this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

"Duped" doing more lifting than a pallet jack here.

MR covering it live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_HWnfMozwo

Edit: Tim Pool's Dad called in, and is live on that link discussing it now.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Pool, a journalist-turned-YouTuber who first gained public attention for livestreaming the Occupy Wall Street protests, hosted Trump on his podcast earlier this year.

Johnson is an outspoken Trump supporter and internet personality who was fired from BuzzFeed after the company found evidence he’d plagiarized other works.

So these two were formally "journalists", and should know at least something about confirming sources and information before publishing, or in this case I guess making a video/podcast, about the topic given them by this company that wanted to just give them hundreds of thousands of dollars. And maybe look into why a company would pay you that kind of money out of nowhere if they were supplying all the talking points, and they just want you to say them into a camera? Maybe?

I think anyone with any background in media should see right through something like this, and has no leg to stand on when crying "we had no idea!". They saw a check and all morals/questions went out the window.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

If what you say is true, they are guilty of crimes and should be prosecuted. I think the DOJ is unlikely to do this. What legitimate reason would the DOJ have to not prosecute these people?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (5 children)

No. My god, no. What sort of nonsense is that?

You’re taking the position of a catastrophic extreme in response to someone saying they should have been more circumspect about where their money came from.

They should have been more circumspect, though. There’s leagues between acknowledging that and saying that they should be prosecuted by the DOJ.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I see, that's a fair take 👍🏾

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Johnson is an outspoken Trump supporter and internet personality who was fired from BuzzFeed after the company found evidence he’d plagiarized other works.

This is interesting. I never liked the guy. Could never put my finger on exactly why, but he always seemed fishy to me.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So their excuse is: “we are too dumb to go to prison”

Guilty by reason of Gullible? I’m going to use this, should they ever find myself in court.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (5 children)

No, it's worse than that. That's the DOJ's excuse for refusing to indict the traitorous influencers themselves and only going after their Russian handlers.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (1 children)

“Duped” is doing some heavy lifting in that sentence.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

"I'm shocked, shocked to find that Russia was funding me to spout these talking points!"

"Your gratuities, sir"

"Oh, thank you very much."

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The coordinated messaging all emphasizing how this was accidental and these longtime trolls didn't know (or bother to ask) where the money coming from is... something.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Isn't that just trickling down from the DOJ though? The article says:

The U.S. Justice Department doesn’t allege any wrongdoing by the influencers, some of whom it says were given false information about the source of the company’s funding. Instead, it accuses two employees of RT, a Russian state media company, of funneling nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based content creation company for Russia-friendly content.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Okay, then the DOJ grasping at any flimsy excuse to avoid indicting the traitorous right-wing influencers themselves is... something.

That better?

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Nazis are always treated with kid gloves by the US "justice" system. Same as it ever was.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 months ago (1 children)

True, but these people have been completely aligned with Kremlin talking points for years, and I wish the article and others would take the time to point that out. I'm sure it can be phrased in an ambiguous enough way that the reader can draw conclusions without it being libelous.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The AP is a straight news organization, I'm sure there are plenty of left wing articles about the situation that mention that though.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Doesn't MBFC already rate AP as "left"? Any factual reporting outlet is going to be called "left" because facts are seen as "left" in today's Overton window.

I think it's dishonest to pretend these Russian operatives had any plausible deniability. There is absolutely nothing plausible about their denial. Just because they weren't charged with knowingly accepting Russian money doesn't mean it wasn't extremely obvious that they knew where the money was coming from.

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 3 months ago (2 children)

How does one dupe the willing?

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Bags of money!

Apparently they were duped into thinking the money came from pro-Russian US conservatives or something like that instead of directly from the source.

I disagree that they were duped in any way since the pro Russian messaging was still pro Russian messaging and the source of the money is not important.

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[–] [email protected] 163 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (5 children)

Duped? How? By getting paid?

[–] [email protected] 50 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My job dupes me into coming in every night by uploading some wacky numbers to my bank account every two weeks. I fall for it every time.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The U.S. Justice Department doesn’t allege any wrongdoing by the influencers, some of whom it says were given false information about the source of the company’s funding. Instead, it accuses two employees of RT, a Russian state media company, of funneling nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based content creation company for Russia-friendly content.

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[–] [email protected] 84 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Oopsie I was just so confused by this giant bag of cash!

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Duped! Completely fooled! Hoodwinked! Who could have seen that coming??

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago

thanks for the money...

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