New York Times Propagates Russia Hacking Conspiracy Theory

Introduction

In late 2002 and early 2003, those of us who were warning that the US government was lying, that there was no evidence that Iraq still possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), much less active WMD manufacturing programs, were frequently dismissed as "conspiracy theorists".

Of course, in reality, it was the US mainstream media that was propagating the government's unfounded conspiracy theory that Saddam Hussein had such weapons and, further, had a cooperative relationship with Al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization held responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The New York Times served the government in its campaign of deception by spearheading the media's dissemination of the lies out to the public, thus manufacturing Americans' consent for this illegal war of aggression.

Spreading government propaganda is a function the Times never ceases to serve well -- the lesson from its own reporting during the run-up to the Iraq war, and from the mainstream media's reporting in general, having been dutifully disregarded.

One of the latest government conspiracy theories the Times is helping to propagate, by serving effectively as the political establishment's very own public relations firm, is the claim that the government of Russia was responsible for hacking into computers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and email accounts of John Podesta, who was then chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

In a report published September 1, 2017, the Times elaborated on this conspiracy theory under the headline "Russian Election Hacking Efforts, Wider Than Previously Known, Draw Little Scrutiny".

In it, the Times reports as fact that Russia was responsible not only for hacking the DNC and Podesta's email account, but also for hacking directly into the US election system itself. All that's old news, however, so the Times' new spin is that Russia's efforts to hack state electoral systems were much more extensive than previously thought.

However, the Times presents not one shred of evidence to support the underlying claim that Russia hacked these systems, much less that this alleged hacking was much more widespread than previously reported.

To the scrutinous reader who is familiar with the propaganda techniques mainstream media use in order to manufacture consent for various government policies, the total lack of evidence is apparent. In fact, the Times actually acknowledges that there is no evidence to support the claim it is making in the headline. Yet, through obfuscation, use of deceptive language, and various other techniques, the Times leads the general reader to believe that its headline is true.

An examination of the article is useful to see just how the Times manages to lead readers to the conclusion the Russia hacking is a demonstrated fact when, in reality, it remains just another conspiracy theory originating from the government that the Times is all too happy to help propagate.