A painful hobble down memory lane. Probably this is no longer of interest to many, and there are clearly a lot of people actively wishing it would just go away. Some are blaming vengeful pro-Trumpers for bringing it up now to promote their own obvious agenda. As for me, I just think it’s never a bad time to set the record straight.
Thanks to quite a bit of recently declassified material, we now know for sure that Christopher Steele’s “dossier” was never more than a tissue of rumor and creative invention, all amplified by Steele’s wild-eyed hyperbole. I personally was sure it was some variety of garbage from the first time I clapped eyes on it in Buzzfeed. My number one theory at that time was that it was itself Russian disinformation, fed to Steele by his Russian contacts. But it turns out that was giving Steele too much credit. It’s now clear that he never contacted any genuine Russian sources at all, and his primary sub-source was a former Brookings analyst who lived in the US and concocted most of that stuff with his girlfriend and drinking buddies.
This is as good a summary as you will find of the slow-motion media train wreck that dossier engendered. It contributed mightily to the scorched-earth style that now dominates US political discourse, especially the ease with which allegations of treason or some ominous foreign links — that sort of talk used to be beyond the pale not so long ago — are now showered about like confetti.
I don’t care that The Federalist is a conservative source, so spare me that line of complaint. I happen to have trudged through this swamp myself in real time, had to find things to report in connection with the dossier’s claims, and recognize that this article is basically a cold-eyed parade of sorry facts, now firmly established. And a timely warning, even as the Trumpists try to drag us down the China rabbit hole, not to fall for this kind of political hoax again.
There was never any reason to give credence to any of the salacious allegations in Christopher Steele’s dossier. That didn’t stop corporate media.
THEFEDERALIST.COM
Media Silent As Christopher Steele ‘Hero’ ‘Spymaster’ Narrative Crumbles
There was never any reason to give credence to any of the salacious allegations in Christopher Steele’s dossier. That didn’t stop corporate media.