In today’s #vatnik soup (thanks Mike Edward, .@OpsATX for the name!) I’ll be introducing the Editor of the @TheGrayzoneNews, Max Blumenthal (.@MaxBlumenthal). In his previous life, he reported on prestigious publications such as NYT, LA Times and Al Jazeera English... 1/10

...often writing about the 🇮🇱-🇵🇸 conflict and doing hot takes on 🇺🇸 politics. In his political views, Max’s worldview appears to be on the far-left spectrum (the 🇺🇸 far-left, not the European kind)and for example in the early 00’s he wrote a lot about immigration issues in 🇺🇸.2/10

Later in his career he has been appearing on 🇷🇺 state-owned Sputnik and RT, but also actively spreading disinformation on his “news” website The Grayzone.He has defended RT in an interview with Tucker Carlson, stating that the media company does not spread Kremlin propaganda. 3/10

In 2015 Blumenthal made a trip to Moscow RT’s 10 Years on Air anniversary party. The trip was allegedly paid for by the Kremlin and the party was attended by people like Vladimir Putin, Michael Flynn and Ken Livingstone. 4/10

His 2009 best-selling book Republican Gomorrah was inspired by Erich Fromm’s work on people willing to give up their freedom via an identification with authoritarian and charismatic leaders - I’m sure you can spot the irony here. 5/10

Max has made bold claims on his website, e.g. that the Syria Civil Defence aka The White Helmets were connected to Al-Qaeda and that they were backed by Western governments and PR groups. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Hel…

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He has also published an article about Khan Shaykhun chemical attack, casting doubt on the Syrian government’s responsibility. UN investigation disagreed with Mr Blumenthal’s view on the issue and stated that the Syrian government was indeed responsible for the attack.

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He has also claimed already on 26th of February, 2022, that Ukraine’s regular military has been “vanquished”, and that “Washington seeks to fund a CIA-backed insurgency to ratchet up civil war and destabilize Russia’s frontiers”.

https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1497615455858659341

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In addition, Max has suggested that the Mariupol theater airstrike that killed women and children was a “false flag attack” by Ukrainian AZOV batallion to trigger NATO intervention. thegrayzone.com/2022/03/18/bom…

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Ukrainian fact-checking organization StopFake lists Blumenthal as a pro-Russia journalist who promotes Russian propaganda. stopfake.org/en/russia-s-un…

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