I took in the Rachel Maddow show last night, something I normally do not do, as I don't subscribe to any cable television; the internet is more than sufficient in terms of offering me various viewpoints.
She used her time to plug a book by her friend and producer, about the Republican plot to rewrite recent history, history we all lived through and have personal knowledge of. So how do they get away with it?
When it turned out the GOP had been hacked such that emails and dossiers had come spilling out to Politico, the idea was to blame Iran, much as Russia was blamed for the successful phishing attack against Podesta.
Was it ever proved, as Rachel implies, that the Russians were actually behind that hack of the DNC? Skeptics such as myself never bought the Guccifer 2 story. The FBI outsourced that investigation to CrowdStrike, which came up with a colorful narrative, but not necessarily an especially credible one.
We never saw proof that Assange got his Wikileaks files from Russian sources, and even if he did, those files were fair game for journalists once Wikileaks had them, according to the old rule book.
Not so anymore, according to Maddow from her pulpit. She would prefer that when a foreign power is named, with respect to some leak, that the leaked info, whatever it is, not be spread around, as clearly that's to serve the interests of a foreign power, an adversary, which borders on treason.
This is always the line taken by a national security state: if we signal the intelligence has an adversarial source (e.g. the Hunter Biden laptop story) then your job, as loyal Americans is to (a) believe us unconditionally, we're the government, and to (b) shut up about whatever it is, or appear disloyal.
I was disappointed to hear Rachel, an effective demagogue, railing against journalists who, like whistle blowers, may feel it's their job to sometimes counter government narratives, no matter the sources and methods behind the info they're now privy to.
As long as a journalist cannot be directly linked to criminal acts, it's fair game for them to share their news and views. Rachel apparently disagrees.
All this comes on the heels of the Python Software Foundation reprimanding Tim Peters, one of the community's most treasured members, for behaving like himself. I'm sure that move makes certain people feel more powerful and important.
