Yet again the mainstream media are abjectly failing their readers by posting fake news. Their target? WikiLeaks.
CNet and The Guardian are both reporting on a WikiLeaks tweet calling for Trump’s tax returns to be submitted to them – as if it is a new story!
They aren’t the only ones making themselves look silly. The Huffington Post were at it too, initially posting the completely false headline “WikiLeaks Suddenly Wants Trump’s Secret Tax Returns”
Media have long been trying to blame WikiLeaks for Trump being elected and their insinuation is that WikiLeaks have only just now decided to go after Trump. But the reality couldn’t be further from the truth:
WikiLeaks has been asking for the tax returns for nearly six months, if not longer.
But even Vice News fell for the line that this is a new thing.
It’s a hard lesson to consumers that sometimes what you read in the news isn’t news at all. Just conveniently timed, targeted information that media elites seized an opportunity to put their spin on.
WikiLeaks did send out a call for a whistleblower to submit the returns so that they can be released to the public. But it was not the first time WikiLeaks had made such a request, or even the second.
Yet many wrongly assumed that interest in Trump’s tax returns was a shift in position for Wikileaks when it has in fact been after them all along.
The New York Times took this moment to advertise its anonymous, confidential tip service, using “SecureDrop,” software developed for journalists to securely receive information from sources via encrypted file transfer.
A better idea: https://t.co/yk2jd7YrY3
— Patrick LaForge (@palafo) January 22, 2017
Of course they completely failed to mention that the SecureDrop concept was engineered and championed by WikiLeaks itself, who were the first media organisation in the world to use technology of that kind to protect their sources.
Ironic considering when the New York Times recently launched their installation of the platform, many commenters suggested to them that sources would be better off going to WikiLeaks!
Some were even less kind, making it clear that they consider the New York Times to be a part of the fake news club:
Clearly a lot of people really are concerned about Trump’s tax returns.
Hopefully they will also be concerned by having yet again been pedalled fake news by media giants capitalising on any possible opportunity to discredit WikiLeaks – a publisher who has consistently outstripped the mainstream in achievements, social media saturation and popularity.
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