NONE OF THIS means that every Russia claim is false, nor does it disprove the accusation that Putin ordered the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta’s email inboxes (a claim for which, just by the way, still no evidence has been presented by the U.S. government). Perhaps there were some states that were targeted, even though the key claims of this story, that attracted the most attention, have now been repudiated. But what it does demonstrate is that an incredibly reckless, anything-goes climate prevails when it comes to claims about Russia. Media outlets will publish literally any official assertion as Truth without the slightest regard for evidentiary standards. Seeing Putin lurking behind and masterminding every western problem is now religious dogma – it explains otherwise-confounding developments, provides certainty to a complex world, and alleviates numerous factions of responsibility – so media outlets and their journalists are lavishly rewarded any time they publish accusatory stories about Russia (especially ones involving the U.S. election), even if they end up being debunked.
https://www.apnews.com/10a0080e8fcb...utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=APCentralRegion Homeland Security now says Wisconsin elections not targeted
More on topic. $100K worth of ads over 2 years. Not in the last month of the campaign when they might have appealed to voters. http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/28/america-is-obsessed-with-identity-politics-so-russia-exploited-it/ Russia used Facebook ads in 2016 to both encourage and inflame identity politics in America as part of its cyber-operation against the U.S., according to new reports. Previous media coverage on Russian influence operations within the United States has overwhelmingly focused on reported attempts to stir up America’s political right-wing, but new reporting indicates that Russia also sought to promote the identity-focused politics that currently dominates America’s political Left. Russian accounts targeted Baltimore and Ferguson — both hubs of racial activism — with pro-Black Lives Matter messaging, CNN reported this week. The Washington Post reported that the Russian ads promoted other “African American rights groups” in addition to Black Lives Matter. ... Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos said in a statement earlier this month that Facebook’s investigation into Russian efforts “found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 ads — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies.” The “vast majority” of the 3,000 Russian ads “didn’t specifically reference the U.S. presidential election, voting or a particular candidate,” Stamos said. He added that “the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.
I've seen the Maddow show too many times to count. You won't like my assessment of the quality of it. Production quality is fine, the content is more than questionable. These are two examples of how awful she is. They're just the most obvious and recent ones. I remember watching half an hour of her ranting about a tiny leak in an oil pipe near a town of 150 people. OMG! End of the world!
CNN currently having another Baghdad Bob moment. Whining about people in Puerto Rico starving and not getting water. Meanwhile, they show Getty Images pictures of people getting water and food handed to them from trucks. Also ranting about how awful the situation is there, while video in the background shows downtown streets with traffic lights working, normal looking traffic pattern, and people lazily walking down the street looking in the windows of the stores. Live footage, not some stock video. They got the head of the power company on the phone and he said they have 4000 workers and another 1000 coming, but it's rough terrain due to mountains and jungle on much of the island. The anchor blathered about 20K workers who came to Florida right away, but the guy from the power company didn't say what the anchor wanted. He said that Florida is a much bigger state, that you can't just drive to Puerto Rico to help out, and the terrain.
