A portion of the newly strident right hustles to dismiss heretofore reliable sources of information: we have all heard of “Fake News!”  Where that blanket dismissal fails, the sophists then fall back on impugning the credibility of public intelligence sources.  Recent topic of interest: “Fancy Bear” — the fancy title for a Russian hacking team involved in the manipulating of an American election.  In the target zone: the consulting and security firm “Crowdstrike”, which, indeed may have fumbled with some claims about Russia’s MO in Ukraine — but not about the U.S. incident.  In the same business, Fireeye has also reported out on Fancy Bear.  For good measure, BackChannels took a glance at former British spy Christopher Steele’s reputation and found it holding up quite well.

When the most self-righteous on the Right dismiss high-integrity reportage out of hand with shouts of “Fake News!” and the launching of barbs against state officials and private sector consultants in the intelligence business (with Fancy Bear, cybersecurity), have another look at the targets of that ire.

They are all “Fake News!” creators:

https://www.fireeye.com/
https://www.crowdstrike.com/
https://orbisbi.com/

Arguing is so easy: discredit sources; dismiss facts (now that there are “alternative facts” as well); get it down to ad hominem mud pies — and one might feel . . . triumphant. Easy-peasy.

https://www.wired.com/story/fancy-bear-hotel-hack/

One might wonder who leaked that NSA tool — they might now be former NSA . . . .

https://www.forbes.com/sites/samarmarwan/2017/07/11/crowdstrike-helped-trace-the-dnc-hack-to-russia-now-business-is-booming/#31dcd8834434

Crowdstrike’s investigation of “Fancy Bear” in the U.S. domestic attack has not been impugned.

Even though “everyone knows” Christopher Steele just makes up stuff, well — https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/21/author-of-trump-russia-dossier-wins-libel-case-in-us-court-christopher-steele

Note: the consultancy for Christopher Steele worked on what has become known as the “Steele Dossier” was Fusion GPS.

Also, for the record: the editor of BackChannels is an independent American voter and enjoys, alas — or “oh joy!” — no financial support from either Democratic or Republican interests.

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