Maybe there is something to reading accounts of recent history. (A fascination with markup/computer and ANE languages doesn’t lead to much recent reading in “recent” history.)
But I was reading Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky (2002), when I encountered a repetition of the currently popular meme, “Russian hackers hacked the DNC.” (Despite the Podesta emails being obtained due to user carelessness that is hard to characterize as a “hack.”)
History Repeating (Not for the first time)
Set your wayback machine for 1981, another time when Russia (then the USSR) was an “evil empire.” (Or so claimed by people with particular agendas.)
A Turkish facist and member of a violent anti-left party in Turkey, one Mehmet Ali Agca, attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in May 1981. After being interrogated for 17 months, Agca “confessed” that he was an agent of the KGB and Bulgarians.
Herman and Chomsky walk through the unraveling of this fantasy of the Reagan era political elites (pages xxvii-xxix), only to conclude:
…
The New York Times, which had been consistently supportive of the connection in both news and editorials, not only failed to report Weinstein’s negative findings from the search of the Bulgarian files, it also excluded Goodman’s statements on the CIA penetration of the Bulgarian secret services from their excerpts of his testimony. The Times had long maintained that the CIA and the Reagan administration “recoiled from the devastating implication that Bulgarian agents were bound to have acted only on a signal from Moscow.” 58 But Goodman’s and Ford’s testimony show that this was the reverse of the truth, and that CIA heads William Casey and Robert Gates overrode the views of CIA professionals and falsified evidence to support a Soviet linkage. The Times was not alone in following a misleading party line, but it is notable that this paper of record has yet to acknowledge its exceptional gullibility and propaganda service.
…
Hmmm,
recoiled from the devastating implication that Bulgarian agents were bound to have acted only on a signal from Moscow
Does that sound similar to anything you have read recently or have heard repeated by the out-going US president?
December 11, 2016
Jump forward now to December 11, 2016 and you can read the New York Times reporting:
…
“This is why I hate the term ‘we speak truth to power,’” said Mark M. Lowenthal, a former senior C.I.A. analyst. “We don’t have truth. We have really good ideas.”Mr. Lowenthal said that determining the motives of foreign leaders — in this case, what drove President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to order the hacking — was one of the most important missions for C.I.A. analysts. In 2002, one of the critical failures of American spy agencies was their inability to understand Saddam Hussein’s goals and motives.
…
A simple search reveals the internet is replete with such trash talking by the CIA, DHS, FBI and an assorted of agencies that rearrange conclusions but offer no facts in support of those conclusions.
A Final Blow as 2016 Closes
With the same credibility I would accord the now discredited NYTimes fable about Russian backing for the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II, hacking of the Democratic National Committee at the direction of Vladimir Putin, comes this final shot from Russian hackers:
Since the Islamic States hasn’t claimed credit, it must be those damned Russian hackers! (Caution: That is “fake news.” Carey may have been sabotaged by someone but it wasn’t Russian hackers.)
A Case For Topic Maps & Subject Identity Anyone?
I haven’t worked out the details but these repeated charades by the US government, among others, offer an opportunity to put subject identity as defined by topic maps to work for true journalists.
The particulars of any particular subject vary but they all have:
- Accusations sans evidence by one or more agencies of the US government
- Chest-thumping by the New York Times (and others) in both reporting (sic) and editorial columns
- Articles/editorials rely on unnamed government sources or financially interested contractors
- Months without any evidence but more chest-thumping by US government agencies and their familiars
When all four of those properties are found, you are at least part way to identifying yet another repetition of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II fable.
Although, quite honestly, it needs a catchier moniker than that one.
Suggestions?