A military funded academic, working at a school launched by Condoleezza Rice, claims leftist and antiwar journalists engage in Russian disinformation. His report doesn’t provide any evidence or refute anyone’s argument, but the mainstream media laps it up.
On Thursday the University of Calgary School of Public Policy released "Disinformation and Russia-Ukrainian war on Canadian social media". With the exception of a blog by Dimitri Lascaris that dismantled its absurd ideological premises, coverage of the report was almost entirely uncritical. Headlines included: "Canada target of Russian disinformation, with tweets linked to foreign powers" (Globe and Mail), "Why is Canada the target of a Russian disinformation campaign?" (CJAD Montréal) and "Canada is target of Russian disinformation, with millions of tweets linked to Kremlin" (City News Toronto). The report’s lead author Jean-Christophe Boucher was a guest on multiple TV and radio outlets, labeling those who question the role of NATO expansion, the far right and 2014 coup against an elected president in understanding the war in Ukraine "useful idiots" of Vladimir Putin.
Boucher and his co-researchers claim to have mapped over six million tweets in Canada about the conflict in Ukraine. They claim over a quarter of the tweets fall into five categories they label "pro-Russian narratives". But they don’t even attempt to justify the five categories. Instead, they simply list the most prominent commentators and political figures promoting these ideas under the rubric of "Top Russian-influenced Accounts". The list includes leftist journalists Aaron Maté, Benjamin Norton, Max Blumenthal, Richard Medhurst, and John Pilger. But no evidence is offered to connect these individuals to Russia.
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