PoliTalker
Diversity Makes Greatness
There exists a certain mindset in the USA which is not content with simply being well-informed and championing their own cause. Instead, they actually try to change the news to their favor. This involves spreading false and misleading headlines, sound bytes and stories. Usually about those who they wish to discredit. Fake news. It happens on both sides of the political spectrum, but there is far more of it on the right. I call this the:
Right Wing Propaganda Machine RWPM
This mindset can be found on conservative talk radio. It plays into listeners’ fears with real sounding reasons why good conservatives should think liberals are the worst kind of person in the world.
Except it is a game.
The game goes like this: Say something provocative. Back it up with ‘evidence.’ Draw conclusions. Don’t worry about omitting important information, or vetting sources. Don’t worry about making things up. Pile on a lot of horrible sounding adjectives which are impossible to prove. The idea is to get the listeners - very - concerned about X.
Then hit ‘em with a commercial!
If you can do that, and do it well, then you can be a multi-millionaire.
"Indeed, on January 18th, the staff of Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, produced a report purporting to show that the real conspiracy revolved around Hillary Clinton. “The truth,” Nunes said, is that Clinton “colluded with the Russians to get dirt on Trump, to feed it to the F.B.I. to open up an investigation into the other campaign.” Glenn Kessler, who writes the nonpartisan Fact Checker blog at the Washington Post, awarded Nunes’s statement four Pinocchios—his rating for an outright lie. “There is no evidence that Clinton was involved in Steele’s reports or worked with Russian entities to feed information to Steele,” Kessler wrote.
[none of this was supported with any evidence]
Nonetheless, conservative talk-show hosts amplified Nunes’s message. On Fox News, Tucker Carlson denounced Steele as “an intense partisan with passionately left-wing views about American politics,” and said, inaccurately, that his “sloppy and reckless” research “appears to form the basis” of the entire Mueller investigation. Sean Hannity charged that Steele’s dossier was “claptrap” filled with “Russian lies” that were intended to poison “our own intelligence and law-enforcement network” against Trump. The editorial page of the Wall Street Journal accused Steele of turning the F.B.I. into “a tool of anti-Trump political actors.” Rush Limbaugh warned his radio listeners, “The battle is between people like us and the Deep State who are trying to keep hidden what they did.”"
Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier: How the ex-spy tried to warn the world about Trump’s ties to Russia. By Jane Mayer
How about a different take on that?
"Steele was the President of the Cambridge Union at university, and was a career British intelligence officer with service in Moscow, Paris and Afghanistan prior to work as the head of the Russia desk at British intelligence HQS.
While in London he worked as the personal handler of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko. He was a respected professional who had success in some of the most difficult intelligence environments.
He retired from SIS in 2009 and started Orbis Business Intelligence along with a former colleague. Prior to his work on the Russian dossier for Orbis, he was best known for his investigation of the world soccer association (FIFA), which provided direct support to the FBI’s successful corruption case.
Steele and Orbis were also known for assisting various European countries in understanding Russian efforts to meddle in their affairs.
Like any private firm, Orbis’s ability to remain in business relies on its track record of credibility. Success for Steele and his colleagues depends on his integrity, reliability, and the firm’s reputation for serious work. In this regard, Steele is putting his reputation and his company’s continued existence on the line with each report.
Yes, as with anyone operating in the murky world of intelligence, he could be duped. Nonetheless, his reputation for handling sensitive Russian espionage operations over the years suggests that he is security conscious and aware of Russian counterintelligence and disinformation efforts.
His willingness to share his work with professional investigative agencies such as the FBI and the British Security Service also suggest that he is comfortable opening his work to scrutiny, and is seen as a serious partner by the best in the business.
...
As one recently retired senior intelligence officer with deep experience in espionage investigations quipped, "I assign more credence to the Steele report knowing that the FBI paid him for his research. From my experience, there is nobody more miserly than the FBI. If they were willing to pay Mr. Steele, they must have seen something of real value." "
NewsWeek: What Exactly Does the Steele Dirty Russian Dossier on Trump Contain? By John Sipher
The RWPM absolutely - trashed- Steele's reputation with zero proof that he had anything to do with American politics. All of it nothing more than rumors. When we look deeper into it this guy, Steele is actually a very well respected good guy just doing a high specialized job.
One of the reasons American politics is *so* polarized is the RWPM.
Making money dividing America.
Right Wing Propaganda Machine RWPM
This mindset can be found on conservative talk radio. It plays into listeners’ fears with real sounding reasons why good conservatives should think liberals are the worst kind of person in the world.
Except it is a game.
The game goes like this: Say something provocative. Back it up with ‘evidence.’ Draw conclusions. Don’t worry about omitting important information, or vetting sources. Don’t worry about making things up. Pile on a lot of horrible sounding adjectives which are impossible to prove. The idea is to get the listeners - very - concerned about X.
Then hit ‘em with a commercial!
If you can do that, and do it well, then you can be a multi-millionaire.
"Indeed, on January 18th, the staff of Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, produced a report purporting to show that the real conspiracy revolved around Hillary Clinton. “The truth,” Nunes said, is that Clinton “colluded with the Russians to get dirt on Trump, to feed it to the F.B.I. to open up an investigation into the other campaign.” Glenn Kessler, who writes the nonpartisan Fact Checker blog at the Washington Post, awarded Nunes’s statement four Pinocchios—his rating for an outright lie. “There is no evidence that Clinton was involved in Steele’s reports or worked with Russian entities to feed information to Steele,” Kessler wrote.
[none of this was supported with any evidence]
Nonetheless, conservative talk-show hosts amplified Nunes’s message. On Fox News, Tucker Carlson denounced Steele as “an intense partisan with passionately left-wing views about American politics,” and said, inaccurately, that his “sloppy and reckless” research “appears to form the basis” of the entire Mueller investigation. Sean Hannity charged that Steele’s dossier was “claptrap” filled with “Russian lies” that were intended to poison “our own intelligence and law-enforcement network” against Trump. The editorial page of the Wall Street Journal accused Steele of turning the F.B.I. into “a tool of anti-Trump political actors.” Rush Limbaugh warned his radio listeners, “The battle is between people like us and the Deep State who are trying to keep hidden what they did.”"
Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier: How the ex-spy tried to warn the world about Trump’s ties to Russia. By Jane Mayer
How about a different take on that?
"Steele was the President of the Cambridge Union at university, and was a career British intelligence officer with service in Moscow, Paris and Afghanistan prior to work as the head of the Russia desk at British intelligence HQS.
While in London he worked as the personal handler of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko. He was a respected professional who had success in some of the most difficult intelligence environments.
He retired from SIS in 2009 and started Orbis Business Intelligence along with a former colleague. Prior to his work on the Russian dossier for Orbis, he was best known for his investigation of the world soccer association (FIFA), which provided direct support to the FBI’s successful corruption case.
Steele and Orbis were also known for assisting various European countries in understanding Russian efforts to meddle in their affairs.
Like any private firm, Orbis’s ability to remain in business relies on its track record of credibility. Success for Steele and his colleagues depends on his integrity, reliability, and the firm’s reputation for serious work. In this regard, Steele is putting his reputation and his company’s continued existence on the line with each report.
Yes, as with anyone operating in the murky world of intelligence, he could be duped. Nonetheless, his reputation for handling sensitive Russian espionage operations over the years suggests that he is security conscious and aware of Russian counterintelligence and disinformation efforts.
His willingness to share his work with professional investigative agencies such as the FBI and the British Security Service also suggest that he is comfortable opening his work to scrutiny, and is seen as a serious partner by the best in the business.
...
As one recently retired senior intelligence officer with deep experience in espionage investigations quipped, "I assign more credence to the Steele report knowing that the FBI paid him for his research. From my experience, there is nobody more miserly than the FBI. If they were willing to pay Mr. Steele, they must have seen something of real value." "
NewsWeek: What Exactly Does the Steele Dirty Russian Dossier on Trump Contain? By John Sipher
The RWPM absolutely - trashed- Steele's reputation with zero proof that he had anything to do with American politics. All of it nothing more than rumors. When we look deeper into it this guy, Steele is actually a very well respected good guy just doing a high specialized job.
One of the reasons American politics is *so* polarized is the RWPM.
Making money dividing America.
