A LIE TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD BEFORE THE TRUTH IS OUT OF BED. There are *still* people who think W. Bush served a “plastic turkey” to troops in the Middle East. And who could forget Harry Ried out and out lying about Mitt Romney “not paying taxes”? A rare few called him out on it. His response? “Romney didn’t win, did he?”

And so to today. Matt Taibbi (on Substack, the platform that is terrifying the media elite) published a “Master List Of Official Russia Claims That Proved To Be Bogus.” Among the gems (still believed by many):

• The “Back Channel to Russians” story, Yahoo! September 23, 2016. Yahoo! published a story by Michael Isikoff called, “U.S. Officials Probe Ties Between Trump Adviser and Kremlin.” The piece identified Trump advisor Carter Page as a “possible back channel to the Russians,” and claimed he passed information from the Kremlin to figures higher up in the Trump food chain, like former campaign chair Paul Manafort […] This proved incorrect on all fronts, with no evidence of any Page meetings with either man. In fact, the irregularities involved with the Isikoff story – particularly the use of information from British ex-spy Christopher Steele, identified as a “well-placed Western intelligence source” – became a bigger story than the alleged improper relationship between Page and Russians.
• “US investigators corroborate some aspects of the Russia dossier,” CNN, February 10, 2017. Jim Sciutto and Evan Perez of CNN reported that “multiple current and former US law enforcement and intelligence officials” have “corroborated some of the communications detailed in a 35-page dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent,” i.e. the “Steele Dossier.” […] This was a significant and apparently deliberate piece of misinformation. We know, from the report of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, that the CIA months before had already dismissed the Steele reports as “Internet rumor,” while the FBI had already done several rounds of attempts to corroborate its independent reporting, coming up with negative results each time.

And now “disinformation” like a new toy, a bow-and-arrow play set for media mavens. But the arrows all seem to fly in the same — and often wrong — direction.