The news is making my point for me
It's getting weird and ridiculous
In the last month or so I wrote two posts on this Substack: one about the Nord Stream sabotage in September 2022 and the recent Seymour Hersh article going into detail about how elements in the US State Dept planned it as far back as late 2021; another about the way in which mainstream news floods the information zone with spurious rubbish in order to suppress conflicting narratives in search engine results.
In the last couple of days, the mainstream news has demonstrated my second point, by publishing a load of absolute guff regarding my first point. On 8th and 10th March, Der Spiegel published two articles, the first article alleging that the bombing was carried out by 6 divers, the second that they used a 15-metre chartered yacht to do the deed. The Guardian reported their reports. The New York Times suggested that a ‘Pro-Ukrainian group sabotaged the pipelines’. CNN reported that Ukraine denied involvement in the sabotage. Business Insider reported that a Greek tanker was in the area for 7 days before the explosions occurred. None of these reports mention Seymour Hersh or his article.
You see what they’re doing? Covering up Hersh’s genuine, damaging report, with conflicting and nonsensical stories that endeavour to muddy the water (pun intended) and give the impression that, well, there are just so many crazy theories out there that we’ll never know the truth. Hersh’s article will probably disappear from the first pages of search results for ‘nord stream sabotage’, at least for a while. And even if people do find Hersh’s article(s): the recent articles’ sources are anonymous and so were Hersh’s, so why should Hersh’s be taken any more seriously? Just because his report came a month earlier, he’s independent, he has a proven track record of doing actual investigative reporting and he doesn’t have the motivation to make stuff up that corporate media does? Yeah whatever, ya crazy conspiracy theorist!
It’s telling that the New York Times article even pins the blame on a ‘pro-Ukrainian group’ - this simultaneously shifts the spotlight onto Ukraine (Hersh never suggested Ukrainian involvement) but also doesn’t discount the State Dept group, who are nothing if not pro-Ukrainian. It seems like more of the sleight of hand that western media is so good at, sowing seeds of doubt without saying anything conclusive that might open them up to actual litigation when the dust settles and Russia gets round to holding news media responsible for their part in perpetuating the giant fiction of the Ukraine conflict.
I don’t even want to get into details of how a 15-metre yacht could carry all the diving equipment and explosives necessary for the operation, because to do so is to fall into the trap they set. Talking about this crap means taking it seriously, when it should be dismissed out of hand, along with everything else they write. That might sound like I’m throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but that’s just how trust works: once you show yourself to be untrustworthy on one thing, why should anyone trust you on anything?