Credible News Sources: The Russian Hacking Story

[Josh]

According to people I know actually in Russia...

Remember Josh that Russia is a HUGE country. Opinions can vary vastly from coast to coast.

I know two church leaders who travelled to Russia quite a bit to work with the unregistered churches there. Their story sounds a lot different than yours. For instance, an Orthodox priest ordering the local unregistered church's new meeting house to be bulldozed....

Right. And one of the more interesting things a Russian told me is that we don't have freedom to homeschool in America; homeschoolers get their kids taken away.

Needless to say I view the opinions of Westerners about Russia and the opinions of Russians about the west with suspicion.

[ragpicker]

In light of the recent developments, may I be forgiven for snickering at the ernest defense of the news media, of the CIA, etc?

[Robert]

In light of the recent developments, may I be forgiven for snickering at the ernest defense of the news media, of the CIA, etc?

I am in the same boat, but feel little regret for doubting the media. I also remember that these same expert government organizations also said there was WMD in Iraq. They also lie and distort as an occupation.

I also knew they were always doing this kind of thing. Assange still stands by his statements that he got the info from other players. While, I have little reason to trust him, all the data presented was accurate. No one has yet to refute the data shared. So the worse that was done by whomever was to bring light to the darkness. I feel little need to condemn them. I feel the same about Snowden.

I do not think Russia's goal was to get Trump elected, but to cast a shadow on US elections. The US government tries to play all high and mighty, when in reality they are pretty shady themselves.

I told my wife last night, if Trump does fall, it will be after the first 100 days, which I lot will get done and then Pence will step in. I like Pence and think he would be a good president. So I feel little concern if these new rumors are true about the Russians having some dirt on Trump that is really bad. It would have to be really ad because most know how bad of a person Trump is and chose to elect him anyway. This is how desperate many were to "drain the swamp" and get the elites out of DC.

[MaxPC]

Those in my circles say it's another attempt at creating bias to undermine those going through the congressional approval process. Yesterday people dressed in KKK costumes had disrupted the hearings and were forcibly removed. Today the costume people are back wearing T-Rex costumes. It all seems childish to me.

On the other hand, China is making increasingly aggressive military maneuvers in the Pacific. Russia has always been at odds with China and with their new wealth, China has created a military that by some estimates is larger than that of either the US or Russia. It would not surprise me if the US and Russia become closer to each other because of this new superpower threat.

Feels like 1939 again. Interesting times in which we live and so we trust in God alone.

[Josh]

The same people calling for war with Russia also complained that Trump wasn't coddling the Chinese because he took a phone call with the leader of Taiwan.

[ragpicker]

if these new rumors are true about the Russians having some dirt on Trump

It was Fake News. CNN and Buzzfeed ran with it, as did a number of other people. It was a revenge prank, started by a member of 4chan, whose target then passed it on. Eventually it made its way to John McCain, who passed it the FBI. The CIA included it in their classified report. There was even an Easter egg in the fake report, the reference to Japanese anime porn. That was a direct reference to the backstory of the original prank.

This just showed how FAKE a lot of the cries against Fake news really were. Fake News is a problem, one that existed long before this clickbait garbage that so many have fussed about. But the uproar over Fake News was more about scapegoating than about an actual concern for truth. Thi is why I scoffed at the uproar.

[Josh]

Those with faith in the news media should read the 35 page report - it is obviously fake, at least to anyone who spent time on 4chan (which sadly I have spent years on). There is a lot of inside baseball here, but suffice to say if I read it I start laughing uncontrollably at the injokes in there (many of which are not decent).

[Bootstrap]

As of yesterday, NPR did not disclose the contents of the report beyond saying that it was salacious. The New York Times headline reads "How a Sensational, Unverified Dossier Became a Crisis for Donald Trump". The Washington Post article has the headline "Why intel chiefs decided to brief Trump on salacious claims". As far as I can see, the sources I trust are handling this responsibly, even using headlines that clearly indicate that it is not verifiable. The better news sources are often good at pointing out when they don't have solid evidence that something is true.

This story seems still to be unfolding. We'll find out which parts of this revelation are true. There will likely be more revelations. As that happens, I suspect we'll find out a lot about Trump's relationship to Russia and his financial interests.

I'm no expert on these things, and perhaps I'm not alone in that. I don't think we know enough to say one way or another yet. I suspect we will be learning more.

[Bootstrap]

It was Fake News. CNN and Buzzfeed ran with it, as did a number of other people.

Buzzfeed did.

I don't see CNN as particularly trustworthy, but according to The Hill, CNN was much more restrained, stating that it would not publish the allegations because it could not corroborate them.

[Robert]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01 ... leaks.html

On Wednesday, Clapper released a rare statement addressing rising tensions between spy agency chiefs and Trump, who believes the intel community has become politicized and is working to undermine him. He also acknowledged contacting Trump directly to express "profound dismay" about the leaks to CNN and Buzzfeed — the latter of which published the unverified allegations in full.

"I emphasized that this document is not a U.S. Intelligence Community product and that I do not believe the leaks came from within the IC," Clapper said. "The IC has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable, and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions."

Several media outlets reported that the salacious material, originally compiled by a former British intelligence officer turned political consultant, was relayed to Trump when he was briefed on the intelligence community's evidence of Russian hacking in the 2016 election.