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Reuters, BBC, and Bellingcat participated in covert UK Foreign Office-funded programs to "weaken Russia," leaked docs reveal | The Grayzone
thegrayzone.comNew leaked documents show Reuters’ and the BBC’s involvement in covert UK FCO programs to effect “attitudinal change” and “weaken the Russian state’s influence,” alongside intel contractors and Bellingcat. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have sponsored Reuters and the BBC to conduct a series of covert programs aimed at promoting regime change inside Russia and undermining its government across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, according to a series of leaked documents. The leaked materials show the Thomson Reuters […]
You guys know that grayzone is an op too, right? They’re just a Russian op.
They hate Bellingcat because Bellingcat is an American op. It’s ops all the way down.
Critical support for the Russian op in their righteous fight against NATO imperialism.
But seriously. No russian ever dropped bombs on my people and no Russian gets hard thinking about bombing Tehran. You can fuck of with that enlightened Centrism shit.
It’s not “enlightened centrism” to consume media critically. Russia isn’t some anti-imperialist bulwark, they’re just another empire advancing their own interests.
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Critical support for the CCCP, but Russia is unabashedly capitalist and reactionary. Like is this seriously a pro Putin board all of a sudden?
Edit: Putin stans can eat shiiiiiit
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Yeah, not going to apologize for being born in the US, in case you didn’t know it’s not easy to leave, otherwise I’d have done so already for what it’s worth.
Kind of curious where you think I’m making “vitriolic accusations” though. I said Gray Zone was a Russian op. I stand by that, but I still read it. I just think it’s important to be aware that they’re also pushing a national interest.
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Lmao okay.
putin bad
This is insufferable
That is literally a baseline take that even a radlib like Chomsky appreciates, how the fuck is that remotely "iNsUfFeRaBle"
Moralistic virtue signaling about dictators your country helped bring to power will always remain the actual insufferable position, sorry
Yes, criticism of modern Russia under a literal autocrat is big time “moralistic virtue signalling”.
Get outta here. The motherland is dead and gone and any leftist ought rightfully to criticise the current apparatus of power and corruption in Russia.
Even mentioning Russia in the same breath as China and Bolivia is completely asinine.
If you're an American, YES, especially if you neglect intentionally or otherwise to pair said criticism with the context of HOW and WHY Putin came to power
Ok and? You do realize you have absolutely zero moral, political, or social clout to effect change in Russia, again moralistic virtue signalling
How about mentioning Russia in the context of NATO, is that asinine? Or is agitating for a Second Russian collapse in the span of 30 years somehow "woke" now?
Lmao
Is this Cha Cha or 2013 Atheist YouTube?
This is as simple as accepting that critical thought ought to be levelled at media and it’s not doing an imperialism to do so. You don’t need to do a screed to justify every point of contention.
Funny, you're kneejerk hysterics about foreign dictators reminded me more of "2013 Atheist YouTube"
LMAO what "critical thought" have you actually leveled russiagator? I can read your dogshit screed on any thread in r/politics, here's an idea, come up with a take about Russia where you don't sound like a Jake Tapper sockpuppet
Nice misquote bro.
You’re fighting with an enemy that doesn’t exist.
I’m literally not from the US, and have no support for Russiagate conspiracies. But your boy up there is failing to take a stance beyond
West = US = Imperialism = bad
:. Anything not the West = not the US = not imperialism = good and to be trusted
uh, huh cool story love, absolutely riveting
:ohnoes: oh shit my boy didn't take a "STANCE"
Yesssss? That is objectively correct, not seeing the issue here
fucks sake just forward your application to CNN already
Also question, do you believe the Ukraine should invade Crimea with the aid of NATO?
This is unproductive, you can quote my posts piece by piece and add your irony poisoned retorts if it makes you feel better about your day.
But I don’t see this going any further than that, and since this is a shared left space rather than reddit we should leave it at that.
The grayzone does really good work. These folks are legit as fuck.
Bellingcat is considered an American government op because it's funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which is funded by the US government. According to NED president Allen Weinstein:
The Grayzone can't really be considered an op as they're only funded by their readers through direct donations and by their Patreon members and don't accept state funding. I've donated to them before. They're just Marxist journalists that primarily cover Western government-led regime change efforts, regardless of whether the regime change targets are socialist governments (Bolivia, Nicaragua, China, and Venezuela) or not socialist (Iran, Syria, and Russia). You could make the case that RT is a Russian op though as it is funded at least partially by the Russian government although they do host a lot of leftist content with Richard Wolff and Chris Hedges being frequent contributors.
Part of its funding is from the NED. It's sus, but without knowing how much of their funding comes from the NED I hesitate to call it more than that.
For what it's worth, Bellingcat claims 35% of its money is from workshops it holds, describes other non-NED funding sources, and it describes its NED money as a grant. The NED claims it issues more than 1,600 grants per year that average $50,000 each.
The NED is obviously an op, but it's less plausible to claim that any news outlet that receives any money from the NED is also a full-on op, and it's still less plausible to claim that any journalist who receives any income from such a news outlet is a full-on fed.
Yeah, I agree that it's doubtful that every employee of a NED-funded outlet is necessarily a literal undercover CIA officer. We don't know the exact extent of just outright full collaboration or US government micromanagement within some of these NED-funded organizations. Maybe more of a case here of the US government just cultivating outlets and their employees as at least generally reliable assets for advancing American government interests (Perhaps they were already at least partially ideologically-aligned, share some similar key goals, support current US foreign policy, or just like what NATO has to offer. Hell, maybe the US just sees them as "useful idiots".) and financially supporting them accordingly via NED funding to promote them after recognizing their value. So, yeah, maybe not necessarily always 100% full-on ops or full-on feds.
Without evidence this is just badjacketing. We should have a pretty low tolerance for accusations like this unless they're supported by something at least semi-plausible.
Are you talking about Grayzone or Bellingcat?
Grayzone. Until this thread I haven't seen even a suggestion that they're suspect, and the accusation here is totally unsupported. We have to be a little smarter than jumping every time someone shouts "this thing is an op."
With Bellingcat, there's unquestionably a source of funding (the NED) that's justifiably suspect. I don't think the book's written on them, but there's at least something to back up accusations that it's not legit.
I agree, I haven't seen chapos throw russiagate-style accusations like this since the summer of 2018, very strange
Thankfully, I haven't seen this crop up until this thread, and I don't see a lot of people here falling for it.
Ok, prove it.
Source: just trust me bro