Back in January, well before the Democratic primary race had taken on its current composition, independent journalist Ruth Ann Oskolkoff reported that a source had heard from high-level Democratic …
caitlinjohnstone.com
Taken by the headline (though I still think the North Koreans' "dotard" is a better insult), I took a look at the article and discovered that I apparently shouldn't trust a word The Daily Beast says because its "corporate owner IAC has Chelsea Clinton on its board of directors" and that it published "an article titled “Kremlin Media Still Like Bernie, ’Cause They Love Trump” which aggressively smears Sanders as a tool of the Kremlin".
I'm not sure it says he's "a tool of the Kremlin" anywhere; rather, it says that commentators on Russia Today and Russian domestic TV channels (nominally independent but state-controlled in effect) keep promoting him as the most likely Democratic candidate -- I don't watch Russian domestic TV but I assume the Beast isn't making that up -- and that
It would be a mistake to think Bernie Sanders is by any means Russia’s “Manchurian candidate.” His value to the Kremlin is as a disrupting force whose candidacy benefits Trump. Presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard, who often appears on Fox News to criticize the Democrats, is perceived in the same light.
Furthermore, as it also notes,
In the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, Russian state media strongly backed both Sanders and Trump. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of the St. Petersburg troll farm, known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA) detailed how its operatives were instructed to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them).”
(the actual quote is at para 43a, p 17,
of the indictment).
While the Russians may well discover that they have completely misunderstood Sanders and that, in office, President Sanders proves their implacable opponent, all The Daily Beast is doing, it seems to me, is reporting on what Russian politicians and political commentators are doing now and on what they did 4 years ago.
Is there any reason to suppose Putin's preferences about US presidential candidates have changed since 2016 and he no longer wants to see a contest between Trump and Sanders, from which he hopes Trump will emerge the winner? Or should we, as Trump and the Republicans would like us to, dismiss Mueller's report as biased and unreliable?
Normally I wouldn't waste my time reading so obviously a partisan article, let alone checking its sources, but I thought we try here to quote from reliable news media when we can, and this piece seems to provide a good example why that's a good idea.
I'm not expressing any view on Bernie Sanders here, but I would suggest that his supporters are doing neither him nor themselves any favours when they quote such utter tripe in his support.