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Hannity And Ingraham’s Lifezette Spread Disinformation From A Russian Troll Farm During 2016 Campaign

Posted by Ellen -7859.80pc on February 21, 2018 · Flag

Velshi_022018.png

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi drew a straight line from anti-Clinton disinformation from a Russian troll farm into a Sean Hannity tweet. Hannity appears to have gotten at least part of his information from Lifezette, then run by colleague Laura Ingraham.

Raw Story explains:

NBC News discovered how the Russians were able take advantage of America’s existing right-wing echo chamber to smear Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton with charges of satanism in the home stretch of the campaign. The reporting was based on 202,000 tweets [which] were recovered from 2,752 Twitter accounts the House Intelligence Committee confirmed as Russian trolls.

In addition to #Pizzagate, NBC News noted, “the trolls stirred up rumors that Clinton and her campaign manager John Podesta attended a satanic ritual, a story that the fact-checking site Snopes has labeled "false."

As Snopes explained, the supposed Satanic ritual, called “spirit cooking,” was based on a Wikileak release of Podesta’s hacked emails referencing an art project and a unremarkable dinner that had nothing to do with Satanism or Clinton. Clinton did not send or receive either of the emails published by Wikileaks. As far as I can tell, she did not attend the dinner, either.

But Hannity either could not be bothered to fact check the Russian disinformation or else he deliberately spread it knowing it was false. On November 4, 2016, four days before the presidential election, he tweeted: “LEAKED EMAIL appears to link Clinton Campaign Chairman to bizarre occult ritual.” 

LEAKED EMAIL appears to link Clinton Campaign Chairman to bizarre occult ritual https://t.co/TRbdaEOM6y

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 4, 2016

The link in Hannity's tweet goes to a page on Hannity.com that has been removed. However, the internet archive reveals that it's a full article promoting the disinformation:

Hannity_archive_satanic_ritual.png

The second paragraph of the Hannity article references Lifezette as a source:

According to Lifezette, Abramovic’s “Spirit Cooking” is “little more than a series [of] occult rituals and spells, some of which include blood sacrifice.” Videos that have surfaced online of alleged past Spirit Cooking events appear to show Abramovic painting a “recipe” on a wall with a thickly congealed substance that resembles blood. The recipe reads, in part, “mix fresh breast milk with fresh sperm, drink on earthquake nights.”

Although the Hannity.com article has been taken down, the Lifezette article is still posted. At the time, Ingraham was the editor-in-chief.

This begs the question: what else may Fox News personnel have done to spread Russian disinformation?

Watch Velshi and NBC News reporter Ken Popken explain how disinformation spread from Russian trolls to supposedly mainstream right-wingers like Hannity and Ingraham below, from the February 20, 2018 MSNBC Live with Ali Velshi, via Raw Story.

 


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John McKee commented 2018-02-24 16:04:08 -0500 · Flag
I take great comfort in the fact that after he was removed from the campaign (for cosmetic reasons only), Paul Manifort kept in close touch with both Trump and Hannity in almost daily telephone conversations. Every one of which was recorded, transcribed and filed away by FBI under a FISA court warrant.

The repercussions are about to get very, very real.
john howard commented 2018-02-22 09:30:21 -0500 · Flag
IMO and I truly believe we have a Russian agent in the white house, also in congress.
Richard Santalone commented 2018-02-22 06:50:23 -0500 · Flag
@ Thx4 Fish I remember that miniseries “Amerika” Thx4 Fish. For the record, it was actually on in the mid-1980s, i.e. during Reagan’s second term. In fact, I was in my senior year in college when it came out in the spring of 1985. Two of the principal financial sponsors of this miniseries were General Dynamics and General Electric, two major military contractors who naturally REAPED ENORMOUS PROFITS during the Reagan years — and keep this in mind: at the time General Electric OWNED NBC.
Dadeo commented 2018-02-22 06:23:23 -0500 · Flag
Do like Fox does and repeat this segment over and over, day after day until it’s national news.
Antoinette commented 2018-02-22 02:14:22 -0500 · Flag
In the coming months Hannie Pie the Street Hustler will be too busy trying to salvage is broadcasting career. This Omen of Fox “News” will bring the whole network down with him. So sad, too bad.
Thx4 Fish commented 2018-02-21 16:47:34 -0500 · Flag
Lately I keep thinking about a miniseries from the 70s in which the US becomes so divided that the sitting US President invites the Soviet military to enter the country (not sure why). This leads to a complete takeover of the country by the USSR. It was called ‘Amerika’.

At the time the premise seemed so absurd. Today it seems weirdly possible. I mean when a “News” network allows what is essentially treasonous attacks on almost every branch of our government (except the Trumpy part) and when hosts on a “News Network” act like fact-checking is somebody else’s job—well its like anything is possible.
scooter commented 2018-02-21 15:34:01 -0500 · Flag
Again proving Sean Hannity is a liar, a fraud, a coward, and a traitor.








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