[Peace] Greenwald's "Journalists, Learning They Spread a CIA Fraud About Russia, Instantly Embrace a New One" is worth your time

[J.B. Nicholson]

Greenwald has written the best debunking of the recent allegation that Russia placed 
bounties on the heads of US soldiers in Afghanistan I've read so far and he also 
includes a clear explanation of the problem of press subservience to the state, 
debunking the next evidenceless lie from Biden's Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and 
the international relevance of these lies (hint: the US kills people based on these 
lies).

In https://greenwald.substack.com/p/journalists-learning-they-spread Greenwald 
explains how that was always knowable as US government propaganda spread by 
establishment stenographers, how the admission of CIA sourcing came about, and what 
the new Russian lie is (quoting that article):

> On Thursday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, run by Biden’s Treasury 
> Secretary Janet Yellen, issued a short Press Release[1] about its targeting of 
> Russian-Ukrainian political consultant, Konstantin Kilimnik, with new sanctions. 
> One sentence of this press release asserted a claim that the Mueller 
> investigation, after searching for eighteen months, never found: namely, that 
> “Kilimnik provided the Russia intelligence services with sensitive information on 
> polling and campaign strategy” that he received from then-Trump campaign manager 
> Paul Manafort.
> 
> Is it true that Kilimnik passed this polling data to the Kremlin? Maybe. But
> there is no way for a rational person — let alone someone calling themselves a 
> “journalist” — to conclude that it is true. Why? Because, like the CIA tale about 
> Russian bounties — a claim they learned yesterday had no evidence — this is 
> nothing more than a U.S. Government assertion that lacks any evidence.


[1] https://twitter.com/MarshallCohen/status/1382705877719908361

[...]

> But the far more important point is the U.S. media's willingness — their
> subservient eagerness — to obediently treat U.S. government pronouncements as
> Truth. Just like with the Russia bounty story, where there were ample reasons to
> doubt it from the start, the same is true of this Treasury Press Release. To begin
> with, if this were such a smoking gun "confirming” collusion, why did the Mueller
> investigation after eighteen months of highly aggressive subpoena-driven
> investigative activity not discover it?
> 
> Let's express this as clearly as it can be expressed. Any journalist who treats
> unverified stories from the CIA or other government agencies as true, without
> needing any evidence or applying any skepticism, is worthless. Actually, they are
> worse than worthless: they are toxic influences who deserve pure contempt. Every
> journalist knows that governments lie constantly and that it is a betrayal of
> their profession to serve as mindless mouthpieces for these security agencies:
> that is why they will vehemently deny they do this if you confront them with this
> accusation. They know it is a shameful thing to do.
> 
> But just look at what they are doing: exactly this. These are not journalists.
> They are obsequious spokespeople for the CIA and other official authorities. Even
> when they learn that they deceived millions of people by uncritically repeating a
> story that the CIA told them was true, they will — on the very same day that they
> learn they did this — do exactly the same thing, this time with a one-paragraph
> Treasury Department Press Release. These are agents of disinformation: state
> media. And when they speak, you should listen to them with the knowledge of what
> they really are, and treat them accordingly.


I think the entire article is worth reading.