[Peace-discuss] coup at The Real News Network?

[J.B. Nicholson]

David Green wrote:
> Not at all surprising; TRNN has been pretty hollowed out of content over
> the past year beyond the still good local Baltimore coverage, and some of
> Greg Wilpert's stories. Marc Steiner is a disaster, even though he
> interviews decent people regarding Israel/Palestine. Almost the same, BTW,
> can be said for Amy Goodman these days.

I concur about Steiner for his Russiagate repeating on TRNN (which I've 
brought up in News from Neptune notes). It seems I'm not alone in noticing 
how Democracy Now covers Russiagate taking Russiagate stories at face 
value. DN didn't do that with the New York Times pro-war stories leading up 
to the 2003 Iraq war, DN always followed up on those stories with something 
from the IAEA or someone else who had been to Iraq explaining what they saw 
or didn't see.

On nakedcapitalism.com: Michael Fiorillo in 
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/11/paul-jay-and-sharmini-peries-ousted-from-the-real-news-network-in-june-current-fundraiser-hides-that-fact-falling-viewership-and-liberal-turn-result.html#comment-3238796 
wrote

> With all due respect to Amy Goodman and and Juan Gonzalez, DN really
> blew it on Russiagate, guzzling the Kool Aid. They featured a frequently
> unhinged Marcy Wheeler – someone with no relevant experience, who made
> preposterous assertions and betrayed sources – as their go-to analyst on
> the topic. To their credit, unlike other channels they’ve at least given
> Glen Greenwald and others a chance to re-assess the Russiagate dumpster
> fire, but they nevertheless undermined trust in their judgement and
> credibility.
I appreciate hearing from Greenwald as well, but it's pretty clear where 
the DN show stands on Russiagate (as Fiorello says). Their headline 
segments uncritically repeat Russiagate stories. In two ways Marcy Wheeler 
is like Rachel Maddow: both used to say and write well-researched 
reasonable things. Later both became Russiagate supporters ("Russiagators"?).

Yves Smith regarding Wheeler's incoherent responses to Aaron Maté in 
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/11/paul-jay-and-sharmini-peries-ousted-from-the-real-news-network-in-june-current-fundraiser-hides-that-fact-falling-viewership-and-liberal-turn-result.html#comment-3239047

> Oh, this has been going on for a VERY long time on Twitter! She
> [Wheeler] is always after him [Maté] and he keeps having to rebut her
> nonsense. She is rarely comprehensible. She doesn’t make a coherent
> argument, cites names and legal provisions with explaining the
> significance, as if just dropping them has talismanic value.
I think that's a fair assessment of what Wheeler has become and exhibits 
now throughout her Russiagate defense.