Before my recent Washington Post column ran discussing Hillary Clinton’s attack on presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard as a “Russian asset”, I had to deal with an issue raised be a false narrative being put out by her flacks. While first taunting Gabbard, her spokesperson Nick Merrill and others started to suggest that the story was false and that Clinton spoke of “Republicans” not “Russians.” It was a masterful spin. Clinton flacks focused on the reference to “grooming” and got the New York Times and other media outlets to “correct” the story to say that it was a reference to Republicans. That suggested that people may have misheard the podcast interview. That interpretation is clearly false, but the Internet is now full of references to the “false story,” which is precisely what many wanted in putting out the “correction.” For those who continue to attack the use of “fake news” by the Russians, it seems that some disinformation is considered fair game when it is used for the right purpose.
Continue reading “Clinton Aides Fuel Misleading Narrative After Gabbard Attack Backfires”
