John Brennan, former director of the CIA, also appeared on "Meet the Press" and made similar criticisms about the alleged hacking and Trump's seeming soft attitude towards it.
(I have to digress a bit here. It's amazing how discredited figures like Brennan can be trotted out by NBC to weigh in as esteemed authorities on issues of law and proper behavior. Under Brennan, the CIA conducted drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan that killed many civilians --- a breach of international law. The agency also used unlawful interrogation techniques, including torture, in dealing with prisoners in the years following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. When a Senate committee began investigating the torture claims, the CIA was reluctant to cooperate and in fact spied on the Senate staff investigators by hacking (yes, hacking!) into their computers. But now those days are over and Brennan is suddenly an expert analyst on TV, inveighing against hacking by Russia.)
As typified by the "Meet the Press" show hosted by Chuck Todd --- who did not bring in a guest who offered a more favorable view of Trump's Hamburg meeting -- the media coverage of the Hamburg meeting, Putin and Russia in general has been decidedly negative.
On Friday evening, NBC reporter Richard Engel hosted a show called "On Assignment" which presented a scathing and very one-sided report on Putin and Russia. Basically, he and the guests on the show portrayed Russia as a criminal state where Putin operated as a Mafia boss working with wealthy oligarchs. The show described numerous mysterious killings that have taken place in Russia and outside, in which dissidents and government critics have been murdered. Some of the stories were chilling and had the ring of truth.
However, Engel presented little in the way of countervailing theories in his piece on the various murders as well as the bombing of an apartment building which killed hundreds of people, and which critics say was ordered by Putin. Government officials were not given any chance to rebut the claims of illegality. Putin was painted from beginning to end as a brutal killer who can't be trusted.
While some of the claims of Russian government criminality may be true, I have to be skeptical when a reporter is portraying a person or officials as having committed acts of gross illegality or murder but does not bother to give the accused a chance to respond.
Given the one-sided presentation and the timing of the show --- aired on the evening of the day of the Trump-Putin meeting -- the show came across as a hit piece designed to undermine any notion that working with Russia or Putin was a worthwhile goal.
The avalanche of criticism of Trump and Putin from both Republicans and Democrats continued on Monday on shows like MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hosted by bitter Trump critics Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski.
So the demonization of Russia, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump goes on, undermining the prospects of a more positive and less dangerous relationship between the superpowers. Given the size of the two nations' nuclear arsenals and the areas of the world that could be flashpoints for conflict between the U.S. and Russia, like Syria and Ukraine, that is a shame.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
