Much as Frederic Bastiat details economics as the study of the seen and the unseen, news in America can be described as the study of the told and the untold.
While authoritarian states like North Korea will make outright lies to its people, such as “Our space shuttle program is progressing well” and “Dear Leader Kim Jong Un is so pure he never defecates,” the main tool of propaganda in the west is to report limited truths while hiding important facts.
Did Russia Hack The U.S. Election?
Let’s look at the supposed Russian hacking of American government official’s computers. In late December 2016, President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats (a highly belligerent move—typically diplomats are expelled only immediately prior to war, and this likely violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations), claiming that Russians spoiled the US Presidential election by releasing Democratic Party emails to the independent whistleblowing site and information clearinghouse Wikileaks.
If one didn’t follow the story closely, examining the actual facts and official statements reported, one would think that there was evidence that Russians sabotaged the American presidential election of 2016. But the US government itself doesn’t even claim this.
The official Joint Statement from the Dept of Homeland Security and Office of Director of National Intelligence states merely that the hacks “are consistent with the methodsand motivations of Russian-directed efforts.”
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