Thread by @3r1nG

I wondered where the rumors claiming the Reuters piece is "Russian disinformation" began since various people were tweeting about that in my mentions yesterday.

So I searched "Reuters Tass" 😐

One major problem with the Reuters piece is that it relies on information from anonymous law enforcement sources - something Glenn Greenwald usually hates and has publicly denounced for years.

Tass is not the source of the Reuters article.

It's also got a sensational headline which is why it's right-wing catnip.

As a side note, an article that's published outside of the right-wing media ecosystem is more influential because it appears more credible.

So here's the article some of these folks are tweeting regarding Tass joining Reuters Connect.

June 2020: "TASS joins a growing roster of 17 news agencies whose content is already available to clients on Reuters Connect" reuters.com/article/rpb-ta…

Reuters and Tass are news agencies (aka newswires or wire services). That's different than a news outlet.

The customers of a news outlet are its readers/viewers. The customers of a news agency are news outlets. They pay a subscription to distribute/republish news from the wires.

FAQ for Reuters Connect: reutersagency.com/en/about/faqs/

It's a paid subscription service. This is what Tass joined in June 2020. It includes 17 other news agencies from around the world.

An example from my local paper of an article from a news agency. If a journalist from my local paper had written this, their name would be in the byline. But journalists from @AP wrote it so it has their names + "Associated Press" - my paper got this from the AP wire service.

Blaming Russia lets those anonymous US law enforcement sources off the hook. And because several social media influencers have turned it into a Russia thing, they've obfuscated the real problems with the Reuters article...

Since it was published by a news agency, it can be widely distributed in many news outlets. That combined with official-sounding sources and the virality of the article in right-wing media means it's setting an agenda that will be difficult to reverse.

This is a decent article about how news agencies work from the perspective of the PR industry.
agilitypr.com/newswires-101/

Here's my never-ending #LEOdisinfo thread if you're not sure why we should be skeptical of law enforcement sources (especially anonymous ones)

https://twitter.com/3r1nG/status/1268918123773734912

And please stop blaming Russia for everything.