{"id":44717,"date":"2019-03-24T10:30:36","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T15:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44717"},"modified":"2019-03-24T10:30:39","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T15:30:39","slug":"its-official-russiagate-is-this-generations-wmd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44717","title":{"rendered":"It’s official: Russiagate is this generation’s WMD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s official: Russiagate is this generation’s WMD<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Iraq war faceplant damaged the reputation of the press. Russiagate just destroyed it<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Note to readers: in light of news that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller\u2019s investigation is complete, I\u2019m releasing this chapter of Hate Inc. early, with a few new details added up top.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody wants to hear this, but news that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is headed home without issuing new charges is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As has long been rumored<\/a>, the former FBI chief\u2019s independent probe will result in multiple indictments and convictions, but no \u201cpresidency-wrecking<\/a>\u201d conspiracy charges, or anything that would meet the layman\u2019s definition of \u201ccollusion\u201d with Russia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the caveat that even this news might somehow turn out to be botched, the key detail in the many stories about the end of the Mueller investigation was best expressed by the <\/a>New York Times<\/a><\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A senior Justice Department official said that Mr. Mueller would not recommend new indictments.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Times <\/em>tried to soften the emotional blow for the millions of Americans trained in these years to place hopes for the overturn of the Trump presidency in Mueller. Nobody even pretended it was supposed to be a fact-finding mission, instead of an act of faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Special Prosecutor literally became a religious figure during the last few years, with votive candles sold in his image<\/a> and Saturday Night Live <\/em>cast members singing \u201cAll I Want for Christmas is You<\/a>\u201d to him featuring the rhymey line: \u201cMueller please come through, because the only option is a coup.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Times<\/em> story today tried to preserve Santa Mueller\u2019s reputation, noting Trump\u2019s Attorney General William Barr\u2019s reaction was an \u201cendorsement\u201d of the fineness of Mueller\u2019s work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s official: Russiagate is this generation’s WMD The Iraq war faceplant damaged the reputation of the press. Russiagate just destroyed it Note to readers: in light of news that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller\u2019s investigation is complete, I\u2019m releasing this chapter of Hate Inc. early, with a few new details added up top. Nobody wants to […]<\/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":[6],"tags":[462,3733,512,17286,15282,827],"class_list":["post-44717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-journalism","tag-matt-taibbi","tag-media","tag-robert-mueller","tag-russiagate","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44717","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=44717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44718,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44717\/revisions\/44718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}