The invaluable Charlie Savage in The New York Times gave us a deep look into the White House's disinformation machine, the nearly inexhaustible assembly line cranking out bullshit stories and shabby narratives to fool the nation's inexhaustible supply of suckers.
On the afternoon of Friday, October 2, the White House invited a mix of mainstream and right-wing reporters to an online briefing about “weaponization.” A briefer previewed records the White House planned to release from the investigation of Donald J. Trump’s retention of classified documents while out of office, and his obstruction of their retrieval. The files reflected scattered topics. Among them: an internal debate over probable cause to search Mr. Trump’s social club and residence, Mar-a-Lago; plans to execute any search warrant while Mr. Trump and his family were away; and the collection of phone logs of Mr. Trump’s top aide, Susie Wiles.
Most facts were already known or minutiae, and mainstream reporters ignored the files when the White House posted them on Monday. But Trump allies pushed an alarmist and decontextualized interpretation through the conservative information ecosystem. By Wednesday, a reporter from Trump ally and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell’s website asked Mr. Trump about it in the Oval Office. The president thanked her for the question, denouncing the inquiry as “weaponization.”
As is customary with Savage's work, the reporting is copper-riveted and more credible given how judiciously Savage presents his evidence.
The October 2 briefing was led by John Solomon, a former mainstream journalist who is now employed by the White House as a so-called special government employee. He has been active for years in presenting pro-Trump narratives, including during the 2019 events related to Ukraine that led to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment. In 2022, Mr. Trump named him his representative to the National Archives so he could gain access to records related to the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
Ah, John Solomon. The worm in the apple of my alma mater. In fact, both he and I won my J-school's distinguished alumni, which mysteriously falls off my wall every time Solomon's name appears in the news.
Mainstream reporters have only occasionally found news in Mr. Solomon’s presentations. But once he completes his role as White House briefer, he writes articles based on the same material for his website, JustTheNews.com. In this case, his article—like his briefing—presented known information as revelations and omitted key context about new details. Its narrative entered a right-wing media echo chamber.
The last part of Savage's story shows how eagerly the right-wing media gobbles up the White House's disinformation. It's like watching feeding time at the seal tank. The Clinton people raged about the conservative "puke funnel" that was arrayed against that administration. In retrospect, those complaints have an unmistakable air of you ain't seen nothing less. And, through pure serendipity, a perfect example of what Savage had written about exploded in real time over the weekend.
Citing the flu, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico took nine days off from campaigning recently. (I am of a mind that, with three weeks left in one of the most important elections of our lives, you campaign from a damn gurney if you have to, but I grew up in Massachusetts. We will have to have a talk about this when Talarico gets to the Senate.) Anyway, the flying monkeys spent a month speculating about The Real Story behind Talarico's sabbatical. Then, over the weekend, a bevy of wingnut clowns came up with The Real Story. And it was a humdinger.
Claiming to have talked to an "employee" at the Lindner Center of Hope, a mental-health clinic in Ohio, some MAGA "influencers" erupted on Xwitter that they had sussed out Talarico's horrible deception and called for his immediate withdrawal from the race. There were a couple of problems with this scoop right from jump. First of all, if Talarico needed a mental-health clinic, why in hell would he fly all the way to Ohio. Also, according to a phone call with the "hospital employee," Talarico was discharged from the Lindner on October 10, a day that he made an appearance at a music festival in Austin. And then, the Lindner itself dropped the big one.
“Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.”
The backing and filling on Xwitter has sounded like the digging of the Panama Canal.