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发帖数: 9932 | 1 https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/now-weve-done-it-we-pissed-cia
Now We've Done It: We Pissed Off The CIA
Tyler Durden's Photo
BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, FEB 15, 2022 - 09:54 AM
While the collapse of public trust in the mainstream media is nothing new,
with Forbes recently reporting that "Fewer Americans than ever before trust
the mainstream media", it is only a much more recent phenomenon that members
of the media's highest echelons - such as the NYT's Matthew Rosenberg -
have started asking themselves and their (few remaining) readers the much
more difficult question of why is public trust of media so low.
Unfortunately, instead of following up with some much needed top-to-bottom
cleansing and fundamental reassessment of how the MSM pursues, analyzes and
reports news, the media has simply fallen back to its traditional tactic of
spewing baseless hit pieces against outlets they would rather see silenced
and/or censored.
Most notably in recent weeks, this has been observed vis-a-vis Joe Rogan's
incredibly popular podcast which has emerged as one of the biggest
competitors to traditional media.
This morning, it is Zero Hedge that has again been singled out for pursuing
non-establishment groupthink.
Echoing a false allegation we have repeatedly heard before, early on Tuesday
the Associated Press (of "how Associated Press cooperated with the Nazis"
fame) writes that "U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a
conservative financial news website with a significant American readership
of amplifying Kremlin propaganda and alleged five media outlets targeting
Ukrainians have taken direction from Russian spies. The officials said Zero
Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created
by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people
unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence."
Well, now we've done it - we've angered the CIA, and for what? For
publishing views that challenge the conventional narrative, such as
disputing that an invasion of Ukraine is actually "imminent" as the US State
Department and its mainstream media conduits repeat day after day, or that
the Covid virus was actually created in a Chinese lab, a view which has
gained substantial prominence in recent months after it emerged that none
other than the UK's Jeremy Farrar (also known as the UK's Doctor Fauci)
played a pivotal role in stifling suggestions that this new virus might have
come from a laboratory rather than emerged through natural zoonotic
transmission from animals.
Of course, there is no actual accusation that Zero Hedge works directly with
anyone tied to Russia or its intelligence apparatus - as the AP admits "
officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to
spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia"
, which is correct because - and we will repeat this once again for the
record and for all future similar hit piece attempts to smear us - this
website has never worked, collaborated or cooperated with Russia, nor are
there any links to spy (or any other) agencies; instead all the AP notes,
citing some unnamed "intelligence official", is that the US intelligence
apparatus is unhappy that among our hundreds of guest publishing
contributors is a website called Strategic Culture Foundation which US intel
officials "allege" take direction from the SVR, the Russian foreign
intelligence service.
Well, is the Strategic Culture Foundation - which periodically guest posts
on this website along with hundreds of other sources of alternative
information - taking direction from Russian intel?
Perhaps. We don't know. What we do know is that Alastair Crooke, one of the
most prolific writers on SCF website is a former high ranking MI6 figure and
UK diplomat, i.e., a former British spook. Perhaps he is now a double agent
working for Putin after spending decades spying for the UK?
We don't know, and we don't care: instead what we have cared about since our
first day, is to provide a platform, a voice to anyone who has a unique, a
different, perspective from the one pushed by the mainstream media. The same
mainstream media which we and everyone else now knows for a fact takes
direction from both the US intelligence service in particular (see here,
here and here) and the US government in general, or the "deep state" as some
call it.
We also know that the unnamed US intel officials apparently found nothing
wrong that we also frequently guest post articles from the Gatestone
Institute, a website that consistently pursues a neo-con angle in its
analysis and reporting.
The bottom line, as we told the AP, is that SCF is merely "one of our
hundreds of contributors — unlike Mainstream Media, we try to publish a
wide spectrum of views that cover both sides of a given story." And no
matter how much we disagree with any given guest post, we will give it the
same billing as all our other articles, unlike the NYT which spontaneously
imploded in an echo-chamber scandal of its own creation after it published
that infamous Tom Cotton op-ed back in 2020.
And speaking of contributors, maybe the AP could have rounded out its story
by providing some perspective on both sides instead of just tracking the
narrative it was spoon fed by the CIA. If it did, it would have encountered
views such as this one:
What is remarkable is that in its bizarre hit piece attempt to silence us,
the "deep state" has pulled out the same trite and discredited Russiagate
conspiracy theory whose popularity crashed and burned long ago, yet which
paradoxically still makes an appearance now and then in hopes of appeasing
its few remaining "lowest-common denominator" readers, which still fall for
the real hoaxes... such as weapons of mass destruction, or that Putin is
invading Ukraine tomorrow, or that Democrats did not spy on Trump.
Ironically, it was just yesterday that Jill Stein was lamenting the
perseverance of this ridiculous trope. Perhaps Stein is secretly
collaborating with the KGB?
So why pull out the same old discredited "Russiagate" narrative now? Well,
it may have nothing to do with our alleged ties to Russia, and everything to
do with our views of the current dismal US economic situation which few
dare to criticize due to the MSM's infamous liberal bias, something the AP
also notes, and this time accurately:
Zero Hedge has been sharply critical of Biden and posted stories about
allegations of wrongdoing by his son Hunter. While perhaps best known for
its coverage of markets and finance, the website also covers politics with a
conservative bent.
Sensing that just pulling the Russiagate card would be insufficient to
discredit the website, the anonymous "US intelligence source" also felt
compelled to buttress their case as follows:
The website was an early amplifier of conspiracy theories and misinformation
about the COVID-19 pandemic. An Associated Press investigation determined
the site played a pivotal role in advancing the unproven theory that China
engineered the virus as a bioweapon. It’s also posted articles touting
natural immunity to COVID-19 and unproven treatments.
Yes, this website was the first to "advance" the theory that China
engineered the virus which may well have escaped from the Wuhan lab (we
never claimed it was a bioweapon released purposefully, although it
certainly may have been) and last we checked the US intelligence is still
unsure as to what the source of the virus is. It was that "advancement" that
got us banned from Twitter for six months, only for the social media
website to backtrack saying it “made an error" in doing so.
The bottom line is that such hit piece accusations that we somehow work with
or for the Kremlin are nothing new: we have repeatedly faced similar
allegations over the years, and we can absolutely confirm that all of them
are "errors." That said, we do wish to thank the AP for bringing even more
attention and focus to our contrarian, non-establishment views, views which
we are confident the record number of Americans who have lost faith in such
media outlets as, well, the Associated Press will find refreshing.
We will give the final word to the AP hit piece itself, which quotes Bret
Schafer, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for
Securing Democracy, who said:
“My guess is that most of the people who are loyal Zero Hedge followers
naturally are inclined to mistrust the U.S. government anyway,” he said, “
and so this announcement is probably not going to undermine most of Zero
Hedge’s core support.”
We agree. As for the CIA, no we are not going to date you. Ever. |
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