What that New York Times report said!

MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2019

[Some] senators briefed about hacking:
How dumb does American discourse get at this highly partisan, tribal time?

Consider a very familiar reference from yesterday's Meet the Press. Chuck Todd was conducting an exceptionally dumb discussion with Senator Kennedy. At one point, our old friend Chuck said this:
TODD (12/1/19): Were you briefed by the intelligence—

According to the New York Times a couple of weeks ago, U.S. senators were briefed after Fiona Hill's testimony that actually this entire effort to frame Ukraine for the Russian meddling of 2016, of which you, you just made this case that they've done it, that actually this is an effort of Russia propaganda, that this is a Russian intelligence propaganda campaign in order to get people like you to say these things about Ukraine.

KENNEDY: Uh-huh.

TODD: They're trying to frame Ukraine. You apparently were briefed about this in the United States Senate by intelligence officials. Are you at all concerned you're doing Russian intelligence work here?
"According to the New York Times a couple of weeks ago." This has become a very familiar reference.

Let's start by noting some basic mistakes. The Times report to which Todd refers doesn't say that senators were briefed on the matter at hand "after Hill's testimony" with all that may imply. It doesn't necessarily matter, but that was a basic mistake.

Beyond that, the Times report doesn't say how many senators were briefed. Kennedy denied that he had been briefed, an assumption Todd had pulled out of thin air.

As of yesterday, Kennedy was still saying that, while it was Russia who hacked the DNC emails, some Ukrainian officials had intervened or meddled in other ways in the 2016 election. According to Todd's rather clumsy presentation, the Times had reported that senators had been briefed to the contrary.

This is the New York Times report to which Todd, and many others, have referred. The report was murkily written, but it only says that Russia was falsely trying to blame Ukraine for the way Russia hacked the DNC emails, not for anything else.

Nothing in that Times report contradicts the two-part claim Kennedy (and others) made made—the claim that Russia hacked the DNC emails while Ukrainian officials may have "meddled" or "intervened" in other ways. And despite Todd's statements, insinuations and assumptions, the report doesn't say that these other claims are being invented or pushed by the Russkies.

As everyone in this country knows, reading can be quite hard. But go ahead! Read the New York Times report! It says that "American intelligence officials informed senators and their aides in recent weeks" about Russian attempts to blame Ukraine for the hacking of the emails, not for anything else.

It doesn't say what Todd suggested and what quite a few others have said—that senators were told that Ukraine and/or its officials didn't "meddle" or "intervene" in the election at all.

Did Ukraine intervene or meddle? The conduct which has been criticized doesn't seem all that shocking to us. And as everyone seems to agree once they're given a chance to respond, to the extent that such a claim can be made, the alleged "meddling" by Ukraine is dwarfed by the extensive illegal conduct which the intelligence community, and Kennedy himself, have attributed to the Russkies.

That said, nothing in the Times report takes us where the current tribal stampede wants us to go. With respect to the claims and accusations made by people like Morning Joe and Todd, we liberals are being propagandized when we watch our cable channels and when we read our liberal journals.

Go ahead—read the Times report. According to the report, (some) senators were told that the Russkies were trying to frame Ukraine for Russia's hacking of the DNC emails. The report doesn't say a single word about the various Ukrainian actions which were criticized by Fiona Hill in her impeachment testimony, actions which have also been criticized by the down-home, homespun Kennedy.

Hill's remarks were instantly disappeared, helping the tribal narrative thrive. Meanwhile, people like Todd are grossly misstating what that Times report actually said. But this is the way our discourse has worked for at least three or four decades now. This seems to be the best our journalistic elites can do as we all sit "on the beach" waiting for the end.

Go ahead—read the Times report! As you do, consider the possibility of giving your lizard a couple of hours off.

20 comments:

  1. In a better world the fatuous Chuck Todd wouldn’t host Meet The Press. Bob Somerby would have that job.

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  2. "The report was murkily written, but it only says that Russia was falsely trying to blame Ukraine for the way Russia hacked the DNC emails, not for anything else."

    What the fuck does it even mean?

    What a comedy. Goebbelsian zombie media and their idiots spooks are now fucked up beyond all recognition. Worse than 2003, by far.

    And of course if these little goebbelsiods denounced something as a "Russian intelligence propaganda campaign", then everyone should just stop trusting their own eyes, and shut up immediately.

    Liberal-totalitarian zombie cult at its best.

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    Replies
    1. Mao's desperation jumps off the screen. It's fun to watch the snowflake lose it so badly.

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  3. "we liberals are being propagandized when we watch our cable channels and when we read our liberal journals"

    Massively. Notice how cable news is full of ex CIA and FBI whose every claim we seem to believe as it was handed down from the mountaintop. Even after the Mueller goose egg.

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    1. They media has nothing left but to chase these hoaxes. Tough shit for them. They boxed themselves in with the denials about Trump's bigotry winning him the election. Let them suffer from it now.

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    2. That doesn't make any sense.

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  4. “The report was murkily written, but it only says that Russia was falsely trying to blame Ukraine for the way Russia hacked the DNC emails, not for anything else.”

    That is not even a remotely correct description of the report in question.

    This is the subheading.
    “Moscow has run a yearslong operation to blame Ukraine for its own 2016 election interference. Republicans have used similar talking points to defend President Trump in impeachment proceedings”

    Note the phrase “election interference”, which the report says included “covert operations to hack Democratic computers and to use social media to exploit divisions among Americans.”

    Here is another quote from the body of the report:
    “Russian intelligence operatives deployed a network of agents to blame Ukraine for its 2016 interference. Starting at least in 2017, the operatives peddled a mixture of now-debunked conspiracy theories along with established facts to leave an impression that the government in Kyiv, not Moscow, was responsible for the hackings of Democrats and its other interference efforts in 2016, senior intelligence officials said.”

    Note the phrase “its other interference efforts.”

    Another example:
    “During a news conference in February 2017, Mr. Putin accused the Ukrainian government of supporting Hillary Clinton during the previous American election and funding her candidacy with friendly oligarchs.”

    There is nothing the slightest bit murky about the report, unless you decide not to read it, nor does it limit the discussion to DNC emails.

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    1. Thank you for your comment. Until I read it I thought I was in the Twilight Zone alternative reality.

      I haven't been on this site for several years, but I was a regular reader once upon a time. I checked in on a whim, and wow. Just wow. Somber needs to give his head a good shake.

      What happened?

      Delete
  5. BS- one the instances of "meddling" by Ukraine consisted of the ambassador writing in an op-ed that Crimea belonged to Ukraine in response to a comment by Trump. If the other 2-3 instances are similar then we need to redefine the term.

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  6. Somerby’s take on the Chuck Todd/Kennedy segment is odd.

    On the one hand, Todd did not try to get Kennedy to specify which media reports he was referring to that supposedly justify his stance that Ukraine meddled in 2016, so we have no basis to judge whether Kennedy is even partially right about those reports. We don’t know whether Todd knew what articles Kennedy was talking about.

    But that isn’t exactly Somerby’s criticism of Todd. He criticizes Todd for not bringing forward proof that Kennedy has a point. After all, Somerby has been trying to claim that there really was or might have been Ukrainian meddling or interference, *as long as you define those terms a certain way.* Of course, Somerby “wouldn't be strongly inclined to say that they [Ukraine] did” do that (11/30), although “rather plainly, it all depends on what the meaning of "meddle in" is.” (11/27). And of course he himself doesn’t “regard that as a hugely important question.” (12/2). [So why all the posts about it???]

    And by way of criticizing Todd, Somerby, in his previous post, lists a couple of articles (that may or may not be what Kennedy had in mind), as if they somehow kind of maybe justify Kennedy’s assertions.

    Somerby makes no attempt to examine these articles to see if they actually support Kennedy’s position.

    Perhaps Todd knows Kennedy’s claims are bunk, and he asks the more important question: “why are you repeating these debunked claims?”

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    1. It should also be mentioned that Kennedy made the claim on MTP that Poroshenko was working for Clinton, a claim not once mentioned by Somerby, which goes beyond the previous examples of “meddling” that Kennedy has put forward. I’m sure it all depends on what the meaning of “working for” is.

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  7. If Bob was alive when Lincoln published the Emancipation Proclamation, he would have said: "This is really going to annoy and piss off the slaveholders".

    In the 1920's, when women demanded the right to vote, he would have said: "These women, what do they know. They are too uppity to vote".

    When LBJ told the Congress in 1965 that "We shall overcome", Bob would explain that bigots and racists are upset and annoyed that liberals and progressives would entertain such views.

    In the 21st. Century he would explain that Treyvon Martin deserved to be killed because he threatened to kill George Zimmerman with a sidewalk.

    Then he will run and hide behind MLK, Gandhi and Mandela. And the "beautiful" black children he taught in Baltimore.

    He would "love" the black people who forgave those who killed their families and friends in church.

    Not me, Bob.
    If you are a "liberal" then I am the mighty Khan.

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    1. In the 21st. Century he would explain that Treyvon Martin deserved to be killed….

      It is the 21st century, and TDH wrote numerous blog entries about the Martin homicide. Thus we don’t have to consider what TDH ”would” explain; we can examine what he actually wrote.

      Can you quote TDH to the effect that “Martin deserved to be killed”?

      No one really knows what happened the night that Martin and Zimmerman confronted each other. That will happen when we have only the surviving witness’ self-serving account because the surviving witness killed the only other witness. Can you quote TDH to the effect that we do know what happened?

      It’s likely that few people “deserve to be killed” on the street, but Florida law is fucked up enough to contemplate a scenario in which Martin and Zimmerman bump into each other in the dark, scaring themselves shitless, and allowing each to kill the other with impunity. Can you quote Florida statutes? (I can.)

      These questions should be easy to answer for the Mighty Khan.

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    2. Your teenage son is walking home from the candy store; a car is following him. What do you believe he should do?

      How far is my son from home? Let’s say 70 yards. I believe he should run for the front door.

      Shot dead.

      My mythical son? Nope, not if he ran for home. Or have you switched to Trayvon Martin? Yes, in that case, he was shot dead.

      By his stalker.

      Zimmerman? Nope, not a stalker. This is critical, so pay attention: stalking, which requires repeated threatening behavior, is a crime. If you’re committing a crime, you can’t invoke Florida’s stand-your-ground law since you can’t be legally present in some place you’re acting criminally. Following someone on public property is not a crime.

      A pretend cop.

      Only to himself, as far as we know.

      Who, obviously, thinks he can kill your son.

      Anyone carrying a gun thinks he is able to kill someone. In Florida, anyone carrying a gun is likely correct to think the law will allow him to kill someone with impunity. If the armed party is not black, of course. And especially if the victim is the only other witness.

      Enjoy yourself.

      You think I “enjoyed” Martin’s killing? Go fuck yourself and the horse you rode in on. And I mean that in the sincerest and kindest possible way.

      I think Zimmerman got away with (what should have been) murder. But I also know two things you don’t. First, I know that no one knows exactly what happened during the last minutes of Martin’s life, with the possible exception of Zimmerman. That’s because I can think straight. Secondly, I know what Florida law says about the use of deadly force. That’s because I took the trouble to look it up.

      So, what’s your excuse?

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    3. I tell my teenage son to shoot the cop first.

      Delete
    4. I tell my teenage son to shoot the cop first.

      Heh heh heh. It’s funny ‘cause people dying is always funny.

      But it’s worth pretending you’re serious for the sake of this discussion.

      Now, you said “cop,” not “member of neighborhood watch” (i.e., “pretend cop” in the words of Anonymous Ignoramus @4:53P). Shooting at a real cop first is terrible advice. Cops tend to work in pairs, they’re never far from the rest of the pack, they’re well armed, and they have at least a modicum of training in firearm use against human targets.

      If your teenage son is carrying concealed, he’s likely not to get his firearm out and ready before he’s shot dead by a cop, the cop’s partner, or both. Your son can shoot more quickly if he’s open carrying, but he will also lose the element of surprise while retaining all the drawbacks of being an untrained amateur.

      Let’s choose a state at random, say Florida. Your son is too young to have a permit for concealed carry, and unless he’s coming from or going to the shooting range or a hunting cabin, he’s not allowed to carry openly. The problem here is that your son can’t be legally entitled to be where he is in public if he’s breaking the law. And that will deprive him of the shield benefits of Florida’s stand-your-ground law. If your son is black, this isn’t such a big deal since history says he won’t get to use that law anyway.

      In case you’re wondering, Zimmerman had a concealed carry permit.

      It is against the law in Florida to brandish a firearm. It’s called “improper exhibition,” which requires a “threatening, angry, or careless” manner. So if your son brings his weapon to bear on someone who’s following him, he’s at least threatening. Probably careless too if the person following him isn’t doing anything else because following someone in a public place isn’t illegal.

      I’m not a parent (by careful design), so you needn’t take my advice seriously, but I think you should sit your son down and tell him that you’ve changed your mind and that your new advice is that he shouldn’t be as big an idiot as his father.

      Delete
  8. While it's clear that Todd should not be hosting a major show, it's not clear that if reporters demonstrated enough accuracy to meet Somerby's expectations it would make any difference.

    While Todd and the Times political journos contribute to the idiocy of our "discourse," Fox News and rest of the GOP propaganda apparatus cause the bigger problems, ensuring that Kennedy or any other Republican can spew any nonsense they like. This is the elephant in the room (sorry) that makes all Somerby's complaints about our liberal media basically meaningless.

    I share Bob's contempt for the shocking illiteracy and innumeracy of the people tasked with explaining our world, but even Somerby himself couldn't cut through the smokescreen the GOP generates everyday.

    ReplyDelete
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