Where’s the evidence? So much effort has been thrown at implicating the Russians in some way and none of the evidence has stuck — time and time again the evidence fizzles and people move onto the next big scandal that also evaporates on closer inspection. Like the most recent WaPo story alleging that Russia launched a wide ranging propaganda campaign to elect Donald Trump: bankrolling American journalists to work as Russia’s willing collaborators, sowing fear and doubt, baselessly undermining Hillary Clinton and supposedly weakening the very foundation of American democracy.
The paper offered no evidence to back up its shocking claims, but relied on secret claims made by a shady anonymous group called PropOrNot, which compiled a blacklist of American news outlets it considers to be Russian agents engaging in treason. Within a day of the article coming out, PropOrNot’s story is already unraveling. The group admitted to lying about its partnering organizations and refuses to disclose why its media blacklist of “Russian agents” contains some of the best journalists in recent history: Robert Parry (who helped break the Iran-Contra scandal), Robert Scheer (who helped expose CIA funding of student groups in the 1960s as editor at Ramparts) and Yves Smith (the fearless founder of an invaluable and respected financial blog, nakedcapitalism.com). It’s shocking and disturbing that WaPo would smear respected journalists as traitors with no evidence. – READ MORE
