They don't even realize they're doing it: they think they're honest reporters. That's why there's no self-critique.

axios.com/media-trust-cr…
Read 4 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
13 Apr
Big Corporations Now Deploying Woke Ideology the Way Intelligence Agencies Do: As a Disguise

greenwald.substack.com/p/big-corporat…
By draping itself in the finery of political activism, the corporatist class consolidates political power, corrupts democracy and distracts from its real functions.

This presents two dangers: 1) further oligarchical control over democracy and 2) hiding the real social threats.
The farcial nature of corporations purporting sincere for concern over social justice values and interfering in political debates is as manifest as when the CIA feigns such concern. But the obvious fraud of it does not dilute the dangers it poses.
Read 5 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
12 Apr
1/ This predictably viral tweet from a Georgetown #Resistance Professor is an obvious distortion. In fact, it attributes to me a view -- that nobody can form judgments absent formal charges -- that I *explicitly* rejected. What's needed aren't formal charges but *evidence*:
2/ All anyone has to do is read my article to see how many lies are circulating on Twitter, to the point of, again, trending. I explicitly said we *don't* need trials to form judgments - just *evidence* (which we have with Hunter's business deals but not Gaetz's private life):
3/ I only made two points: 1) we should wait for evidence before assuming guilt, particularly for grave accusations; and 2) it's difficult to reconcile moral condemnation here with prevailing left-wing views on sex work, drug use, and bodily autonomy. You can hear it right here:
Read 8 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
12 Apr
Among the many interesting points about Substack in @benyt's article -- including why it's such a threat to corporate journalists -- is the fact that it's now offering prominent trans writers huge advances beyond what they earn, and they're taking them.

nytimes.com/2021/04/11/bus…
The person who originated the narrative that Substack and many of its writers are transphobic is now claiming both the NYT & @benyt are transphobic because of the article they wrote on the controversy, even though the article featured a trans couple getting $600k from Substack.
That the NYT & @benyt are transphobic in general, or that this article is in particular is, is facially laughable. It's good to remember how some people casually and recklessly hurl this accusation, or weaponize it to smear people or just for fun:

nytimes.com/2021/04/11/bus…
Read 4 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
11 Apr
Due Process, Adult Sexual Morality and the Case of Rep. Matt Gaetz

greenwald.substack.com/p/due-process-…
The Florida Congressman has not been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crimes. No evidence has yet been presented. But in many circles, his legal and moral guilt are assumed. The reaction to this case raises important questions of political, legal and cultural judgments.
All or some of these accusations against Rep. Gaetz very well may be true and, one day — perhaps imminently — there will be ample publicly available evidence demonstrating this.

But that day has not yet arrived. That should matter for how the case is discussed.
Read 5 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
9 Apr
This is the reason that leaders around the world -- Merkel, Macron, AMLO and numerous others -- objected so loudly when Silicon Valley removed Trump from the internet, even as US journalists swooned. They see that this kind of oligarchical censorship is anti-democratic tyranny:
If Google's policy -- that you get banned for saying *anything* about COVID-19 that deviates from the views of WHO, Dr. Fauci & friends -- were in place in March, 2020, then you'd have been banned for *urging people to wear masks*. That's when WHO/Fauci were anti-mask.
Listen to Mexican President López Obrador after tech monopolies banned Trump in January, 2021, warning of the serious dangers posed by online censorship to basic democracy and its ability to survive -- warnings repeated by Germany, France & EU officials:

Read 5 tweets

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