{"id":42677,"date":"2019-01-13T14:06:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T19:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=42677"},"modified":"2019-01-13T14:06:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T19:06:10","slug":"in-western-media-publishing-fake-news-about-russia-is-a-good-career-move-with-no-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=42677","title":{"rendered":"In Western media, publishing fake news about Russia is a good career move\u2026 with no consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Western media, publishing fake news about Russia is a good career move\u2026 with no consequences<\/a><\/h3>\n
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\"In<\/picture><\/div>\n
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\u00a9 Reuters\/Jason Reed<\/span><\/div>\n
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Fighting “Russian disinformation” in the West has become a lucrative business. But, in reality, you’re far more likely to encounter deceitful agitprop directed at Russia.<\/div>\n
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MOSCOW \u2013 CP Scott remains a towering figure in the annals of British journalism. Editor of the then “Manchester Guardian<\/em>” for an astonishing 57 years, he celebrated his paper’s centenary by laying down a set of legendary principles.<\/p>\n

“Comment is free, but facts are sacred,<\/em>” Scott intoned in the missive. Sadly, almost a hundred years later, facts are free and the right to spread disinformation is becoming sacred, as far as his successors are concerned. Particularly when it comes to coverage of Russia.<\/p>\n

Yet another example came over the New Year break. Following a few weeks out of the spotlight after peddling an obviously fake story about Julian Assange\/Paul Manafort meetings in London, Luke Harding reappeared. And he came armed with his particular brand of bulls*** and sloppiness.<\/p>\n

A sensationalist interview<\/a> with former Soviet spy ‘Viktor Suvorov<\/em>‘ was full of fragile fact-checking and downright stupidity. For instance, presenting a pensioner, who defected from a different country almost 40 years ago, as an authority on how Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin operates today stretched credulity. And the piece was also riddled with factual errors, to boot.<\/p>\n

For instance, Harding claimed Suvorov’s 1980’s book “Icebreaker<\/em>” now “has broad acceptance among historians;<\/em>” a tome which insists “Stalin had been secretly plotting an offensive against Hitler’s Germany<\/em>” but first he “wanted Hitler to destroy democracy in Europe, in the manner of an icebreaker, thereby clearing the way for world communism.<\/em>” In other words, not the version you learned at school.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Western media, publishing fake news about Russia is a good career move\u2026 with no consequences \u00a9 Reuters\/Jason Reed Fighting “Russian disinformation” in the West has become a lucrative business. But, in reality, you’re far more likely to encounter deceitful agitprop directed at Russia. MOSCOW \u2013 CP Scott remains a towering figure in the annals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[18867,3717,2779,8114,694,5027],"class_list":["post-42677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","category-liberty","tag-bryan-macdonald","tag-disinformation","tag-fake-news","tag-rt-news","tag-russia","tag-western-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42678,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42677\/revisions\/42678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}