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CNN Goes on Rampage Against Susan Rice Bombshell, Instructs Viewers to
CNN Goes on Rampage Against Susan Rice Bombshell, Instructs Viewers to Ignore Story
Since news broke Monday that the Obama Administration's National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, directed the "unmasking" of NSA intercepts of Trump associates, CNN has raced to shoot down the blockbuster report.CNN Tonight's Don Lemon went so far as to announce he would ignore the news at all costs.While interviewing a Democratic congressman, CNN's Chris Cuomo claimed it was "demonstrably untrue" Rice sought surveillance of the Trump team, even as that's exactly what yesterday's reports prove.
He further announced that the story is a "fake scandal.""There is no evidence of any wrongdoing," Cuomo concluded. "In fact if anything, the NSA asking for identities was foreign players. The White House blasting the press for not reporting on another fake scandal being peddled by right-wing media."Over the last 24 hours, the network has also repeatedly called on its chief national security correspondent — who was also a political appointee in the Obama White House — Jim Sciutto, to dismiss the reports as a non-story; Sciutto has even excused Rice claiming ignorance of the unmasking scandal two weeks ago, arguing Rice "wasn't aware" what unmasking Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) was referring to.And on Tuesday's "New Day," anchor Alisyn Camerota openly pleaded with Sen. John McCain to write-off the news as unimportant.Last night, Lemon began "CNN Tonight" with an announcement that the Rice report a "fake scandal ginned up by right-wing media and Trump" that he would not be baited into justifying with coverage."On this program tonight, we will not insult your intelligence by pretending," it's legitimate, he said. "Nor will we aid and abet the people trying to misinform you, the American people, by creating a diversion. Not going to do it.
"Sciutto also claimed the story was "ginned up" to distract from Trump tweeting that the Trump Tower was "wiretapped," when it was in fact communications were picked up through ordinary NSA surveillance."Again, to note by senior intelligence officials who work for both Democrats and Republicans, this appears to be a story, largely ginned up, partly as a distraction from this larger investigation," Sciutto told Anderson Cooper, explaining that "someone close to Ambassador Rice" told him this type of unmasking is "not unusual." In another appearance, Sciutto even attempted to excuse Rice from claiming to have no knowledge of the unmasking she's been caught orchestrating."From her perspective she didn’t know what specific unmasking Devin Nunes and others are talking about, in part because that is something she asks — or asked during the regular course of her work as national security adviser," he said. "I do know from speaking to people yesterday close to her that she doesn’t know specifically what Devin Nunes and others are accusing her of when it comes to unmasking because that was something sets in the regular course of her job."
And in yet another appearance, Sciutto also setup something of a strawman, arguing that the unmasking story is not important because "unmasking is not leaking."
UPDATE: In an interview on MSNBC addressing this story, Susan Rice has now confirmed she unmasked Trump campaign officials, but is denying doing so for political reasons.
Other highlights from the interview:— Rice on Whether She Unmasked More Trump Officials than Usual:
‘I Don’t Have Any Particular Recollection’—
Susan Rice Admits Pace of Surveilling Trump Team Increased After Election—
Susan Rice on Leaking Flynn’s Call: ‘I Can’t Get into Any Specific Reports’—
Susan Rice Won’t Commit to Testifying About Her Role in Unmasking Trump Team
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” former vice president Biden said during a campaign event in Texas on Monday. "All men and women created by — you know, you know, the thing.”
- tennyson
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Re: CNN Goes on Rampage Against Susan Rice Bombshell, Instructs Viewers to
Hey, let the news continue on Rice. I have no problem.
She WAS the Head of National Security and had a right to the information. What she did with the information is really what could be a problem for her. Let that take its own course.
BUT DO NOT let this deflect from the REAL and dangerous allegations of foreign powers interfering with our governmental election processes.
Funny how the Right seems more concerned with this than a foreign government interfering with our elections.
"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
- Goose
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Re: CNN Goes on Rampage Against Susan Rice Bombshell, Instructs Viewers to
Rampage?
That was funny.
You should see Fox. Talk about a rampage.
Hannity is absolutely frothing at the mouth
Last edited by Goose (4/05/2017 9:21 am)
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
- Rongone
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Re: CNN Goes on Rampage Against Susan Rice Bombshell, Instructs Viewers to
Speaking of "rampages" . . . another voice heard from on the Susan Rice deflection . . . good old Don, jr. I guess he's somewhat jealous about all the press sister Ivanka and brother-in-law Jared Kushner have been receiving from various media sources. So, junior decided to chirp in with his thoughts on this newest conspiracy theory deflection.
The only thing it demonstrates to me is that the little apple didn't fall far from the tree.
Donald Trump Jr. proposes conspiracy theorist for Pulitzer for breaking Susan Rice story
Trump administration officials and allies were out in force this week promoting the story that Susan Rice, national security adviser in the Obama administration, requested the names of Americans who were caught up in surveillance of Russian officials during last year’s presidential campaign and transition. The most recent, and enthusiastic, endorsement came from Donald Trump, Jr., who proposes the writer who broke the story for a Pulitzer Prize.
“Congrats to @Cernovich for breaking the #SusanRice story,” tweeted Trump Jr. Tuesday morning. “In a long gone time of unbiased journalism he’d win the Pulitzer, but not today!”
Trump. Jr was praising a story published over the weekend by Mike Cernovich, a self-described “free speech activist” and writer, claiming that Rice was behind the request to “unmask” incoming Trump officials whose communications were picked up by intelligence agencies. The names of Americans that appear in transcripts of intercepted communications are routinely disguised, or “masked,” but officials can request to see them for law enforcement or national security reasons. There is no implication that Rice broke the law by her request, but leaking the information to the media, or using it for political purposes, could be ethically (or legally) problematic.
“I leaked nothing to nobody,” said Rice in a Tuesday afternoon interview about the allegations with MSNBC. “Never have, never would.”
Before the Rice story broke, Cernovich was best known as a leading promoter of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, which claimed that a Washington, D.C., pizza establishment was the front for a pedophilia ring involving former Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. The hysteria over Pizzagate led to a North Carolina man named Edgar M. Welch driving to Comet Ping Pong in Washington and firing shots from an AR-15 inside the restaurant. Welch told the New York Times that he “just wanted to do some good and went about it the wrong way.”
Trump Jr. is not the first member of the White House to promote Cernovich’s work. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn promoted Cernovich’s book, “The Gorilla Mindset,” on Twitter in October. When Cernovich was interviewed as part of a “60 Minutes” segment on fake news last month, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway called it a “ratings bonanza” and urged everyone to watch.
Cernovich, who describes himself as an author, journalist and documentarian, is one of the most popular alt-right personalities online. In addition to his “60 Minutes” appearance, he was the subject of an October New Yorker profile that laid out his path to notoriety.
“I use trolling tactics to build my brand,” Cernovich told the New Yorker.
Cernovich’s “trolling” has manifested itself in a variety of ways. He was an early figure in Gamergate, which targeted feminists in the video-game industry. He has likened diversity to “white genocide,” stated that date rape isn’t a real thing and said the Black Lives Matter movement “regularly slaughters the innocent.”
Cernovich is not the only conspiracy theorist with a connection to the White House. Then-candidate Donald Trump did a 30-minute interview with Alex Jones’ InfoWars site in December 2015, calling Jones’ reputation “amazing.” Jones has touted a number of unsubstantiated theories, including that 9/11 was an inside job, that chemicals in juice boxes are turning children gay and that a number of politicians, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are actually demons.
Last month Jones apologized for the InfoWars role in promoting Pizzagate. Welch, the gunman who investigated Pizzagate on his own, said he had listened to Jones.
Trump Jr.’s promotion of Cernovich for a Pulitzer faces at least one obstacle: Cernovich himself has admitted that the actual reporting was done by two mainstream journalists, Eli Lake of Bloomberg News and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times. Cernovich said he was tipped off by disgruntled colleagues in the two newsrooms, who suspected the publications were sitting on a story that could have embarrassed the Obama administration.