Just as Google, FaceBook, and Twitter Banned Conspiracy Theorists Like Alex Jones, It's Now Time To Demand They Also Ban the Russia Collusion Conspiracy Theorists
SDNY Reading Charges Against Avenatti Within Minutes

Unless they're partisan actors posing as neutral platforms, of course.

Just when you thought the media's credibility was hanging by a thread, along comes special counsel Robert Mueller's final report -- finding no Russia collusion with Trump's 2016 campaign, shredding all the conspiracy theories and false accusations to smithereens.

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[S]ocial media networks didn’t hesitate to ban Alex Jones of Infowars and others for spreading misinformation and/or conspiracy theories, so why not ban House Majority Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Schiff, Eric Swalwell, John Brennan, Beto O'Rourke and scores of media hacks who’ve all done the same?

And what about Google? Will it continue to allow search results that yield now-debunked conspiracy theories surrounding Russian collusion and the Trump campaign? Or will they do the right thing and scrub misinformation and lies to stop the hoax from perpetuating?

Right-leaning news organizations should appoint their own Deplatforming Pressure Team -- just like CNN has with the troika of Oliver Darcy, BuzzFeed Andrew, and Brian Stelter --and begin demanding Equal Deplatforming for Equally Discredited Conspiracy Theories.

Via Instapundit, who als penned a new USAToday column on the Media Collusion Complex.

[The Russian Collusion Hoax] was always a crock, dreamed up immediately after Hillary Clinton’s election-night defeat by her staff to explain away failure. As reported in the campaign book "Shattered," by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, Clinton refused to take responsibility for her defeat, and the day after her concession, top officials gathered "to engineer the case that the election wasn't entirely on the up-and-up.… Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument."

Though this was a matter of record -- the book was hardly obscure -- the news media chose to run with the Russia story, which quickly morphed from "hacking" to the more nebulous "collusion," quite credulously. They did so because they wanted it to be true, because they hoped it would hurt Trump, whom the press almost universally despises, and because it was good for ratings and clicks.

The irony, of course, is that while purporting to worry about Russian interference in American politics, by advancing this story the press was actually doing the work of President Vladimir Putin, sowing division and confusion through the American polity.

As former Clinton pollster Mark Penn tweeted, we wasted two years, at least $30 million and a lot of institutional credibility at the FBI and Department of Justice over "a false story of Russia collusion based on oppo research that was always unsubstantiated and preposterous."

By the way, note that the media bankrupted its credibility in the same way a business eventually begins fraudulent practices to avoid admitting its product is defective and that they're running out of money.

Compare to Theranos. There's a great documentary on HBO about it called "The Inventor," and a book I'm told is great called "Bad Blood."

Imagine a business putting out a faulty and dangerous product. They worry a little about the product's safety... but not too much.

First, they ignore signs that their fundamental business scheme -- their product -- is faulty. They don't want to think about it. Business is good... for now. No reason to worry about the future.

No reason to think about criminal fraud charges coming down the line.

Then, when outside observers start pointing out that their product is faulty, instead of examining their product and checking for defects, they instead start attacking their accusers. Kind of like firms like Fusion GPS are hired to smear critics of fraudulent companies.

Kind of like Theranos brought in high-paid lawyers to threaten whistleblowers and attempt to bankrupt them by constantly hailing them into court.

At this point they're not really lying, exactly. They're lying to themselves, sure. They're really just avoiding confronting the problem, and engaging in increasingly dirty and fraudulent tactics to avoid confronting the problem.

Smearing the critics, for example. Doubling down on past claims that their product is safe and effective.

Hey -- if you're on the side of the Angels, then you're allowed to utilize the tools of the Devil, right?

At some point, the evidence that they're selling a dangerous product and this might have serious legal consequences becomes something obvious to everyone--including themselves.

This is their last clear chance to avoid criminal behavior. This is their last chance to choose to live a noncriminal life.

But often, they don't.

A month or two ago, it was becoming clear -- through leaks to the media originating from Mueller's own team -- that there was no collusion case here.

The media could have taken that opportunity to examine its previous assumptions and re-evaluate the strength of their old "sources." They could have begun honestly reappraising the narrative they built.

Instead, they went the Theranos route -- they kept doubling down on a product they now knew was absolutely faulty and absolutely fraudulent. They kept selling it to the public, acting like people in any soon-to-be-bankrupt business -- dancing like crazy at the edge of a precipice hoping to just hang on to the edge.

The media has committed gross and wilfull fraud. They straight-up lied to America-- and not once or twice, but serially and constantly.

They lied as often as they claim Trump lies.

But their lies were good, you know.

If you're on the side of the Angels, you're allowed to utilize the tools of the Devil, right?

And now their fraud is exposed.

And like the sociopathic head of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, they now have to face their reckoning.

You can only dance on the edge of calamity for so long.

By the way, thanks to WeBoned!, here's Jerry Nadler being heckled.

Update to Avenatti story -- though I don't know if this is accurate. Just sent to me from Twitter.

Oh, one more thing from Ekdahl -- here's the live feed for the SDNY's announcement of charges against the Creepy Porn Lawyer, but it's not scheduled to start until 2:30.

The LA prosecutor just announced the charges against Avenatti -- the complaint also claims Avenatti obtained his client's funds, millions of dollars worth. (So I was wrong about this being about hiding assets -- I think.)

He settled a suit for client in an Intellectual Property case. He gave the client a bogus settlement date and the $1.6 million was wired to Avenatti's personal account, to pay for his coffee business' expenses.

Then the feed stopped. Shit, I don't know what he did next.

Note that the SDNY charges are also about securing money for himself rather than a client.

posted by Ace of Spades at 02:18 PM

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