<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)"><!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Helvetica;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Georgia;
panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Segoe UI Light";
panose-1:2 11 5 2 4 2 4 2 2 3;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Segoe UI";
panose-1:2 11 5 2 4 2 4 2 2 3;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
h1
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:24.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
font-weight:bold;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p
{mso-style-priority:99;
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
span.Heading1Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1";
font-family:"Cambria","serif";
color:#365F91;
font-weight:bold;}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><h1 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='color:#333333'>Michael Isikoff Cuts His Losses at ‘Russian Roulette’<o:p></o:p></span></h1><div style='margin-top:1.5pt;margin-bottom:7.5pt;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>December 19, 2018 • <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/19/michael-isikoff-cuts-his-loses-at-russian-roulette/#comments"><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#DD0000'>29 Comments</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:1.5pt;margin-bottom:7.5pt;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:1.5pt;margin-bottom:7.5pt;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/19/michael-isikoff-cuts-his-loses-at-russian-roulette/">https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/19/michael-isikoff-cuts-his-loses-at-russian-roulette/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt;max-width: 800px;min-width: 424px' id="LPBorder_GTaHR0cHM6Ly9jb25zb3J0aXVtbmV3cy5jb20vMjAxOC8xMi8xOS9taWNoYWVsLWlzaWtvZmYtY3V0cy1oaXMtbG9zZXMtYXQtcnVzc2lhbi1yb3VsZXR0ZS8."><table class=MsoNormalTable border=1 cellpadding=0 width="100%" style='width:100.0%;border:solid #C8C8C8 1.0pt'><tr><td valign=top style='border:none;padding:9.0pt 27.0pt 9.0pt 9.0pt'><div style='margin-right:9.0pt;overflow:hidden' id=LPImageContainer687393><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/19/michael-isikoff-cuts-his-loses-at-russian-roulette/" target="_blank"><span style='border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=240 height=160 id=LPThumbnailImageId687393 src="cid:image001.jpg@01D4986A.FD9EDFF0" alt="Image removed by sender."></span></a><o:p></o:p></p></div></td><td width="100%" valign=top style='width:100.0%;border:none;padding:9.0pt 27.0pt 9.0pt 9.0pt'><div style='margin-right:6.0pt;margin-bottom:9.0pt' id=LPTitle687393><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI Light","sans-serif"'><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/19/michael-isikoff-cuts-his-loses-at-russian-roulette/" target="_blank"><span style='text-decoration:none'>Michael Isikoff Cuts His Losses at ‘Russian Roulette’ – Consortiumnews</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-right:6.0pt;margin-bottom:9.0pt;max-height: 100px;overflow:hidden' id=LPDescription687393><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#666666'>A sobering but undeniable fact – ALL reporting is biased and propaganda. When people are forced to respond or react, their reactions can be predicted, directed, manipulated, and managed.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div id=LPMetadata687393><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#A6A6A6'>consortiumnews.com<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></td></tr></table></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='margin-top:1.5pt;margin-bottom:7.5pt;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><div><div style='margin-right:1.5pt;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word;border-radius: 50%;display:inline-block;background-position-x:0px;background-position-y:256px'><p class=MsoNormal style='background:#EDEDDA'><b><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555555'>Save</span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='background:#EDEDDA'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Michael Isikoff, one of the biggest proponents of the Russia-gate story now says that Robert Mueller’s investigation is “not where a lot of people would like it to be,” says Ray McGovern.</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>The analogy with mainstream media regurgitating fraudulent “facts” on Weapons of Mass Destruction before the invasion of Iraq is complete. How many recall then-Secretary of State Colin Powell telling the world on February 5, 2003 that his evidence and conclusions were “irrefutable and undeniable.”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'><br><br></span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>By Ray McGovern<br></span></b><i><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Special to Consortium News</span></i><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/raymcgovern_face0.jpg"><span style='color:#DD0000;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=100 height=100 id="_x0000_i1026" src="cid:~WRD000.jpg" alt="Image removed by sender."></span></a>Last Saturday, veteran Washington journalist Michael Isikoff began a John Ehrlichman/Watergate-style “modified limited hangout” regarding the embarrassing overreach in his Russia-gate “collusion” reporting. He picked an unctuous, longtime fan, radio host John Ziegler, to help him put some lipstick on the proverbial pig. Even so, the</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:red'><a href="https://soundcloud.com/freespeechbroadcasting/2018-12-15-2-michael-isikoff">interview</a></span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'> did not go so well.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Those who can muster some residual empathy for formerly serious reporters who have gotten Russia-gate so wrong, may feel genuine sadness at this point. Those fed up with pretense, unprofessionalism, and dodging, however, will find it hard to listen to the audible squirming without a touch, or more, of <i>Schadenfreude</i> — the word Germans use to denote taking joy at the misfortune of others.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>In a word, it proved hard to square the circle inside which Isikoff and other Russia-gate aficionados have been living for more than two years after last week’s disclosures. Ziegler’s repeated expressions of admiration for Isikoff’s work, plus his softball questions, utterly failed to disguise Isikoff’s disappointment that Robert Mueller’s Russia-gate investigation is “not where a lot of people would like it to be.”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>“</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>A lot of people” includes Isikoff.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Commenting on the trove of legal and other documents now available, Isikoff pretty much conceded that he and his co-writer, journalist David Corn were, in effect, impersonating serious investigative journalists when they published in April 2017 their gripping Russia-gate <i>chef d’oeuvre</i>: “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump.”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Steele Dossier</span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style='border:solid #E2E2E2 1.0pt;padding:8.0pt 8.0pt 4.0pt 8.0pt;margin-left:15.0pt;margin-top:3.75pt;margin-bottom:15.0pt;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word;max-width: 100%;float:right'><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;background:#F6F6F6'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/IsikoffTwitter_400x400.jpg"><span style='color:#DD0000;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=479 height=479 id="_x0000_i1027" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D4986A.FD9EDFF0" alt="Image removed by sender."></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align=center style='text-align:center;background:#F6F6F6'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'>Isikoff: Steele not verified. </span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'>(Twitter)</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Aware of the credulity given by Isikoff and Corn to the “Steele <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/18/steele-dossier-michael-isikoff/2347833002/"><span style='color:red'>dossier</span>,</a>” Ziegler began with what he apparently thought was a soft-ball observation/question. “Would you agree that a lot of what is in the Steele Dossier has been at least somewhat vindicated?”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>“</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>No,” said Isikoff flatly.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>The conversation turned to so-called “logical” explanations for leaps of faith rather than analysis. Such as unsubstantiated accusations, like the so-called “pee-tape” that Isikoff now says is “likely false.”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>A “modified limited hangout” is when someone’s cover story is blown and some truth needs to be divulged to deflect further inquiry. Isikoff’s begins at the 26:50 mark and goes on, churning one’s stomach for 30 minutes.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>A better subtitle for Isikoff and Corn’s book might be “Based on What We Wanted to Believe Was a True Story.”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Isikoff told Ziegler that unless “Saint” Robert Mueller, as Democrats see him, can summon a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina">Deus ex Machina</a> to provide some actual evidence linking Trump or his campaign to collusion with Russia, former Isikoff acquaintances, like me, might legitimately ask, “What the hell happened to you, Mike?”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Isikoff and Corn have done some serious work together in the past. Their 2006 book, “Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War” — was an accurate chronicle of the Cheney/Bush March of Folly into Iraq. That was also against a Republican administration. But they had interviewed people from both sides of the issues.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Though neither were fans of George W. Bush, they backed up their work with facts. “Russian Roulette” is a different story. It reads now like desperation to confirm what the authors hoped Mueller would find. He has failed them.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Is This Journalism?</span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Who can adequately explain the abject loss of journalistic standards when it comes to Russia-gate?</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>For Isikoff and Corn, as for other erstwhile serious journalists, there should be more crow than ham or turkey to eat in the weeks ahead.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Others come to mind: Jane Mayer of<i> The New Yorker</i>; James Risen, formerly of <i>The New York Times</i>; and lesser lights like McClatchy’s Greg Gordon; Marcy Wheeler, Amy Goodman’s go-to Russia-gate pundit at</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:red'><a href="http://emptywheel.com/"><span style='font-size:18.0pt'>emptywheel.net</span></a></span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>; and extreme-partisan Democrat Marc Ash, who runs Reader Supported News.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Many had pinned their hopes on Trump’s 24-day national security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn, to supply grist for the “collusion” mill. That increased when word came he’d met 19 times with Mueller’s investigators as a cooperative witness.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Yet, something didn’t gel. Prosecutors said they’d go light on Flynn.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>In (and Out) Like Flynn</span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style='border:solid #E2E2E2 1.0pt;padding:8.0pt 8.0pt 4.0pt 8.0pt;margin-top:3.75pt;margin-right:15.0pt;margin-bottom:15.0pt;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word;max-width: 100%;float:left'><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;background:#F6F6F6'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/30020745053_9a6934b8c8_k.jpg"><span style='color:#DD0000;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=500 height=333 id="_x0000_i1028" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D4986A.FD9EDFF0" alt="Image removed by sender."></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align=center style='text-align:center;background:#F6F6F6'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'>Flynn: In or out of jail? </span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'>(Flickr Gage Skidmore)</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Philip Ewing, the apparent odd-man-out at National Public Radio, </span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:red'><a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/12/15/676765398/the-russia-investigations-a-case-still-unproven">observed</a></span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Saturday: “Does that sound like the attitude they [the prosecutors] would take with someone who had been serving as a Russian factotum and who had been serving as a foreign agent from inside the White House as national security adviser, steps away from the Oval Office?”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Flynn was supposed to be sentenced for lying to the FBI on Tuesday. By afternoon, however, Federal District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan postponed the sentencing until at least March. The judge said he was “disgusted” by Flynn’s “very serious” crimes but later apologized from the bench for asking whether his actions might have been treasonous.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>He gave Flynn the option of delaying sentencing until he had completed his cooperation with federal prosecutors, and Flynn agreed. But Sullivan remained adamant that Flynn could still end up in jail. If His Honor takes the time to read Professor Jonathan Turley, of the George Washington University Law School,</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:red'> <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/333764-opinion-the-comey-memo-offers-zero-proof-to-impeach">about</a></span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'> Comey-endorsed FBI tactics — and not confine his reading solely to the Washington Post — it seems a safe bet he will give Flynn a stay-out-of jail card.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>In an early morning tweet Tuesday, Trump wished Flynn good luck and commented: “Will be interesting to see what he has to say, despite tremendous pressure being put on him, about Russian Collusion.” How can one interpret this? Either Mueller and his score of investigators were unable to get Flynn to spill the beans on collusion or — could it be possible? — there are no beans to spill.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Hold That Line</span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>As for Isikoff and Corn, their profession — such as it is these days — can be expected to circle the wagons and give them the immunity granted 15 years ago to the faux-journalists who pushed the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) deception so hard — even after no WMD were found in Iraq.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Indeed, in recent days <i>The New York Times </i>and<i> Washington Post</i> have launched what looks like a stepped-up pre-emptive attack, lest readers start to doubt their rendering of Russia-gate. The headlines and the drivel that follow have been caricatures of journalism.</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Be not misled about Russia-gate, <i>The Washington Post</i> editorial board <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/russias-support-for-trumps-election-is-no-longer-disputable/2018/12/17/d194870e-023a-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.617566f09458&wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1">wrote</a> Tuesday morning. “It is no longer disputable.”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>The analogy with mainstream media regurgitating fraudulent “facts” on Weapons of Mass Destruction before the invasion of Iraq is complete. How many recall then-Secretary of State Colin Powell telling the world on February 5, 2003 that his evidence and conclusions were “irrefutable and undeniable.”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Hardly New</span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>John Swinton, a prominent journalist in New York in 1880, at a banquet, reportedly </span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:red'><a href="https://www.constitution.org/pub/swinton_press.htm">responded</a></span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'> to a toast to the “independent press,” by saying: “There is no such thing as an independent press. You know it and I know it. … What folly is this toasting an independent press?</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>“</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><i><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Plus ca change ….</span></i><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;background:#EDEDDA;box-sizing: border-box;overflow-wrap: break-word'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. Part of his job as a CIA analyst for 27 years was to analyze Soviet propaganda. He now experiences considerable nostalgia examining the propaganda put out by U.S. mainstream media. When you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy, IF you know where to look.</span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#555555'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div id=DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><table class=MsoNormalTable border=1 cellpadding=0 style='border:none;border-top:solid #D3D4DE 1.0pt'><tr><td width=55 style='width:41.25pt;border:none;padding:9.75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=icon" target="_blank"><span style='border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=46 height=29 id="_x0000_i1029" src="cid:image004.jpg@01D4986A.FD9EDFF0" alt="Image removed by sender."></span></a><o:p></o:p></p></td><td width=470 style='width:352.5pt;border:none;padding:9.0pt .75pt .75pt .75pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:13.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#41424E'>Virus-free. <a href="https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=link" target="_blank"><span style='color:#4453EA'>www.avast.com</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></body></html>