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Here Are Some of the Worst Russian Collusion Hoax Peddlers in the Media

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  June 08, 2023 3:05 PM

It's been almost a month since the Durham report was released. For those appalled by the FBI's overreach and illegal spy activities, it was vindication after years of speculation. 

Liberals shrugged off the findings, instead citing Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz's 2018 report, which they claim absolved the FBI of being a biased agency during the 2016 election. That's not what the report said. There was bias, though it was written carefully with elliptical language. 

You cannot say the FBI has been a linchpin of integrity and professionalism when it signed off on a counterintelligence probe into Donald Trump without any evidence, suppressed exculpatory evidence to secure illegal FISA warrants on Trump associates, and did all this knowing that the document which formed the basis of this circus, the Steele Dossier, was a Clinton campaign-funded document.

A file revealed to be unverifiable, widely debunked, and chock full of Russian disinformation. Yet, the media didn't care. They pushed this wild goose chase for years and continue to be unapologetic about helping the FBI's rogue elements, the Deep State, and their Democratic allies undermine a duly-elected president. There are many culprits, but there are dozens of people you should never trust again. 

The Federalist compiled an accurate dossier on these clowns, with Margot Cleveland penning a lengthy piece about this epic failure in American journalism. The coverage was rewarded with many Pulitzer Prizes, which I think should be returned. The intelligence community that manufactured the entire narrative is a fraud. Also, it's not just the liberal media; most are part of that club. Some Fox News folks dabbled in the "Trump is a Kremlin agent" narrative: 

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Of course, all those taken in by Steele—or assisting him in trumping up years of investigations of a U.S. president based on smoke and mirrors—make the list too: Glenn Simpson, DOJ lawyer Bruce Ohr, the former FBI duo of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, fired FBI heads James Comey and Andrew McCabe, dossier courier David Kramer, and former senator Harry Reid, among others. 

Then there’s Jane Mayer, whose ode to Steele at The New Yorker sought to prop up the un-propable. Former National Security Agency lawyer Susan Hennessey, a CNN contributor, also gave credence to the dossier constantly, in one instance claiming “the intelligence community and law enforcement seem to be taking these claims seriously.”

[…]

[John] Brennan sold collusion from both inside the White House and out.

So did Obama national security director James Clapper, who played a key role in both creating the Russian collusion hoax and perpetuating it over the next two years as a CNN contributor. According to a declassified congressional report, “Clapper leaked details of a dossier briefing given to then-President-elect Donald Trump to CNN’s Jake Tapper, lied to Congress about the leak, and was rewarded with a CNN contract a few months later.”

As The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway reported, Clapper’s leak seems to have been done in coordination with Comey as a setup to give the false dossier legitimacy. Regardless, Washington Post factcheckers went to bat for Clapper, purporting to prove that he wasn’t really lying when he lied to Congress. The outcome is not only the end of credibility for Clapper but also for the Washington Post. 

Former NSA analyst and counterintelligence officer John Schindler, a New York Observer columnist and sometimes CNN guest, also beclowned himself, claiming NSA Director Mike Rogers told his staff “there is no question that we [meaning NSA] have evidence of election involvement and questionable contacts with the Russians.” 

[…] 

Over the two years of the Russia hoax, The New York Times added several more conspiratorial types to the ranks, including columnist Michelle Goldberg. Goldberg actually wondered aloud about the president whether “Putin is his handler, his hero or his co-conspirator,” adding that it’s “obviously where his loyalty lies as opposed to lying with the American people.” 

[…] 

CNN was also a frequent contributor to the worst reporting column. For instance, in a quadruple-byline piece, Gloria Borger, Eric Lichtblau, Jake Tapper, and Brian Rokus reported that Comey would testify before the Senate that he did not tell Trump that he wasn’t a target of the pending Russia investigation. CNN was dead wrong and in his testimony, Comey confirmed just what Trump had claimed—that the former FBI director had assured the president that he was not a target of the investigation. 

[…] 

Trump darling Fox News also has its own share of conspiracy theorists. Juan Williams pushed Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr. as the evidence of collusion, and in a textbook example of projection, told his fellow panelists on “The Five” that they were blinded to the truth because they were “in the bunker” for Trump. 

Fox anchor Shepard Smith claimed Mike Flynn’s guilty plea was proof the Russia investigation wasn’t a hoax, going so far as to pretend he was fact-checking the president. 


And people, specifically these folks, wonder why establishment media reporters are mocked, written off, or viewed with scorn: they all lied. 

Maybe there was a grace period in the beginning, though I feel like I'm being too generous here. By the time the 345th "bombshell" on this story turned out to be a nothing burger because there was never any solid evidence of collusion, these folks had to have known this was a dud. They still pushed it out of animus toward Trump. They've never apologized and probably never will, which is a hallmark characteristic of fake news organizations. They did their part, booting Trump, and now they're no better than pill pushers, posting content to keep lefty blood pressures low. That's fine—a liberal writer can be that in America but don't talk about the importance of the free press and how you play a vital role because that was sacrificed on the altar of the Democratic Party years ago.