Don't Believe Your Lying Eyes!

A Train in Palestine

The Associated Press published an article about the recent Ohio toxic train crash public outrage, saying that “Russian voices tried to steer the debate.”

The accounts, which parroted Kremlin talking points on myriad topics, claimed without evidence that authorities in Ohio were lying about the true impact of the chemical spill.

Why is it always the Russians? This isn’t the 1950s. Americans aren’t living in terror of dying in a nuclear war. Schoolchildren aren’t practicing hiding under their desks as the supervising adults pretend that that would make a difference in a nuclear blast. Raising the spectre of Russia isn’t going to reproduce the gut fear of past decades.

The source of this claim about the Russians is more credible than most: Reset, a London-based non-profit -

Our goal is to stop Big Tech companies from profiting off public harm by resetting the rules for online media. Every other major industry – from automotive to pharmaceutical, telecommunications to banking – must follow rules that protect the public interest. Tech giants should be no different.

Neither should the non-profits that are started by tech leaders, like Reset, which was started by the founder of eBay Pierre Omidyar.

But that’s not the point. Even if Russian bots did say that authorities were lying about the chemical spill - that doesn’t mean it should be discounted as a lie. It is a viable possibility. The association of “authorities lying about the chemical spill” and “Russian talking points” immediately discredits the very legitimate concern of health dangers.