Chris ~

2645 days ago

A detailed and fair analysis of the information to date, along with some useful, varied comments (and much noise).

Good article, but can we please stop saying that these hackers — whomever they are — were ‘meddling in the election’ or that ‘the election was hacked’ or that ‘our democracy is threatened’, because literally none of that is true either.

The DNC and John Podesta are not ‘the election’ nor are they organs of the government. They are private political actors and nothing more. Is it concerning that they were hacked? Sure, in the same way it’s concerning when any high-profile system is hacked. Is our democracy at risk? Absolutely not.

It is very much worth repeating that this wasn’t some disinformation campaign, or a nefarious scheme to plant fake evidence on DNC computer systems. This was a leak of information — TRUE information — and by definition the release of truthful information can only be helpful to the democratic process, regardless of where it comes from. Was there deep concern about the illegal release of Trump’s old tax returns to the NY Times? of course not. Nor should their be; that information was legitimate and in the public interest. As are the DNC and Podesta emails.

Once upon a time, investigative journalists used to make it their mission to dig up exactly this kind of information and publish it in major news outlets. The only shame in this entire event is that we’re now depending on shady hackers to do the job that our journalists used to do.

Here’s the Public Evidence Russia Hacked the DNC — It’s Not Enough

theintercept.com