Lies, Fake News, Misinformation. Hoaxes, Disinformation: What Are the Differences

The “Red Badge” of Courage or Simple Deceit

Guccifer 2.0 - DNC Hacker Par Excellence

(Marcel Lazăr Lehel a Romanian hacker)

Introduction to this post today with this question: What could truly bring America and any other great nation down? 

War, sure; famine, certainly; terrorist attacks, yep; trade wars, maybe; disease, always; but more importantly this item, if left unchecked or not stopped in any way. I mean the free-wheeling Internet and the present day phenonomum of the so-called “social” networking. 

I don’t mean a clamp on free speech, but I mean a filter on speech that is freely given or posted, but false, fake, and purposely placed to deceive and cause harm that appears real, but is not. Nowadays that aspect is more and more out of control for attention seekers and revengeful posters, despite the efforts of Twitter, Facebook, Apple, and Google otherwise to screen and block it.

… Recent case in point and BTW: I am not a huge fan of Rep. Maxine Waters – I think she is a loudmouth blow hard, but also not harmful in reality:

1.  Rep. Maxine Waters “Fake” quote about the Supreme Court nominee should be an illegal immigrant is spreading on social media and radio

2.  Rep. Maxine Waters becomes target of “Fake” news

So, what’s at the heart of all this, that is what is behind the seemingly harmless “social networking?” Actually, pretty simple – today's topic:

“Disinformation” – the definition: False or fake information spread deliberately to deceive.

It is the English transliteration of the Russian word: дезинформация that is: dezinformatsiya, which was derived from the title of a former KGB black propaganda department’s handbook titled: disinformation.  It documents how Joseph Stalin coined the term by giving it a French-sounding name to falsely claim it had a Western origin. Precise Russian use of the word began with in the old Soviet Union’s “Special Disinformation Office” in 1923.

Another example: Operation INFEKTION (Operation: Infection) also was an old Soviet disinformation campaign to influence opinion that said the U.S. had “invented and spread AIDS.” 

Ironically, the U.S. did not actively counter Soviet disinformation until around 1980, when a fake document reported that the U.S. supported apartheid.

In the 2016 election, we saw it up front, personal, targeted, and now coupled with Internet Bots (Web Robot), slick expensive Russian political Ads and all linked and posted on massive social media sites, then Guccifer 2.0 hacks of DNC.

So, yes, all that it true and it would please George Orwell and an update of his infamous novel, 1984, this time highlighting “Big Brother” as Vladimir Putin.

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It is all tied to his from Trump for this story for today:

THE STORY (includes my emphasis) for today’s story makes the point precisely regarding this from CNN via MSN. The story contents is startling and damn scary vis-à-vis how Trump reacts to FOX News stories vs. all other media outlets, which he calls “Fake News” but never labels FOX that way. He apparently regards FOX as the ultimate prophet and soothsayer?

Excellent article related to this post: (Topic: Distinguishing disinformation from propaganda, misinformation, and “Fake News”).

Trump again appears to rely on a dubious FOX News report to unleash an attack on former President Obama without any real evidence wherein Trump tweeted that Obama granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians as part of nuclear deal, saying in his tweet here.

(I Note: This latest Trump personal Obama attack was false, nasty, and ugly).

“Just out that Obama Administration granted citizenship, during the terrible Iran Deal negotiation, to 2,500 Iranians – including to government officials. How big (and bad) is that?”

FYI:  No part of the Iranian nuclear deal (officially name is JCPOA) in any way granted U.S. citizenship or legal resident status to any Iranians.  So where is Trump getting this explosive information, and does it hold up? 

Background: This unsubstantiated claim first gained attention on Monday (July 2) with story on FOX News website that relied solely on the word of an Iranian cleric who is also a member of the country's parliament. 

The FOX article was written by Chris Irvine, FOX News senior editor. Irvine cited an Iranian news agency that cited an Iranian newspaper that quoted the single Iranian cleric. That single cleric said the Obama administration provided citizenship to 2,500 unidentified Iranians during nuclear deal negotiations. 

The article itself quoted, toward the end of the story, the network's own commentator, former Obama State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, who said: “This sounds like totally made up BS.” 

The story also said that DHS and State both declined to comment, and that a representative for former Obama DHS Secretary, Jeh Johnson, could not be reached.

(I add: Then the FOX-Trump Machine Kicked into High Gear).

Prior to the FOX News article, the claim had not received any noticeable attention from any U.S. media. However, soon after FOX News published its story, other outlets, primarily in the conservative media space, published similar stories like on:  The Daily Mail, The Gateway Pundit, and Town Hall.

The claims were further shared on Twitter by FOX’s Sean Hannity and frequent FOX guests David Clarke and Charlie Kirk.

Then just hours before Trump's tweet, the story hit on “FOX & Friends First” the network's early morning show (I add: Trump’s go-to news source). FOX then aired it on their “America's Newsroom” – their late-morning news program.

Jeff Prescott, the former senior director on Obama's NSC called Trump's allegation “Absurd and entirely false.” Prescott then shared with CNN immigration data from DHS which showed that the number of Iranians naturalized in the United States over the course of both the Obama and Bush administrations was relatively consistent. 

Prescott added: “There was no connection between the Iran nuclear deal and immigration policy” and concluded: “It shouldn't be lost on anyone that this is a case of Trump parroting FOX News, which is peddling the claims of an Iranian hardliner.”

Jake Sullivan, a former Obama official and on CNN’s “Situation Room,” who was involved at the start of the Iran nuclear negotiations, also skewered Trump for relying on Fox News' thin report to make what he called a “completely false” claim.” 

Sullivan added: “What is interesting about this is that what happened is a hard line crank in Iran just randomly made this comment, FOX News writes a story on it, and then Trump tweets it. Trump had every opportunity to call people in his own DHS and State Department and ask whether or not this was true. And they would have told him it wasn't. Instead, he relies on FOX News. And the scary thing is that he's increasingly relying on sources like FOX News to get his intelligence rather than the professionals in his own government.” 

Neither a spokesperson for FOX News nor the Trump White House responded to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

This is not be the first time Trump has tweeted false or questionable claims that have originated in right-wing media – mostly via FOX, too. Trump has a long history of stoking conspiracy theories that target his political rivals convincing this followers to believe his every word and claim. (I admit: Trump is skilled at that aspect, too).

— CNN's Jamie Crawford contributed to this reporting.

Is this the public we see today after falling prey to all that? Sure seems like it:

Puppets at the will and whim and control of??

My 2 cents: The B/L is simple: Trump has to be held to account for his blatant lies like this story present … not to do so, set a very dangerous precedent for the country – one that says like with Nixon: “If the president does it, it’s not illegal,” or with Trump today: “When the President says it, that means it’s true.” 

Right now the GOP and Trump supporters somehow don’t give a damn whether Trump has a string of over 3,000 or not. That is also very dangerous to our very structure. 

This story concludes and I totally agree, and I suspect the vast majority of Americans do, too: That Trump increasingly relies on sources like FOX News to get his news and intelligence report rather than his our own professional government agencies. 

That, too, is very damn scary. So, does Trump also consult Alex Jones or a crystal ball along with FOX News and Hannity? This is surely an American first for the history books. 

Thanks for stopping by.