emptywheel

yeah. whether or not the intention is to inject more poison into the system, there certainly seems to be a level of willful ignorance to what's going on here.

I would hope that if I routinely wrote things that got picked up and spun way out of proportion by crazy people on the internet, I would start being very, very careful about my writing

Two thoughts. First, as I was reading your piece, I kept thinking abt distinct possibility Ross learned of Halper via targets comparing notes. If so, it's really NOT Ross/etc's fault for exposing him.

It's just terrible opsec, using the same source to approach 3 people who can compare notes and in doing so conclude that he had ulterior motives. And frankly, those targets absolutely have the right to do so (and to speak to press about it).

Also, as we trace how these fever narratives spread, it's worth trying to catalog which corners (WH, Bannon, Nunes, others) fan the flames, to extent that's possible.

certainly. the goal of the piece was much more to trace the fanning of the flames; with the information we have, we can't really say to what extent Nunes et al were involved in the sourcing of the original piece.

No. It's a critically important question, legally. But I respect Ross' reporting sufficiently to believe the story may have come via legit sources.