Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another

by Matt Taibbi

The “senior Russian intelligence officials” story James Comey was forced to shoot down in 2017 had four unnamed sources. So did one suggesting Trump was about to fire the Fed chair. Luke Harding had two for his recent Guardian bombshell about Paul Manafort supposedly having met with Julian Assange (that story is still unconfirmed). Some of these stories begin with a single high-ranking intelligence official speaking to a reporter (or team of reporters) at an esteemed paper like the Times or the Washington Post. The reporters might ask for additional confirmation. The official may give them some names. The reporter(s) call the names. The names might belong to agency subordinates, or to retired officials now working at think tanks or private “research” agencies. Those sources confirm the initial story in its particulars. So you get four sources, or maybe six, but depending on the story type, it may really just be one story that’s been cycled through four friendly heads. It’s a game of telephone, with the reporter at the end. Incidentally: it’s a red flag if the call is coming from the official, as opposed to the reporter calling the officials. The average intelligence official wouldn’t stop to tell you if your child was on fire. When they start cold-calling agencies, and/or rotating scoops by doling them out to different outlets and papers each week, that’s a huge red flag.