McCarthyism
2.0
The
newly released US Intelligence Community report which supposedly
gives proof about the supposedly hacking of the US elections by the
Russians, has already been criticized by various independent media
for the fact that it doesn't actually provide any evidence. As the
antimedia
reports: “The Intelligence Community Assessment does not offer
any evidence of Russian hacking of the DNC and thus provides nothing
new to back its claims. Rather than explain the means used by the
Russians to “hack” the US elections, the Assessment instead
devotes most of the report to speculating about possible Russian
motives for so doing. Thus it appears more a diversionary maneuver to
compensate for bringing a whole lot of nothing new to the table.”
Moreover,
one can find evidence through which the report could be easily
considered more like an attempt to justify Obama's dirty war on the alternative media (or any media that is not
aligned with the US mainstream propaganda) though the "Countering
Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act", signed on December
23, rather than a serious investigation on any alleged hacking of the
recent US elections.
In
other words, the report could be considered an attempt for the
justification of the new McCarthyism.
For
example, a section of the report targets specific TV shows of Russia
Today for “criticism of US and Western governments as well as
the promotion of radical discontent.” From the report
: “In the runup to the 2012 US presidential election in
November, English-language channel RT America -- created and financed
by the Russian Government and part of Russian Government-sponsored RT
TV (see textbox 1) -- intensified its usually critical coverage of
the United States. The channel portrayed the US electoral process as
undemocratic and featured calls by US protesters for the public to
rise up and "take this government back." RT
introduced two new shows -- "Breaking the Set"
on 4 September and "Truthseeker" on 2 November -- both
overwhelmingly focused on criticism of US and Western governments as
well as the promotion of radical discontent.”
So,
apart from the "radical discontent" (whatever that means),
since when the "criticism of US and Western governments"
has become a questionable action in the 'perfect' Western
democracies?
We
have also highlighted the RT show "Breaking
the Set" as a particularly interesting case. As the Free
Thought Project reports:
In what amounts to nothing more than a speculative
assessment — which contains no actual evidence of Russian hacking —
the much anticipated “Declassified Intelligence Community
Assessment of Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US
Elections” report from the Intelligence Community was released
yesterday.
The report is sorely lacking in any hard evidence,
providing nothing new to support their dubious politicized claims of
“Russia hacking the election,” and instead devoting a
majority of the report to speculative claims about Russian motives
and criticism of the Russian television station RT.
[...]
Abby Martin, former host of “Breaking the Set,”
took to social media shortly after the report was released to express
the absolute absurdity of the claims in the report, noting that the
show had actually ended 2 years ago – significantly prior to the
DNC and GOP presidential candidates even being nominated — let
alone affecting the election results.
Indeed,
from Martin's
facebook page :
Guys, it's my fault. The long awaited intelligence
report on Russia says my show Breaking the Set, that ended two years
ago on RT, helped cost Hillary the election.
To call my show out my show specifically for promoting
"radical discontent" is a crazy, McCarthyist smear. The US
government is getting extremely desperate to prove its own bullshit.
Anyone trying to take this comical intelligence report seriously to
prove anything about Russia interfering in our elections should be
laughed off.
So,
the big question here is, why this US report refers on the 2012 US
presidential election and why it targets an RT show which had stop
broadcasting since March 2014, therefore, there is no way that could
affect the 2016 US election?
But
it's getting 'better'. It is widely known that Abby Martin closed her
show and left the RT due to her strong opposition to the Russian
military intervention in Ukraine. A simple search on Wikipedia
confirms: “Martin began hosting her own show, Breaking the Set,
on RT America in September 2012 from Washington, D.C. The show mixes
media criticism with investigative journalism. It describes itself as
"a show that cuts through the pre-written narrative that tries
to tell you what to think, and what to care about", and as a
show that "cuts through the false Left/Right paradigm set by the
establishment & reports the hard facts". [...] Martin
drew widespread media attention when she closed her show on March 3,
2014, with a minute-long statement condemning the Russian military
intervention in Ukraine.”
Which
means that, certainly, Abby Martin would not be the most suitable
person to blame for pro-Russian propaganda. Obviously, those who
wrote that report didn't even do their homework, in order to add some
plausibility to it.
It
is hard to tell what is more terrifying: the rapid and dangerous
decline of professionalism of the US intelligence community, or, its
dangerous, frenzy persistence to blame Russia for almost everything?
This appears clearly to be an attempt to divert public attention away from other commonly sneaky activities that are going on. This gives them the time they crave to try and underhand items beneath the blanket of "hacking", pulling anything (literally) into the mix that will cause a stir and can give them the upper hand while everyone is so focused and enraged with this.
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