Fact checking — Paul Robinson

The big news from Italy this week is the seizure by Turin police of a massive arsenal of weapons held by a neo-Nazi group. Among the weapons was a stonking-big air-to-air missile. Reporting the story, the BBC links the neo-Nazis to ‘Russian-backed separatist forces’ in Ukraine….

Naughty separatists. Despite all that talk of fighting ‘fascism’, it appears that they’re in bed with neo-Nazis. But then again, maybe not. For as Mark Ames points out on Twitter, there’s a problem with the BBC report. The official police statement says something very different. In fact, it says the following:…

Which for those of you who don’t speak Italian, translates as:

The investigations had begun about a year ago when the police headquarters in Turin, coordinated by the Central Directorate of Prevention Police, monitored some people linked to political movements of the ultra-right who had fought in the Ukrainian region of Donbass against the separatists.

So it turns out that they fought not ‘for the separatists’ but ‘against the separatists’....

But here’s the thing. It’s not just the BBC which makes that claim. CNN, for instance, reports that:

The stockpile was discovered by police who were investigating Italians ‘with extremist ideology’ who had fought alongside Russian-backed separatist forces in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, last July, according to the police statement.Similarly The Guardian writes that:

Police said that the discoveries stemmed from a previous investigation into Italians who took part in the Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

This is word for word what the Associated Press (AP) writes. And that perhaps explain why so many media outlets are repeating the same story. They’ve just copied it from AP without verifying it.

There is one exception, however. One media organization seems to have actually checked what the police statement said, telling us that:

The police say the groups had fought “against the separatists” in the Donbass region of Ukraine – the forces of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east of the country.
Who’s this? The answer – RT....

Irrussianality

Fact checking
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

See also

RT

Media link Italy neo-Nazi missile to ‘pro-Russian separatists’ despite police saying the OPPOSITE

Italian police seize MISSILE, guns and neo-Nazi material in raid on far-right militants

Moon of Alabama "Russian bots" - How An Anti-Russian Lobby Creates Fake News — Moon of Alabama "Russian bots" - How An Anti-Russian Lobby Creates Fake News

Another detailed account.

Conclusion.

This is nuts.

Last August, when the Hamilton 68 project was first released, the Nation was the only site critical of it. It predicted:

The import of GMF's project is clear: Reporting on anything that might put the US in a bad light is now tantamount to spreading Russian propaganda.

It is now even worse than that. The top ranking of the #merrychristmas hashtag shows that the algorithm does not even care about good or bad news. The tracked twitter accounts are normal people.

The whole project is just a means to push fake stories about alleged "Russian influence" into U.S. medias. Whenever some issue creeps up on its dashboard that somehow fits its false "Russian bots" and "divisiveness" narrative the Alliance for Securing Democracy contacts the media to spread its poison. The U.S. media, - CNN, Wired, the New York Times - are by now obviously devoid of thinking journalists and fact checkers. They simple re-package the venom and spread it to the public.

How long will it take until people die from it?

Moon of Alabama
"Russian bots" - How An Anti-Russian Lobby Creates Fake News

b

Martin Armstrong — Russian Sanctions – The Start of World War III?

While a agree with the substance of the post, I am linking to it for a different reason. Martin Armstrong is a strongly laissez-faire economic liberal that views government as the problem. But here he is attributing a failed business model as a potential cause of war. The current business model in the US media is the Murdoch model that pushed Fox to the top of the ratings and raked in advertisers dollars. It is also called the tabloid model, since it's basis is sensationalism.

The major US "news" organizations have discovered that money flows to clickbait and media profit is based on the number of eyeballs that its content and presentation can attract. So the media sells what people want to buy, which is a combination of celebrity titillation and fear mongering.

Armstrong concludes that to avoid the rush to WWIII, the fairness doctrine needs to be renewed since the media is not policing itself and only government can force a rebalancing.

CNN, New York Times, and the Washington Post will be responsible for creating World War III just as Pulitzer and Hearst were responsible for creating the Spanish-American war over fake news. The Fairness Doctrine needs to be restored ASAP and applied to newspapers as well as radio and TV.

One problem with this analysis is that very often it is the US deep state that is running the narrative and providing the sources. Who is going to police the deep state?

Trump was elected to "drain the swamp" but the swamp is draining him and doing its best to drown him.

Armstrong Economics 

Russian Sanctions – The Start of World War III?
Martin Armstrong

Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton — CNN Hired Top al-Qaeda Propagandist for Award-Winning Syria Documentary and Wants to Cover Its Tracks

Star CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward worked with al-Qaeda “media man” Bilal Abdul Kareem to gain access to her “heroes on the ground.”

Hey, if the CIA and US military can work with AQ, why not the media?

AlterNet
CNN Hired Top al-Qaeda Propagandist for Award-Winning Syria Documentary and Wants to Cover Its Tracks
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton

See also

Yet Another Video Shows U.S.-Funded White Helmets Assisting Public Executions in Rebel-Held Syria

Glenn Greenwald — CNN Warns It May Expose an Anonymous Critic if He Ever Again Publishes Bad Content

I beg to disagree with Greenwald here.

There is no guarantee of privacy on the Internet in public speech. Anonymous posters must assume that they are at risk of exposure and take that into consideration in posting. 

While there may be a guarantee made with a specific party, like a web site or internet provider, there is no blanket guarantee of privacy on the Internet, and none should be assumed to apply. 

In fact, the media and professional journalists have an obligation to do investigative journalism, and the public has an interest in knowing who is behind the mask.

Freedom without discipline and responsibility is license rather than liberty.

The Intercept

CNN Warns It May Expose an Anonymous Critic if He Ever Again Publishes Bad Content

Glenn Greenwald

Zero Hedge — White House Blackballs CNN; Refuses To Send Surrogates On "Fake News" Network

CNN loses access.

(cue exploding heads)

Zero Hedge
White House Blackballs CNN; Refuses To Send Surrogates On "Fake News" Network

Tyler Durden

Zero Hedge — CNN Responds To Trump's "Fake News" Attack

As predicted here, Donald Trump denies CNN access — even before the inauguration. CNN freaks out. Hey, he warned people that he gets even. Just what did you expect? Flowers? Cookies?

Just minutes after Trump slammed CNN's reporter Jim Acosta, calling CNN "fake news", just after slamming Buzzfeed as a "failing pile of garbage", CNN issued a statement in response to Trump's attack, which effectively boils down to "we are not Buzzfeed" yet even though CNN said it did not publish the memo "because we have not corroborated the report's allegations" it still used it to create a front-page, uncorroborated "report."...

Zero Hedge
CNN Responds To Trump's "Fake News" Attack

Tyler Durden


Lead in

With Trump looking to call on other reporters, Jim Acosta yelled out, “Since you are attacking us, can you give us a question?”

“Not you,” Trump said. “Your organization is terrible!”

Acosta pressed on, “You are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir?” Trump countered by telling him “don’t be rude.”
“I’m not going to give you a question,” Trump responded. “Don't be rude. I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news!” Trump responded, before calling on a reporter from Breitbart.

Ouch.

This reality show is starting off even better than I expected. Pass the popcorn.

Trump Slams BuzzFeed As "Failing Pile Of Garbage", Tells CNN "You Are Fake News"

Next up.

McCain Admits He Gave Dossier Containing "Sensitive Information" On Trump To The FBI

How 4Chan McFooled John McCain, Buzzfeed, and the CIA Into Believing Trump's Golden Showers

Archived Posts Prove 4Chan Trolled CIA With Trump Golden Shower Story - Entire Russian Hack Narrative Imploding?
Also significant

Furious Trump Lashes Out At "Fake News" Leak: "Are We Living In Nazi Germany?"

Why it is important.

Scott Adams Blog
The Master Persuader Scrambles the Frame

Scott Adams

Alice Salles — More Evidence Was Just Leaked Showing How DNC Rigged Primary Against Bernie

[Donna] Brazile continues to blame Russia and Wikileaks for the DNC leaks controversy, though it’s unclear how Russia or WikiLeaks caused her to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary.

Maybe because Bernie self-identifies as a socialist, which makes him at minimum a pinko?

The Anti-Media
More Evidence Was Just Leaked Showing How DNC Rigged Primary Against Bernie
Alice Salles

Also

The White House defended interim Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile on Monday, amid accusations she sent debate questions to Hillary Clinton’s campaign when she was a CNN contributor.

“The president believes she has done a fine job stepping in, in a very difficult situation, to lead the Democratic Party,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

“Those of us who’ve known Donna for a long time know she is a person of character," he added.

Maybe there's no one at the WH that knows what character is. They seem to have lost their moral compass.

The Hill
WH defends Brazile in wake of debate leak revelations
Jordan Fabian

Christiane Amanpour interviews Sergei Lavrov

Question: Can I just file one last question? One last question, a bit cheeky but I’m going to ask you. Russia had its own Pussy Riot moment. What do you think of Donald Trump’s Pussy Riot moment?

Sergey Lavrov: Well, I don’t know whether this would… English is not my mother tongue and I don’t know whether I would sound decent. There are so many pussies around your presidential campaign on all sides that I prefer not to comment.

Question: Oh, my goodness! I wasn’t expecting that! All right, thank you again.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Amanpour program on CNN International, Moscow, 12. October 2016

If you had any doubt how dumb our news media is, watch this.

If you had any doubt how dumb our news media is, watch this. This clueless anchor on CNN's Headline News questions guest about Edward Snowden and he's responds with comments on Edward Scissorhands and it goes completely right over her head.

Watch the entire video clip.

The debt fallacy is starting to catch on.

David Ferguson — CNN head Jeff Zucker: Fox News is Republican Party ‘masquerading as a news channel’ (via Raw Story )

CNN head Jeff Zucker: Fox News is Republican Party ‘masquerading as a news channel’ (via Raw Story )

Jeff Zucker, CNN’s current president, said on Friday that the Republican Party is being run by Fox News and that networks like Fox are just telling people what they want to hear “and missing the story.” According to Mediaite, Zucker was speaking…

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