According to a report published Tuesday, congressional Democrats misinterpreted information provided to them by U.S. intelligence officials earlier this month and then fed that misinterpreted information — or misinformation — to The New York Times.
The Times then published that misinformation in a “bombshell” report last week that falsely claimed Russia has been actively seeking to boost President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. After the report’s publication, it soon spread to all corners of the Net, including the one inhabited by House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff:
We count on the intelligence community to inform Congress of any threat of foreign interference in our elections.
If reports are true and the President is interfering with that, he is again jeopardizing our efforts to stop foreign meddling.
Exactly as we warned he would do. https://t.co/viSBlnA1nb
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 21, 2020
Speaking with NBC this week, however, unnamed U.S. intelligence officials confirmed that the misinformation provided to the Times by congressional Democrats was bullschiff.
Moreover, NBC revealed that the Democrats responsible for funneling misinformation to the Times were the same ones on Schiff’s House Intelligence Committee.
“At issue is the secret analysis presented to the House Intelligence Committee Feb. 13 by the top intelligence official in charge of election security, Shelby Pierson,” NBC reported.
“Current and former officials who spoke to NBC News this week say the misinformation and controversy surrounding that briefing have left them on the defensive.”
According to NBC, these officials have pinned the blame for this information specifically on “misinterpretation by some Democratic lawmakers.”
“Two intelligence officials told NBC News this week that Pierson did not tell lawmakers that intelligence showed Russia was actively working to help the president’s re-election campaign,” network revealed.
What’s unclear is whether the original information was genuinely misinterpreted, or whether congressional Democrats purposefully fed disinformation to the Times.
That being said, the very fact that congressional Democrats leaked misinformation or disinformation to the press seems like it ought to be a “bigger story,” according to House Oversight Committee ranking member Mark Meadows and other critics.
Look:
This story from 2 days ago is barely getting any attention
Intel officials say Adam Schiff and his Intel Committee Democrats “distorted” and mischaracterized their briefing on Russian meddling
In other words: Democrats are at it again
Incrediblehttps://t.co/CO9ys5ucbq
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) February 27, 2020
So Democrats “misinterpreted” intelligence about President Trump’s campaign and then leaked it to the media
Absolutely unbelievable
How is this not a bigger story? https://t.co/RFyYzKkM5E
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) February 27, 2020
This is how the House Intel Committee is run. It was how CNN reported on Donald Trump Jr’s closed door depo in the middle of it. I saw this firsthand during the closed door impeachment depos. These Members don’t just leak. They mislead in their leak & some media eagerly run w/it. https://t.co/XiD5y5ylCh
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) February 27, 2020
Following up on my earlier thread: predictably, it seems the leaked assessment was mischaracterized. But now the misinformation is in the political bloodstream and presidential candidates are still cynically amplifying it. https://t.co/oUQVq31W9F
— Mike Gallagher (@MikeforWI) February 27, 2020
Misinterpreting or deliberately misrepresenting?
— Chris Stamper (@CStamper_) February 26, 2020
Yet the complicit MSM is mum on the reversal of the story….@TheDemocrats @GOP @WhiteHouse
— Mark Hohe (@realMarkHohe) February 26, 2020
Yes, I’m sure it was just a misinterpretation and not a deliberate misrepresentation of intelligence by the same folks who’ve brought us three years of non-stop “misinterpretation.” pic.twitter.com/BaojhJFZeo
— Far From the Madding Crowd (@SavannahDoc412) February 26, 2020
What’s known is that, as a member of the left-wing establishment media, NBC tried to downplay the Democrats’ culpability by citing “nuance.”
“As with most intelligence, there is nuance,” its report continued. “Weeks before the briefing, Pierson said publicly that the Russians were continuing to interfere in American politics through disinformation on social media and other means. And the intelligence officials who spoke to NBC News did not dispute that she told the House the analysis suggests the Russians favor Trump — a preference the Russians displayed during the 2016 election, the U.S. intelligence community publicly concluded.”
But none of this negates the fact that misinformation was spread.
NBC also tried to downplay the actual information itself by claiming that this “was also true in the 2016 election … the Russians at first sought to sow chaos, then moved to actively supporting Trump.”
The clear-cut anti-Trump bias is stunning …
It’s also ironic given that Russia’s true goal is to use misinformation and disinformation to “cloud the truth and erode our ability to find it,” according to David Porter, the assistant section chief of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force.
“The primary objective is not to create a particular version of the truth but rather to cloud the truth and erode our ability to find it, creating a sentiment that no narrative or news source can be trusted at all,” he said during a recent election security conference.
But instead of holding either the Democrats (particularly Schiff) or themselves accountable for sharing misinformation and/or disinformation, the media have been busy attacking the president over his coronavirus response.
And this despite, ironically enough again, the misinformation and disinformation they’ve been caught sharing about this virus:
The media attacking Trump over Coronavirus is absolutely ridiculous given their behavior over last few weeks:
—criticized POTUS for restricting travel from China in *Jan*
—griped multi agency taskforce was too many “white males”
—called criticism of China’s response “racist”
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) February 27, 2020
Tom Cotton has a backbone most of our leaders can’t find when it comes to China
He actually cares about America not the CCP
China is lying to the world about the severity of CoronaVirus. Evidence shows it is much worse
The pro-China political class & media is covering this up https://t.co/p4XyrohhVN
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 19, 2020
By my count, three people employed by The New York Times have shared disinformation, on social media, about the coronavirus. Not great.
— Charles Я. Davis (@charliearchy) February 26, 2020
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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