In a column in SheerPost, Patrick Lawrence calls into question why the Sunday New York Times would publish a blatantly untrue piece by Jim Rutenberg called, “The Untold Story of ‘Russiagate’ and the Road to War in Ukraine,” published Sunday, Nov. 6.
First, Lawrence admits that he is drawn to titles of stories like, “The Untold Story of…,” “The cliché on the front cover or in the headline is among my favorites. And then what follows: It has been told before, or it is not worth telling, or—often the case—it is conjured nonsense, a mass of dots that don’t connect, which is why nobody previously thought to tell it.
“The Untold Story of Why Leaves Fall in Autumn. The Untold Story of George W. Bush’s Subtle Mind. The Untold Story of Antony Blinken’s Brilliant Diplomacy. Yes, readers, I’ve read ’em all.”
He then proceeds to tear apart Rutenberg’s “logic” at each step, noting that: “This is the tale, the tallest I have read in years, of how Russia’s long-alleged and long-disproven interference in the 2016 election in Donald Trump’s behalf was but a prelude to Russia’s intervention, with the connivance of Trump and his adjutants, in Ukraine. ‘Putin’s American adventure might be best understood as advance payment for a geopolitical grail closer to home: a vassal Ukrainian state.’
“What a piece. Phony logic, omissions, false presumptions, and misrepresentations of this magnitude do not come along every day. There is enough fanciful mythmaking and fabulist lore in this yarn to interest the animated film editors at Disney. And the wedding-cake prose is over-the-top delightful.”
