How Do You Like Your RussiaGate?
By: Todd Smekens
Muncie, Indiana Blog – Somewhere between two parallel universes lies the truth but I’m not sure Americans want the truth. If social media tests are valid and sociological studies have credibility, we are sorting ourselves out by developing echo chambers or constant feedback loops where similar opinions and beliefs are shared among the group. Meanwhile, if you want to listen to or read propaganda, there are several options who will reinforce your own beliefs (echo chambers). Are you open to changing your beliefs, or are you rigid in what you see as truth?
Last week, we saw an amazing display of propaganda centered around #RussiaGate, or the collusion to win the presidential election between Trump and Russia. As the theory goes, Russia worked behind the scenes to derail Hillary Clinton’s campaign by hacking DNC computers and leaking incriminating info on Wikileaks. And according to Facebook, fake Russian companies bought $100,000 worth of ads on their platform to confuse Americans.
Hillary Clinton proclaimed 17 intelligence agencies concluded that Russia hacked DNC computers, although the FBI was never allowed to touch the evidence. A private firm hired by the DNC concluded it was a Russian company. The fact is we know a handpicked team from 3 intelligence agencies concluded the evidence might be the Russian government.
Meanwhile, there is plenty of evidence which claims the “hack” never happened because it was most likely an insider downloading the information off the server onto a flash drive.
Indictments have been issued and several players have been nailed for lying to the FBI. For those not paying attention, the NSA collects data on all of us. Every phone call and email is being reviewed. If the FBI approaches you with a transcript of a call, don’t lie to them about the conversation. They have a recording. You will be found guilty. Michael Flynn should have known better.
In order to get a taste of the alternative realities, venture over to Fox News for 4-5 hours. Then, turn over to MSNBC and watch for 4-5 hours. After this experiment, you’ll know they can’t both be right. Simple logic will confirm this notion. Both versions of the story are propaganda. However, they aren’t the only two manipulators.
In yesterday’s, The Guardian newspaper, David Smith and Ben Jacobs write:
“Six months ago I thought there would be a bipartisan outcry, but you only have to watch Fox News for five minutes to see the partisan message that Mueller is on some kind of witch hunt. A lot of the Republican members live in an alternative reality where Fox dictates the terms of the debate.
“That seeps in and, if Trump is found to have colluded with Russia, I would not be surprised if Republicans let him get away with it.”
This weekend Glenn Greenwald with The Intercept pointed out the “partisan message” coming from MSNBC and CNN. CNN, or the “most trusted name in news”, published a gotcha against Donald Trump and Wikileaks. Glenn writes, “…spent 12 straight minutes on air flamboyantly hyping an exclusive bombshell report that seemed to prove that WikiLeaks, last September, had secretly offered the Trump campaign, even Donald Trump himself, special access to the DNC emails before they were published on the internet.”
It turned out they had the date wrong. CNN claimed their “two trusted sources” both gave CNN the wrong date. How is this even possible?
Needless to say, the damage had already been done. The story was shared thousands of times on social media. Glenn captured it pretty well:
Friday was one of the most embarrassing days for the U.S. media in quite a long time. The humiliation orgy was kicked off by CNN, with MSNBC and CBS close behind, with countless pundits, commentators and operatives joining the party throughout the day. By the end of the day, it was clear that several of the nation’s largest and most influential news outlets had spread an explosive but completely false news story to millions of people, while refusing to provide any explanation of how it happened.
The two narratives are Trump colluded with the Russian government or the liberal Obama government is trying to derail Trump. All the stories hinge on these two narratives and evidence is screened based on how they support or derail these narratives.
