Posted on 07/30/2017 12:45:46 PM PDT by Lorianne
The Fusion GPS news-for-hire scandal has not only led to the public identification of the source of the “Trump Dossier”—a for-profit company that provides opposition research to whoever could write big checks, which is staffed by four former Wall Street Journal reporters led by Glenn Simpson. The scandal has also lifted the lid off a sewer of corporate information warfare and opposition research that the flailing institutions of the mainstream press now regularly re-package as news, without ever saying where it came from—or who paid for it. While the idea that the products of paid opposition research are being main-lined by name news outlets makes an ongoing mockery of claims to objective reporting, that part of the story is hardly new—it goes back at least to the partisan warfare of the 1990s. So why is Fusion GPS such a big deal?
The Trump Dossier, and the firestorm it ignited, is only one piece of the Fusion GPS story. What’s new about Fusion GPS and its fellow DC oppo shops—few of which register as foreign lobbyists—is that they take money from entities linked to foreign governments that are eager to re-frame or invent news stories to punish their enemies at home and torque American foreign policy by controlling information. When you connect the dots between Fusion GPS’s foreign clients and U.S. media outlets, a much more disturbing picture emerges of the firm’s activities, and what they reveal about the weakened state of the American press, and American democracy.
Faith in the outfit’s journalistic expertise and experience is one of the chords that Fusion GPS strikes in its relations with journalists, whether they’re trying to block a story or shop one. “If they have a story they think you’d be interested in,” says one Washington, D.C. journalist familiar with Fusion GPS’s operations, “they call you down to their office on Dupont Circle and show you a dossier. There’s no confidentiality agreement, but it’s understood that if they show you something and you talk about it, you’re cut off, or worse.”
The fact that Fusion GPS has the whip-hand in its relationship with journalists hardly compels the company to be honest—revealing sources is for suckers, especially when your “sources” are paying the bills. At the same time as Fusion GPS was being paid directly by Russian clients in Washington, it was also being paid by a Venezuelan company called Derwick Associates that reportedly skimmed billions of dollars from rigged contracts with Hugo Chavez’s regime—and which did large amounts of business with Russian state companies like Gazprom and Gazprombank that are sanctioned by Washington for issues related to Russia’s involvement in Ukraine. That’s how Fusion GPS kept the lights on.
SNIP
That "dossier" was not the result of opposition research. It was a complete and utter fabrication.
If anything, GPS is paid to provide plausible deniability to its customers should their gig hit the fan.
At least one of the Fusion GPS founders worked for the WSJ. I need to see them step up and clean up their mess, editorial board speaking.
“...it goes back at least to the partisan warfare of the 1990s.”
Let’s be honest here - it goes back at least to the partisan warfare of the Clinton (D) Presidency.
Bump
Very important article; thanks for posting.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LNqGO8oaghc
Last week Tucker Carlson interviewed Thor Halvorssen, a whistleblower who has been targeted by Fusion GPS.
Interview begins at about 32:30.
For later
I agree. They are staying mighty silent about this.
Very quiet.
RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA Did it! See, we were right all along
Now that the IT Awan, Pakki spies/lil Debbie/Seth's murder/Cankles/Comey/Lynch is toppling, they're scrambling to keep Cankles (of the "Suicide Squad" covered up - and keep their heads - NO ONE DARE INVESTIGATE CANKLES- they are leaving Christopher Steele, the source of the Dossier - that Jaun had hand delivered and took to Comey - etc etc
Redirecting, circumventing Steele, the UK connection/originator and hooking it to RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA - -
or as a poster on another site said - brilliantly; "Wait…..wait……I need to catch up here. This Golden Showers report was paid for by Russia….made by the Brits…picked up by John McCain……delivered to James Comey……James Comey paid them $50,000.00 to further investigate Donald Trump……and now we have a Special Counsel to investigate President Donald Trump's involvement.
Glenn Simpson
image: http://cdn.fora.tv/thumbnails/9186_200_150.jpg
Glenn Simpson Thumbnail
Glenn Simpson [2005]is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal covering money laundering and other financial crime, including terrorist financing, tax evasion and corporate misconduct. For nine years, he was based in the Journal’s Washington, D.C., bureau. In January 2005, he moved to the Journal’s European headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. His past coverage for the Journal includes the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath, technology and privacy, the Justice Department, Congress, banking agencies and the White House, the Federal Trade Commission, and major scandals including Whitewater, foreign campaign contributions and Monica Lewinsky. His October 1996 articles disclosing illegal contributions from Indonesia and China to the Bill Clinton presidential campaign (with Jill Abramson) sparked a year-long congressional investigation and various federal prosecutions and were included in a nomination package by the Journal for a Pulitzer Prize. Mr. Simpson began his journalism career in 1986 as an editorial assistant at Insight. He became a reporter for the Washington-based magazine in 1988 and a writer in 1989. He moved to Roll Call magazine as a staff writer in 1989 and became a senior staff writer in 1993. He joined the Journal in August 1995 and assumed his current responsibilities in January 2000. Born in Paoli, Penn., Mr. Simpson received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from George Washington University. He and his wife, Wall Street Journal reporter Mary Jacoby, have two children.
Read more at http://library.fora.tv/speaker/6818/Glenn_Simpson#aCE7bXADE3DwZJWA.99
Very succinct. Thanks maine-iac7.
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