FAKE NEWS EXPOSED: A Service of PoliticalChat.com

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

They openly said exactly that. FWIW, the FBI thought these allegations were credible enough to apply "for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (FISA) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials." Between Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon's ties to and praise for Russia (not to mention Trump's), it would be dereliction of duty not to investigate such allegations.

Yes, but they ran the story anyway, didn't they? And these documents have been circulating for months. There's nothing new about them. And they wanted to have a story that gave further legs to the "Russian interference in the election" story. And folks like you seem to want to believe all of this no matter how idiotic or implausible the alleged "facts" might sound.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

They openly said exactly that. FWIW, the FBI thought these allegations were credible enough to apply "for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (FISA) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials." Between Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon's ties to and praise for Russia (not to mention Trump's), it would be dereliction of duty not to investigate such allegations.

And, by the way, regardless of the claims made about source materials in the story, there are such things as journalistic ethics, or at least there used to be. Those ethical standards served the purpose of assuring readers / viewers that before news was presented is was subject to a level of verification and scrutiny. It also protected the journalist from getting the paper or news organization in trouble by running with a half-baked, partially true or untrue news story.

CNN has now devoted significant air and print time to what amounts to speculation, since they didn't do much to validate the documents before running the story. They went into detail on air and in print about the info contained in the documents - thus giving a wink and a nod to any authenticity issues. Now that the credibility of the documents is in question, it will now be very difficult for CNN to walk any of this back.

[whell]

From one of Finn's favorite papers, the NY Times, that chose NOT to run with the story like CNN did:

Immediately after BuzzFeed’s publication, some reporters volunteered that they, too, had received copies of the report. “Raise your hand if you too were approached with this story,” Julia Ioffe, a journalist who has written extensively on Russia, wrote on Twitter, adding that she had not reported on the information in the document “because it was impossible to verify.”

Writers at the blog Lawfare, which covers national security issues, said they had been in possession of the document “for a couple of weeks” but opted not to publish because the allegations were unproven.

“Yes, they are explosive; they are also entirely unsubstantiated, at least to our knowledge, at this stage,” the site wrote on Tuesday night. “For this reason, even now, we are not going to discuss the specific allegations within the document.”

At least there are some shreds of journalistic integrity out there. And for Finn to defend what CNN is, to put it kindly, baffling.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by finnbow

I guess there's no hope for someone like you who feels Breitbart, InfoWars and talk radio represent real news and the the Post is fake. Ignorance is bliss, and if your ignorance keeps you happy, more power to you.

I was hit with this very recently in regard to Alex Jones and Infowars; "He reports what no one else has the balls or integrity to expose.".

No, they don't "expose" the things he "exposes" because he's a lunatic with a vivid imagination and little more. He's full of shit. This is the guy who predicted the Obama led UN invasion of Lubbock and FEMA death camps we white folks were all supposed to perish in.

[Rajoo]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

I was hit with this very recently in regard to Alex Jones and Infowars; "He reports what no one else has the balls or integrity to expose.".

No, they don't "expose" the things he "exposes" because he's a lunatic with a vivid imagination and little more. He's full of shit. This is the guy who predicted the Obama led UN invasion of Lubbock and FEMA death camps we white folks were all supposed to perish in.

I was on a on a road trip with a couple of friends whom I had not seen in years, one lives in MN and the other in CO. Surprise to me is that they both are now in the right wing stratosphere and the following was discussed by them during our drive (as if true). Needless to say, friendship being more valuable than politics, I did not respond other than saying that I am an independent and do not believe in conspiracies.

Bombshell: Barack Obama conclusively outed as CIA creation

http://www.infowars.com/bombshell-ba...-cia-creation/

What I heard was that this guy Alex Jones is so good at predictions that everything he claims is true. And these are not your typical low information voter and one of them works indirectly for the government in a high tech field. Scary.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by Rajoo

I was on a on a road trip with a couple of friends whom I had not seen in years, one lives in MN and the other in CO. Surprise to me is that they both are now in the right wing stratosphere and the following was discussed by them during our drive (as if true). Needless to say, friendship being more valuable than politics, I did not respond other than saying that I am an independent and do not believe in conspiracies.

Bombshell: Barack Obama conclusively outed as CIA creation

http://www.infowars.com/bombshell-ba...-cia-creation/

What I heard was that this guy Alex Jones is so good at predictions that everything he claims is true. And these are not your typical low information voter and one of them works indirectly for the government in a high tech field. Scary.

First bit of nonsense right off the top; Obama states in his 2004 speech that his Grandfather was a "goat farmer"......the author ridicules him for claiming he is "the son of a goat farmer". Dumbass.

Secondly, We are told the CIA "created" Obama during an effort to oppose Soviet expansionism in Africa..........and that ultimately the CIA aided his rise to executive office in an effort to establish some sort of tyrannical authoritarian regime in the United States?

Right. See, this is Alex Jones. Conspiratorial plots abound with one key component missing........ A rational point.

Our own government is scarier to these nuts than the Kremlin, run by a former KGB agent turned oligarchical dictator is.

Oh, and my condolences on your friends and the loss of their minds.

[whell]

Gotta love the attempt here to conflate the CNN with Infowars.com.

In the meantime, from The NY Times:

In a brief interview in the Times newsroom on Tuesday evening, Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, said the paper would not publish the document because the allegations were “totally unsubstantiated.”

“We, like others, investigated the allegations and haven’t corroborated them, and we felt we’re not in the business of publishing things we can’t stand by,” Mr. Baquet said.

[Rajoo]

So who is Obama now that he has given his farewell speech:

1. Community organizer
2. Nazi
3. Communist
4. Dictator
5. CIA Operator
6. Liberal
7. Elected President to two terms, winning the popular vote both times and basically a class act.

I will take #7 though not totally enamored with his presidency.

[Rajoo]

Donald Trump Concedes That Russia Probably Meddled in Election

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/u...onference.html

Unfortunately this is from the NYT. Guess we should wait to hear from Alex Jones for the definitive word on this.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

Yes, but they ran the story anyway, didn't they? And these documents have been circulating for months. There's nothing new about them. And they wanted to have a story that gave further legs to the "Russian interference in the election" story. And folks like you seem to want to believe all of this no matter how idiotic or implausible the alleged "facts" might sound.

I suppose the irony of the Birther-in-Chief, who has hired Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn to the White House staff, characterizing a report commissioned by his very own party as "fake news" is lost on you.

Maybe his crack team of Honolulu investigators should come back and figure out who in the GOP commissioned this report. It would be a hoot if they found out it was Trump's own Chief of Staff, Reince Preibus.