Early on, Trump-Russia obsessives were marginalized; they're prophets now

[hlthe2b]

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-heffernan-russia-obsessives-get-their-due-20181209-story.html

“I felt like the guy in ‘Rear Window,’ ” David Corn, the coauthor of “Russian Roulette,” told me this week.

Corn was referring to his affinity for James Stewart’s character, L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece film. Jeff witnesses a crime across the courtyard from his New York City apartment. But when he talks about it no one believes him.

Corn, likewise, had a period in 2016 when he saw a massive global crime going on right outside his window. The Kremlin was waging war on America. And that November, it captured the White House. But for an agonizingly long time, as the media critic Liz Spayd put it at the time, “the majority view [was] that there wasn’t enough proof of a link between Trump and the Kremlin to write a hard-hitting story” during the campaign.

This majority view persisted even after the election.

At the end of 2016, a BBC radio reporter asked me — I’m not kidding — whether a Putin puppet had taken the White House because Hillary Clinton wasn’t sexy enough.

Or because she hadn’t campaigned in Wisconsin?

No! I wanted to shout. Clinton “lost” because she had failed to campaign in the Urals!

In 2017, we had front-page reporting on partisanship, palace intrigue and cultural battles. Could Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner be moderating presences in the White House? Did American neo-Nazis and believers in the Pizzagate conspiracy have legitimate grievances?

The most insulting and consequential national security breach in all of American history was being downplayed in favor of sports reporting.

much more

[manor321]

1. Good article, but how did she not mention Seth Abramson?

[fleur-de-lisa]

27. Abramson mocked the reporting of others early on

then stole their work and published it as his own months later.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. More than a few people

Called me a Russophobe.

I wear that title with pride.

[Squinch]

3. I got it a lot even here.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. Ditto that

[dalton99a]

6. Some were driven away by Putin enthusiasts

and assorted factory personnel in St. Petersburg

[SunSeeker]

19. Yep. nt

[NRaleighLiberal]

29. me too. I knew something fishy went on about 9 PM EST election night.

[NRaleighLiberal]

30. many here still cannot "go there".

[BadgerMom]

35. Me, too. I knew something was off in a big way. Call it Spidey sense.

For months after the election I awakened every morning and grabbed my phone to read about whatever catastrophe had occurred on the East coast as I slept on the West coast. So many of the early atrocious things he did were linked to Russia or were clearly aimed at benefiting Russia. The continued lack of acknowledgement of this by so many in the MSM alternately infuriated and flabbergasted me. Corn and reporters like him saved my sanity.

It feels as though the wheels of justice have turned enough now that daily terror is no longer a reasonable reaction to the wanna-be totalitarians in Washington. But if news like that from Helsinki this summer continues to pop up, wariness will continue as well.

[cilla4progress]

4. We were all in from the beginning.

But we're old farts. Seen a lot. And Corn is credible. Gotta have an imagination.

[Honeycombe8]

28. Yes, a lot of us were seeing similar things. Too many weird goings-on.

I posted (in a different forum that is bi-party) on election night, that I wondered (just "wondered" ) if it was possible that Russia had something to do with the election results, because the results didn't jive with just about all data that existed. Even Trump right before the election was on his "the election is rigged" campaign, which showed his campaign data was showing the same thing everyone else's data was showing (despite KellyAnne's assurances that their inside data showed he'd win). I wasn't sure of Russian influence. I didn't even think it was the case. I just WONDERED if it was possible, seeking an answer to the result that surprised everyone, even Trump. I was immediately banned from the thread (not from the forum...from the thread).

That was the beginning of the shutdown in a variety of places of discussion of Russian influence on the election, framing it as sour grapes for losing. Everyone pretending that nothing was amiss. But those of us who were seeking real answers and facts, found real discussions about the election and Russia from those like Corn, Rachel Maddow, and others who were speaking about it, of facts and realities. Not sour grapes. There were things that were wrong, didn't seem normal, were off kilter. A few weird things, too.

Now the worm has turned. Now the voices saying "sour grapes! Sore losers! Witch hunt!" are getting pretty weak and very unconvincing, even to themselves.

[Cha]

7. Yeah, I remember BS and MM said Russia & Stormy Daniels ..

were "distractions".

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/20/bernie-sanders-russia-and-stormy-daniels-distract-us-from-real-problem-of-inequality

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/379278-michael-moore-russia-stormy-daniels-stories-are-shiny-keys-to-distract-us

Most of us knew they were Wrong.

[dalton99a]

9. +1. They were so wrong.

[Cha]

11. Dead Wrong.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. wow I missed those stories

Since I rarely pay attention to either of those characters, I missed the "distractions" BS, too.

[Cha]

13. Yeah, they acted like

they had no clue what was really going on.

And, now we have the proof.

[SunSeeker]

20. Man, those BS and MM quotes didn't age well!

[Cha]

23. As we knew

they wouldn't.. and here we are, SunSeeker

[betsuni]

26. At least they didn't blame Democrats for making the media distract us with Russian keys!

That's a little something.

[Honeycombe8]

32. I did not know that. Now that's pretty interesting.

But it fits with what most were saying at the time.

But many of us knew better. I felt in my gut that something was wrong. I, for one, didn't buy the explanations of the election results. I'm over 60 and have seen a few presidential elections. Something was wrong. It was NOT sour grapes making me think that.

I also don't remember what Michael Moore says, that all the stations were talking about Russia. That's not how I remember it. At least not about Russia interfering with the election.

[Tarheel_Dem]

36. +2

[FakeNoose]

8. I learned so much from his book "Russian Roulette"

Co-authors David Corn and Michael Isikoff.

[betsuni]

21. That's one of the books I'm reading now, it's great!

[Honeycombe8]

33. Guess I'm going to have to get that book. nt

[yardwork]

12. Anybody who didn't see this by late 2016 didn't want to see it.

To this day, there are plenty of people allowing themselves to be played by Russian trolls and Russian propaganda.

[JI7]

14. yup, the same ones who wanted to believe the worst about Hillary

without any facts. but refused to see the facts concerning trump.

[yardwork]

15. All those lies were created and promoted by troll farms.

Hundreds of people on DU and millions of Americans were suckered by Russian trolls. People on the left and the right believed outrageous lies about Hillary. Many of them cling to those beliefs to this day because otherwise they have to face some very uncomfortable facts about their personal gullibility.

[elias7]

16. Waiting for Louise Mensch to be given her due

I think she was selected by some intelligence group (here or across the pond) to get the real facts out. Just a margined voice but enough for many of us to retain hope...

[HipChick]

17. #TeamPillowForts?

MI6 or MI5 would not have anything to do with her...

[Eyeball_Kid]

18. My intuitive response:

Things are often not what they seem.

[Duppers]

22. ☝

[pnwmom]

34. I agree. She helped keep morale up and eyes focused on Russia.

And as soon as Mueller took over the investigation, she mostly stood down (though she has always been a voice for Comey not being the bad guy in the picture.)

[House of Roberts]

24. Just another example of the

'Dirty Fucking Hippies' being right again.

How are y'all going to collectively define yourselves when we aren't here to point this crap out to you all?

[ck4829]

25. K&R

[BadgerMom]

31. K and R

[UpInArms]

37. I knew something was going on when

The only part of the GOP Platform that was changed at their Convention was the line about Russia and its intervention in Ukraine.

From there forward, I have had no doubt .... only confirmation