Seymour Hersh Blasts Media for Uncritically Promoting Russian Hacking Story

anatta said:
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh said in an interview that he does not believe the U.S. intelligence community proved its case that President Vladimir Putin directed a hacking campaign aimed at securing the election of Donald Trump. He blasted news organizations for lazily broadcasting the assertions of U.S. intelligence officials as established facts

Hersh denounced news organizations as “crazy town” for their uncritical promotion of the pronouncements of the director of national intelligence and the CIA, given their track records of lying and misleading the public.

“The way they behaved on the Russia stuff was outrageous,” Hersh said when I sat down with him at his home in Washington, D.C., two days after Trump was inaugurated. “They were just so willing to believe stuff. And when the heads of intelligence give them that summary of the allegations, instead of attacking the CIA for doing that, which is what I would have done,” they reported it as fact. Hersh said most news organizations missed an important component of the story:
Hersh said many media outlets failed to provide context when reporting on the intelligence assessment made public in the waning days of the Obama administration that was purported to put to rest any doubt that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the hacking of the DNC and Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s emails.

The declassified version of the report, which was released January 7 and dominated the news for days, charged that Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election” and “aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.” According to the report, the NSA was said to have had a lower confidence level than James Clapper and the CIA about the conclusion that Russia intended to influence the election. Hersh characterized the report as full of assertions and thin on evidence.

“It’s high camp stuff,” Hersh told The Intercept. “What does an assessment mean? It’s not a national intelligence estimate. If you had a real estimate, you would have five or six dissents. One time they said 17 agencies all agreed. Oh really? The Coast Guard and the Air Force — they all agreed on it? And it was outrageous and nobody did that story. An assessment is simply an opinion. If they had a fact, they’d give it to you. An assessment is just that. It’s a belief. And they’ve done it many times.”

Hersh also questioned the timing of the U.S. intelligence briefing of Trump on the Russia hack findings. “They’re taking it to a guy that’s going to be president in a couple of days, they’re giving him this kind of stuff, and they think this is somehow going to make the world better? It’s going to make him go nuts — would make me go nuts. Maybe it isn’t that hard to make him go nuts.” Hersh said if he had been covering the story, “I would have made [John] Brennan into a buffoon. A yapping buffoon in the last few days. Instead, everything is reported seriously.”

Although critical of the Russia coverage, Hersh condemned the Trump administration’s attacks on the news media and its threats to limit the ability of journalists to cover the White House. “The attack on the press is straight out of national socialism,” he said. “You have to go back into the 1930s. The first thing you do is destroy the media. And what’s he going to do? He’s going to intimidate them. The truth is, the First Amendment is an amazing thing and if you start trampling it the way they — I hope they don’t do it that way — this would be really counterproductive. He’ll be in trouble.”

Hersh also said he is concerned about Trump and his administration assuming power over the vast surveillance resources of the U.S. government. “I can tell you, my friends on the inside have already told me there’s going to be a major increase in surveillance, a dramatic increase in domestic surveillance,” he said. He recommended that anyone concerned about privacy use encrypted apps and other protective means. “If you don’t have Signal, you better get Signal.”

While expressing fears about Trump’s agenda, Hersh also called Trump a potential “circuit breaker” of the two-party political system in the U.S. “The idea of somebody breaking things away, and raising grave doubts about the viability of the party system, particularly the Democratic Party, is not a bad idea,” Hersh said. “That’s something we could build on in the future. But we have to figure out what to do in the next few years.” He added: “I don’t think the notion of democracy is ever going to be as tested as it’s going to be now.”
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/25...uncritically-promoting-russian-hacking-story/
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Hersh is right; and the American sheeple will see right through the FAKE medias agenda and false narratives.
 
Cadillac Man said:
Hersh is known around Washington as the King of Fake News. He's been pissed about losing Watergate to Woodward/Bernstein since forever and likes to use fake sources as a result to bolster his conspiracy theories like the death of bin Laden being a Pakastani operation to boost Obama's reelection campaign.
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There's some truth in this.

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Truth Detector said:
There's some truth in this.
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the whole bin Laden thig s was controversial. But look at what Hersh is saying here..It's fact based.
We know the NSA didn't have the confidence level that Brennan did ( CIA) yet Clapper's assessment read like unanimity..(etc)
 
Truth Detector said:
Hersh is right; and the American sheeple will see right through the FAKE medias agenda and false narratives.
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It's getting to the point [if we haven't already passed it] where democrats should get wary about pushing the collusion conspiracy too hard. Since the theory is the corner stone to The Resistance, it will always play well with the far left base, but 2016 demonstrated that democrats need more than them to win national elections.

People aren't stupid. Anyone paying attention can see that theory lacks evidence.
 
zymurgy said:
wow, you are exposing your stupidity here. The guy is famous to anyone that follows current events over the last several decades
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Nomad is a shitty little snowflake loudmouth, who exemplifies the saying empty vessels make the most noise. Most people would just shut the fuck up when exposed as idiots but he just keeps on digging. I wonder if he is related to Desh?

Sent from my Lenovo K52e78 using Tapatalk
 
Trump is perpetuating the story as much as anyone.

And there isn't much dispute anymore about the actual hacking. It's the collusion that's in question.

"Get over it."
 
anatta said:
the whole bin Laden thig s was controversial. But look at what Hersh is saying here..It's fact based.
We know the NSA didn't have the confidence level that Brennan did ( CIA) yet Clapper's assessment read like unanimity..(etc)
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Hersh loves controversy; one should question his motives. Its not like he's suddenly a fan of Trumps or Republicans. ;)
 
Darth Omar said:
It's getting to the point [if we haven't already passed it] where democrats should get wary about pushing the collusion conspiracy too hard. Since the theory is the corner stone to The Resistance, it will always play well with the far left base, but 2016 demonstrated that democrats need more than them to win national elections.

People aren't stupid. Anyone paying attention can see that theory lacks evidence.
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Some people aren't stupid unlike liberals. Just look at the loony screed we see here from them, OR, the FAKE media narrative suggesting that Russiagate is of Nixonian consequence.

Its hysterics at a national level that only a Trump Presidency could have exposed. I can't wait to see the re-election emotional hysterics should Trump get four more years. :rofl2:
 
Thing1 said:
Trump is perpetuating the story as much as anyone.

And there isn't much dispute anymore about the actual hacking. It's the collusion that's in question.

"Get over it."
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Wrong again dimwitted wonder boy; he's playing the media and the liberal left while implementing his agenda and campaign promises.
 
Thing1 said:
It's the collusion that's in question.

"Get over it."
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Its only a "question" in the empty heads of gullible liberal dimwits still in shock that their predictions were so wrong and their despicable tactics did not prevent a Trump presidency.
 
Milagro said:
Nomad is a shitty little snowflake loudmouth, who exemplifies the saying empty vessels make the most noise. Most people would just shut the fuck up when exposed as idiots but he just keeps on digging. I wonder if he is related to Desh?
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Everybody knows what a lying little toe rag tosser bitch you are, little Millie.

The only time the shit stops coming out of your mouth is when you've got your lips locked on Trump's anus and you're sucking it in.
 
christiefan915 said:
I recall very clearly how righties excoriated Hersh for exposing the torture at Abu Ghraib, and called war critics like me a traitor for believing him. Now's he's going to be their hero.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/10/torture-at-abu-ghraib
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But what you forget is how liberal losers loved Hersh for his false anti-AmeriKa treatise on Abu Ghraib and will no excoriate him for this piece.

You're too painfully stupid to comprehend the irony and hypocrisy of ALL your idiotic partisan posts. You really are THAT stupid. :rofl2:
 
Thing1 said:
Trump is perpetuating the story as much as anyone.

And there isn't much dispute anymore about the actual hacking. It's the collusion that's in question.

"Get over it."
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there wasn't much dispute over the "17 intelligence agencies" either , until that was pushed back to 3.
And Hersh reminds us here even that number is inflated -because the NSA did not have "high confidence"

It's basically Brennan (CIA) and Clapper (DNI) only calling the shots on that assessment
 
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