Russia hysteria reaches fever pitch in US media as Trump-Putin summit looms
Countless theories about Donald Trump’s ties to Moscow have become a US media obsession, with mind-numbing Russia hysteria fully embraced by 'respected' outlets ahead of the summit with Vladimir Putin, RT’s Murad Gazdiev reports.
American media have performed dizzying feats of wild speculation in the run-up to the Helsinki meeting on July 16, perhaps best exemplified by a particularly zealous New York Magazine article which suggested that the “private” meeting between Trump and Putin could be “less a negotiation between two heads of state than a meeting between a Russian-intelligence asset and his handler.”
What other theories should we give airtime to under the "unlikely but possible" standard? pic.twitter.com/ySX5jlaNAQ
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) July 11, 2018
Similar evidence-deficient outbursts can be found in the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post – raising questions about loosening standards at outlets once hailed as models of journalistic excellence.
READ MORE: McCarthyism and ‘open season’ on Russia: Reactions to MSNBC attack on Greenwald
But even more brazen Russia-baiting can be found on television. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow – the poster girl of ‘Putin ate my homework’ journalism – rarely goes without launching into a tirade about Moscow’s nefarious plots against America.
As Gazdiev points out, her program was the most-watched US news show in March. Journalism, it seems, has become just another form of entertainment.
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