QOTD -- Willing Stooges

 

"... The implications of this [phony Burisma Biden bribe] Russian operation are staggering, especially for the willing Republicans and right-wing media stooges who were the useful idiots propagating the disinformation for years. The James Comers, Chuck Grassleys, Jim Jordans of the world have been trafficking in this stuff as the purported basis for a Biden impeachment, which is itself tightly yoked to Trump’s campaign for re-election. Right-wing outlets, most notably Fox News, have been amplifying the claims not dozens or hundreds but thousands of times over the past several months.

"Everywhere you turn, it’s Russia either helping Trump directly or indirectly by damaging Trump’s foes. The pattern is clear and persistent but also so sweeping and far-reaching that it really requires taking a step back to grasp the full scope of it all. It has dominated right-wing media, become an accepted “fact” among MAGA adherents, and allowed elected Republicans to play mainstream media like a cheap fiddle. All those breathless Biden impeachment process stories? They’re an outgrowth of this disinformation campaign.  [snip]

"We’re nearly a decade into Putin’s sustained, unrelenting attack on American democracy through misinformation and mischief. Among other things, the Republican Party and its standard bearer have been successfully enmeshed in it and thoroughly compromised. When this all began, Putin in his wildest imagination could not have conceived of this level of success." -- Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, discussing the duping of willing Republican MAGAt toadies by Russian intelligence services, in their long campaign to dirty- up President Biden to distract from their cult hero's manifest, decades- long corruption and kompromat.

As Marshall notes, it's not just "right-wing media" serving as persistent Russian disinformation spreaders.  There's egg on many news outlets faces today.  As often happens, the "did Biden take bribes?" narrative inevitably seeped from right- wing media into corporate "mainstream media," often with a "so- and- so alleges" framing.  Goal accomplished, nonetheless.  If this instance Number Infinity doesn't convince media not to fall for and spread Russo- Republican disinformation, we don't know what will.