After Robert Mueller’s ‘no collusion’ report spectacularly dismantled the ‘Russiagate’ narrative, some media outlets can’t let it go. The New York Times has found some bonus collusion: between Trump and a Russian hockey player.
President Donald Trump welcomed the Washington Capitals to the White House on Monday, following their Stanley Cup victory in June. A ceremonial visit from an American sports team normally wouldn’t raise any eyebrows, but journalists see things differently when they’re all hopped up on Russian kool-aid.
The New York Times pointed out that the team’s captain, Alex Ovechkin, is in fact, a Russian. Not just any Russian, but a “vocal admirer and personal friend of President V. Putin of Russia.”
Ovechkin, naturally, is a popular figure in Russia. He’s voiced pride in his home country, and once dared to express support for Putin on social media. To the Times, however, that means he’s “a participant, knowingly or unknowingly in a Kremlin propaganda machine.” Ovechkin “received a wedding gift from Mr. Putin and reportedly has his personal phone number,” the paper gossiped.
Also on rt.com Mueller’s report, finding no Russia collusion or conspiracy, is a major indictment of US mediaOvechkin’s White House visit was an apolitical affair. That didn’t stop the tinfoil hat-wearing reporters at the Times from comparing it to a May 2017 visit from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; a visit they say inspired Trump to fire former FBI Director James Comey, to hide the Russian collusion that never actually existed. Right.
The story was picked up by the conspiracy mongers at Raw Story, who slapped an even more inflammatory headline on it: “Trump entertains Russian hockey player and Putin ally in the White House.” Raw Story is the same outlet that, less than two days earlier, tried to paint washed-up ‘Grease’ actor John Travolta as a Kremlin toadie.
In the two years since Special Counsel Robert Mueller began investigating Trump’s supposed links to Russia, readers have been force-fed 533,074 articles about Trump, Russia, and Mueller, according to analysis published Tuesday. In that time, the media has dropped “bombshell” after “bombshell,” predicted the “beginning of the end” for Trump, and time and time again described the “walls closing in” on the president.
Now that none of that has actually come to pass, will we see reflection and self-criticism from the media? Hardly, especially when there’s stories like this left at the bottom of the barrel.
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