Boddiger writes: "Donald Trump apparently has at his disposal a 'loose network of conservative operatives' who are collecting and compiling damaging personal information on journalists deemed unsympathetic to the regime, as well as their families."
A Trump rally. (photo: Jim Mone/AP)
Team Trump Employs Smear Tactics Against Journalists Ahead of 2020 Elections
26 August 19
ow very Putin-like.
Donald Trump apparently has at his disposal a “loose network of conservative operatives” who are collecting and compiling damaging personal information on journalists deemed unsympathetic to the regime, as well as their families.
The New York Times reported on the operatives on Sunday, saying the purpose of the network was to further discredit news organizations and their staff among Trump’s base. It sounds like v2.0 of Trump’s nonstop “Fake News” gaslighting campaign, in which he and his enablers call members of the news media the “enemy of the people,” a term often used by authoritarian regimes including Stalin’s Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
The Times said this group of political bullies has compiled “dossiers” on journalists that include “potentially embarrassing information” dating back to more than a decade. It already has used some of the information to attack journalists at CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, which are frequent targets of Trump’s hostility during the president’s hate rallies in various cities across the nation.
Per the Times:
It is not possible to independently assess the claims about the quantity or potential significance of the material the pro-Trump network has assembled. Some involved in the operation have histories of bluster and exaggeration. And those willing to describe its techniques and goals may be trying to intimidate journalists or their employers.
But the material publicized so far, while in some cases stripped of context or presented in misleading ways, has proved authentic, and much of it has been professionally harmful to its targets.
Unsurprisingly, one of the key players in this operation is a friend of Donald Trump Jr., 47-year-old Arthur Schwartz, who apparently pals around with Steve Bannon. Schwartz also appears to be friends with Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, who managed to offend the German people only hours after assuming that post.
Coincidentally, Grenell’s first faux pas—tweeting a demand for German companies to cease operating in Iran—was similar to a Trump fuckup this weekend.
As @realDonaldTrump said, US sanctions will target critical sectors of Iran’s economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 8, 2018
On Friday, Trump “hereby ordered” U.S. companies to begin pulling out of China over the president’s suicidal trade war with the East Asian nation, a country of 1.4 billion consumers. Trump quickly backtracked less than two days later after his comments were widely condemned, particularly in conservative circles.
....better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
Following the Times’ publication of the smear story, Schwartz tweeted that the newspaper had “profoundly exaggerated” his role in the efforts. In the same tweet, Schwartz criticized CNN, right on schedule.
My role in these efforts was profoundly over exaggerated in that NYT story. But interesting that CNN’s immediate response is to suggest that my First Amendment rights should be limited because CNN doesn’t like what I have to say. https://t.co/LxzenbsEeI
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) August 25, 2019
The information the group compiles apparently gets fed into the feedback loop that is Trump’s inner circle, which includes people at the White House, his son and other family members, people working for Trump’s reelection campaign, and right-wing media outlets like Breitbart.
Spokespeople at the White House and in Trump’s campaign denied knowledge of the operation, but nevertheless praised it.
“We know nothing about this, but it’s clear that the media has a lot of work to do to clean up its own house,” Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the Trump campaign, told the Times.
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