Tuesday, January 10, 2017

BuzzFeed: "Intelligence report claims Russia has compromising information on Trump"

The online news site BuzzFeed on Tuesday published a letter containing salacious allegations — which even the left-leaning outlet acknowledged are unverified — against President-Elect Donald Trump.

The letter, purporting to come from a retired British intelligence agent, details Trump’s alleged relationship with Russia and contends that the Kremlin has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Trump for at least five years.

It alleges that Russians have been feeding Trump intelligence on his opponents, including Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, for years. It also details Trump’s alleged “personal obsessions and sexual perversion.”

BuzzFeed acknowledges that it has not verified the accusations and even notes that the document contains a number of basic factual errors. Yet it published the full document.

“Now BuzzFeed News is publishing the full document so that Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the US government,” BuzzFeed wrote.

Even Mother Jones declined to publish the full details and dossier.

"Even Donald Trump deserves journalistic fairness," tweeted David Corn, Mother Jones' Washington Bureau chief.

Ben Smith, BuzzFeed's editor-in-chief, defended the decision in a memo to staff.

"Our presumption is to be transparent in our journalism and to share what we have with our readers," he wrote in the email he subsequently shared on Twitter. "We have always erred on the side of publishing. In this case, the document was in wide circulation in the highest levels of American government and media."

Via Drudge: http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/buzzfeed-runs-error-laden-unverifiable-trump-russia-claim/

64 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

He said he grabbed some pussy. oh no!

chickelit said...

I question the timing. Anyone wishing to harm Trump would have first published this before the election. Anyone wishing to harm Trump after the election would publish this now. Those motives are clear.

This story reeks of Rodham.

chickelit said...

Trump is starting to push back on Twitter. That is the correct forum.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"lock her up"

GOODSTUFF said...

A retired British intelligence agent is a reliable source for Buzzfeed?

poor copies?

bagoh20 said...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-10/4chan-claims-have-fabricated-anti-trump-report-hoax

Chip Ahoy said...

It's just one complete load after another. And this is the state of American journalism. Buzzfeed expects they affect the national discussion by tossing out shit at Trump and simultaneously cover themselves expecting not to have any get on them. This only works on Democrats and both sink in their own shit even deeper. Honestly, I've not seen the likes of it my lifetime.

And maybe I did see it before but didn't comprehend it then. Come to think of it the original Watergate seems similar and that time this horseshit worked. With that lens it seems clear that although Buzzfeed is born through new technology, a fresh way of dispensing and receiving news and information, politically they exist in the early '70's.

Man, the '70's was an awesome decade. But not so amazing as now.

As a preteen in Tokyo the mild earthquakes were exciting. I used to imagine a crack in the ground splitting apart and having to think and act quickly, decide which side to put my weight to avoid falling into an immediate surprise crevasse as a comic book might depict. The imagery still holds. And now it's actually happening. It's exciting now as it was to think about then.

And you know what? Would you like to hear something totally *high pitched* STUUUUUUU *low pitched* pud?

I used to read MAD magazine every issue. I bought them each time at the nearby makeshift BX near the gate. (With actual MP guards. How about that, huh? Is that insane, or what?)

And then I grew up and stopped reading it. It's just too f'k'n stupid. Too prepubescent and no longer the slightest bit funny.

Then a long time ago I went to Cancun with a good size group of friends. One of the dumber friends picked up a MAD magazine to read on the flight. He was cracking up laughing reading it. Others grabbed it out of his hands and read it themselves and cracked up too. I read what they were laughing at and it was truly stupid, completely resolutely not funny. Void of anything approaching real humor, nevertheless it had all my friends in stitches. I realized my friends are all quite stupid and amazingly simple to amuse. All you have to do is think stupidly as possible and BANG they're in stitches.

Chip Ahoy said...

And now all present day journalism is the exact same thing, as this subject under discussion.

On Monday I subscribed to MAD magazine. Only to reconnect with my nine-year old self mentality who visualized crevasses opening up underfoot and enjoying the imagined excitement. Because now it really is happening. And MAD magazine makes more sense than Buzzfeed, Washington Post, NYT, and Denver Post to name only a few.

I used to draw those fold in pictures inspired by the back cover of Mad. Know how to do it?

You draw your final cartoon first and label it. Divide it down the center and separate the two halves. Then draw something in the space between them. Use the lines that are cut off for a new picture. Try to make it apposite to the original. Use the letters of your title for a new phrase and attempt to make it apposite too. Boom. Mad Magazine fold in picture. The idea of it is more genius than its execution, but no matter what, they're still always fun, in a prepubescent mentality, in a sense of humor that's only just forming. This 4-Chan inspired leftist journalism comports with that mentality.

Incidentally the second year subscription to MAD is half the price of the first year. But one year of that crap is more than enough to reconnect to a nine year old brain and anything more than that, actually, anything more than one or two issues, means that you're stuck with no hope of advancing. Like my friends who still find it hilarious.

All that came about by the woman quitting Hebdo for going soft on Islam ridicule, copping out as South Park did. I looked up Mad Magazine ridiculing Islam for comparison. And I was disappointed. From what I've seen of their covers by searching, it appears Mad Magazine has deftly avoided the controversy too. My search parameters were [mad magazine, muhammad] And the results are mostly Muhammad Ali / Cassius Clay.

AllenS said...

They got nothin'.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

British intelligence might be the go-to for this sort of stuff, sort of like when you off your wife in the northeast you say you were carjacked by a bunch of black guys so everyone will believe you.

Not sure whether James Bond is a cause or an effect.

Maybe both.

The Dude said...

I have only the slightest idea about what any of this is about, but I did read enough on Insty to get to the "soccer tournament" and the "third world kickball" retort.

Don't those inbreeds call soccer "football" or "footie" and watch it on the telly down at the pub?

All I can do is laugh at them. But they will never stop in their quest for power over us.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The desperate left strike again. Democrat party - all lies.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Just hope the dreaded McCain Graham sex tapes are not released. There is not enough eye and brain bleach in the world...

Leland said...

Buzzfeed meet Gawker; Gawker, tell Buzzfeed what is in store for them.

ndspinelli said...

I learned tradecraft over decades. If you want to see who is a traitor you disseminate bogus info and see who gobbles it and then spreads it. Don't be so sure Trump didn't send this out via operatives to then discredit McCain and the MSM. I'm not saying that's what happened. I'm just saying consider it.

rhhardin said...

Trump is great at compromising.

ricpic said...

Trump just had a press conference in which he said the Intelligence report's inference that the Russians have something on him is worthy of the Nazis. Big shakeup coming in intelligence personnel. I mean YUUGE.

Amartel said...

Nooooo, not the dreaded McCain Graham sex tapes! Too soon after the O on O sex tape from last night. They really should have pay-per-viewed that. You KNOW all the weepy/ragey Obamabots would have paid. The ones that attended camped out on the globally warmed tundra for like a week to get tix.

Amartel said...

Ya know, the left constantly throws the Nazi thing into the mix as something to hang on any and all righties on the thinnest of projected pretexts so Trump dealing it back on their mouthpieces and sources ... I don't have a problem with that. The right gets hosed down regularly playing by yesterday's rules. Fuck Godwin and the Panzer he rode in on.

Rabel said...

I was inclined to believe the pissing memos until I got to the bottom and saw the line:

I am Laslo.

TrooperYork said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Methadras said...

AprilApple said...

The desperate left strike again. Democrat party - all lies.


All the time.

Trooper York said...

President Trump needs to do something significant in regard to the bad actors in this matter.

They are in order of retribution:
Buzzfeed.
CNN.
John McCain.

Buzzfeed must of course be banned from all further attendance at White House press conferences or other events. In fact anyone who talks to them in the administration should be fired.

CNN needs to be banned from the White House. Just the way Obama tried to do to FOX. If the other networks say they will stay away in solidarity.....why say great....no problem. That will last about a week. At the least refuse to take questions from them and revoke their press credentials.

As far as McCain is concerned I would do whatever I could do to destroy him.

Trooper York said...

McCain of course passed on this bogus report to the FBI in the hopes of destroying Trump. He needs to be forced out of politics altogether.

I don't know how....but I bet if Roger Stone and Corey and Steve Bannon put their heads together they can come up with something.

Leland said...

I avoid Buzzfeed, so only read snippets. One snippet on AoSHQ shows a part of the report suggesting Trump cause Harambe. Seriously, anybody who claimed to have read the report and thought for any moment after reading that, "hey, this may be true"; can we just make sure they never get a job again? I don't even want them getting a less than minimum wage job waiting tables, because would you trust someone like that to deliver food to your table? The folks at 4Chan made it easy to figure out this was fake sarcasm; and reportedly (see, there's the problem) smart people fell for it. I thought the golden shower story would have been sufficient, but Harambe?

I'm tired of these assholes even pretending to be smarter than my dog.

Amartel said...

McCain demonstrates how DC can steal your soul. Once he did something truly great but now he is just another DC swampbeast

Amartel said...

Buzzfeed is the daily paper of record on the monkey island of useless, raging, twittering parrotfraus who get their politicalcultural marching orders from The View. Of course it's fake news; that's the raison d'etre of Buzzfeed, to muddy the waters around and slime anyone and anything that might threaten accretion of power to a centralized super state. The "news" then becomes about the fakenews and it distracts from actual newsworthy events.
Buzzfeed, and most journalism as practiced today, would be irrelevant in a sane and mature society.

ndspinelli said...

He's an old, senile, inarticulate, alcoholic, DC, swampbeast. FIFY.

Leland said...

So CNN rights a laughable fake news piece, and their WH reporter thinks that gives them a right to ask a question? Hey CNN, when you decided to publish an article suggesting a report, that claimed PE Trump ordered a kid pushed in a Cincinatti (the spelling from the report) gorilla cage, may be true; you don't get to ask questions. Hell; you shouldn't even be allowed to sit in the same room. Buzzfeed doesn't have a reported in the WH press conference; and neither should you.

deborah said...

Leland:

"Buzzfeed meet Gawker; Gawker, tell Buzzfeed what is in store for them."

This.

Rabel said...

Leland, I think that's a joke about The gorilla.

Trooper York said...

When Lindsey Graham saw the photo of the monkey having sex with the deer.....he called the CIA to ask how he could get in on the action.

Leland said...

Next intelligence report on Trump: "Trump wanted to embarrass Japan, so he trained this monkey..."

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

After Trump's presser today, I'm kinda getting the whole man-crush thing.

He did really well. Telling CNN to bite it was awesome.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

CNN didn't write the story. They simply reported on what Buzzfeed had done.

Retribution against the people writing the story about the improper event (instead of the event itself) is Stalin-esque. Although as with other things Trump, he was probably just lobbing a shot that he'd been winding up to throw at CNN for years.

Be careful what you wish for. He WILL turn on all of you - every. last. one. of. you - when the time is right.

Narcissists always do.

Amartel said...

He doesn't take them seriously because they don't report on him seriously. Everything a Republican does is grist for their gossip mill. The stories have already been written to favor the Dems and the hacks are just there to collect quotes and "color." He doesn't think twice about calling them out and telling them off. Quid pro quo, Clarice, quid pro quo.
He'll even go on offense, like the Nazi comment.

Amartel said...

I think we're all pretty used to narcissist POTUSes who turn on us.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The CNN story was vastly different from the Buzzfeed story. Miles and away different. Even FOX can't defend Trump's sloppy lumping in.

Trump will learn to respect the nuances that made CNN's actions consistent with both journalistic standards and freedom of the press, or he will precipitate a constitutional crisis. They played fair within the rules of the media machine that can't organically be separated from the body politic of a free republic, and if he doesn't like it he will either be ignored, or he can escalate to the levels that tempt him and risk impeachment.

Making fights where none need be had will eventually get him into trouble. This isn't a harmless steroidal self-marketing strategy any more. This is the big leagues. This is the world running, not just his disabled ego.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I think we're all pretty used to narcissist POTUSes who turn on us.

Whatever.

If you can't identify a clear lack of empathy in Trump that has no parallels among other presidents then I question your ability to even judge character in the first place.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

And I"m not saying Trump's a "bad guy." I'm not saying he has bad intentions.

I'm saying he doesn't understand when and how other people come before him.

He eventually gets it, after long strategy sessions with trusted attorneys that spoon-feed him these crash courses.

But he fundamentally doesn't have that quick circuit that exists in 95% of people's brains that allow them to quickly and efficiently assess whether their own reputational grievances outweigh others' stakes in an issue or not.

Amartel said...

Even you are now able to identify the problem of the narcissist. Bravo! What a quick study. It only took 8 fucking years.
Whether or not this analysis applies to Trump you have not the first clue.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Even you are now able to identify the problem of the narcissist. Bravo! What a quick study. It only took 8 fucking years.
Whether or not this analysis applies to Trump you have not the first clue.


What a lamentable display of America's failed educational system you are.

There is a simple way to resolve the issue:

Show an example of Trump having a non-legacy/reputational display of empathy for anyone. (Of course it can't be done, but you seem to realize that Trump's a narcissist, anyway).

Of course, what makes you a scientifically illiterate political hack is that you bury your head in the sand to not see countless examples of Obama's empathy for others. Putting his care ahead of a silly reputational issue.

Look. Logic and knowledge put to use in the service of a simple experiment to end your ignorant protest. Or at least to give it a solid answer.

Prove that you're up to the task. Conservatives should have something to stand for other than just solidarity and/or identification with social defectives. Be intelligent. Intelligently show how Obama is something other than just more confident than you.

Amartel feels that confidence = narcissism. But of course, he's wrong. Just too narcissistic to admit it.

bagoh20 said...

TIME FOR HEADS TO ROLL AT THE CIA

Rabel said...

Ritmo, Ritmo, Ritmo. Here's the original CNN piece on the recent unpleasantness. It's a classic hit piece carefully crafted to give the most damning view of the allegations without actually giving the details. You have to watch the video to get the full, intended effect. The only thing missing is the ominous background music.

Their greatest sin in the report, other than a few incorrect details that were later mostly corrected, was to identify the opposition research published by Buzzfeed as a part of the classified information presented in an intelligence briefing to Trump. The information was never classified and has been in the possession of the major media players for months. It's a fair assumption to say that CNN also has had the report and decided it was too unreliable to publish until Buzzfeed and government leakers gave them an excuse.

In short, I know what they did, CNN knows what they did, and you know what they did. Their problem right now is that Trump also knows what they did and he has the ways and means to fight back.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

No enemies on the liar left, right Balls?

The democrat party has a corruption and lie problem. It's time for a purge.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

No enemies on the liar left, right Balls?

The democrat party has a corruption and lie problem. It's time for a purge.


Well, of course that's what you'd worry about, since you've long ago given up on doing anything about your own liars. Or you kind of never cared, anyway.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

What's your answer, Rabel? A complete media black-out on the fact that the agencies met with both POTUSes and briefed them with an update on Russian hacking efforts? Yep, I really see the public going along with that. Being told that information that basic, pertinent and obviously expected was to be withheld. Not possible in a free republic. Just not possible. Information gets out there and that's the way we (and the founders) err - not on somehow making sure that all the info is absolutely perfect on the first go-round. You can't have that without something called a "Minister of Information," which many countries have. Just not us. Maybe you might wonder why that is.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Lies lies lies... yeah.

There gonna get you.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

@ Leland

Buzzfeed meet Gawker; Gawker, tell Buzzfeed what is in store for them.

this.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

It's True, John McCain is a liar... same with Lindsey Graham. Just switch to the liar (D) party and end it!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

It is fitting. CNN was one giant Hillary Golden shower of love campaign ad for her.

Rabel said...

If months of attempts by the largest news organizations in the world and multiple US intelligence agencies are unable to verify any of the information in the report and in fact find some of the allegations to be provably false then they should not attempt to present the information with the gloss of possible credibility as CNN did in it's report. That is, if they wish to maintain the pretense that they are a neutral source of news. How hard is that?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Rabel, leftists want it to be true. Wish-facts are strong with that crowd. So what if it's all lies?, it must be true, because... waaaaaaa. CNN must be allowed to lose all credibility. The greater good of the wish-fact will prevail!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The information that the two sat down with the agencies to discuss intelligence threats was untrue? Oh me oh my.

Listen, the dickwad has been refusing to meet with the agencies for months. Ergo, any meeting he has with them is now news. Americans kind of have this thing about not being very warm to presidents asleep at the wheel of briefings on threats to U.S. security. Or did you think you could coast through with another W.-type presidency?

As for April, it's fun to watch her piggybacking off of you... especially since no policy concerns her at all. If Trump did everything Hillary did, if hijackings killed thousands of Americans on our soil nine months into his presidency... you know what April would say?

She would say:

"I'm so glad this happened on Trump's watch!"

That's about how unengaged and worthless her opinion is on anything.

Rabel said...

Hey, Buddy. Don't you be mean to April.

And would a golden shower from April properly be called an April shower?

And one more thing, just a tip for those of you who share access to your computer, don't google the British spy named Christopher Steele. At least not the images.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Was he related to Remington Steele?

I liked April. And she liked me. Up until when Trump won.

A lot of connies seem to have this fantasy that I would have been more lenient on Trump's missteps than I would have on Hillary's.

I just think they're both worthy of excoriation.

Now Trump said a few things today that were good, and that I liked.

But again, I'm just going off of the actual evidence of what he does right, or wrong.

Others are not so lucky. They look at the man, see a vision of Hillary safely at home baking cookies, and would invite him into their house. Take anything you want, Mr. President! Break any law, too! Go ahead, you deserve it! And if Putin wants access to our nuclear codes, send them on! We trust you implicitly, 100% Beating Hillary means you can do anything you want, for all time! We are so lucky to have you and your tantrums don't bother us one bit.

It's like a nation of Eddie Haskells.

chickelit said...

McCain demonstrates how DC can steal your soul. Once he did something truly great but now he is just another DC swampbeast

He couldn't reach his fathers' rank and so he did something rank instead.

chickelit said...

Commando Crankshaft said: Show an example of Trump having a non-legacy/reputational display of empathy for anyone.

Here's an example from early in the debates Trump empathizes with Ben Carson while others treat him like political roadkill: link

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Oh for god's sake that's just him elevating the nice loser in order to knock down the mean, more successful challengers.

You have so much to learn, grasshopper. But you refuse to.

chickelit said...

How did BuzzFeed gross $167MM last year?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The only hookers in this story are the cheap, lazy journalists who ran with fake Trump sleaze to urinate on his presidency

Piers Morgan is the voice of sanity? hmmm.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"President-elect Donald Trump didn’t pay prostitutes to urinate on his bed in the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow, three years ago.

Neither did Trump do this to deliberately defile a bed that had been used by Barack and Michelle Obama.

And nor did Vladimir Putin secretly videotape the whole thing to use as blackmail against Trump at a later date.

It’s all complete baloney."



Balls calls it a miss-step. Wish facts are true and stuff!

Amartel said...

Diagram of a Crank

1. Downplay CNN's role (they didn't actually publish the report they just blabbed about it in the abstract and referred viewers to the source, which is like totally different, never mind about the imminent danger violins playing the background and the "OMG, you guyz" crawl on the chyron)
2. Diagnose Trump as a "narcissist" and issue a dire warning that Trump will turn on "us."

This, of course, begged on its knees for greater perspective about vengeful narcissist POTUSes, a point that had to be conceded ("whatever") but with the renewal of the accusation against Trump [not yet a POTUS BTW] and a shrill personal attack about ability to judge character.
3. Demands for examples of Trump not being a narcissist. [Objection: seeks to shift burden of proof]
4. Demands for examples of Obama being a narcissist (as opposed to merely "confident" and "super dreamy") [Objection: the request is overbroad and leading to error by omission]
5. Shrill personal attack, shrill and obtuse personal attack, pee joke, personal attack

Leland said...

CNN wrote the story that the document existed. It was only after CNN posted the existence that Buzzfeed decided "the public should know!" and actually posted the document. Neither clickbait article was able to verify any account described in the document. The best they could do was explain who gave it to them. And apparently neither organization was able to notice the absurd stories as being absurd. The stories being of the nature of; in case you couldn't figure out I'm yanking your chain; let me grab your chain here and yank on it. I mean; who thinks Trump ordered the kid pushed into the Cincinatti (sic) Zoo gorilla enclosure?

Oh, sorry, apparently someone commenting in this tread on the basis "Trump's a narcissist". Physician, heal thyself.