Punk’d: CIA Edition

Recent reports that Russia has damning information about president-elect Donald Trump have been filling headlines and news feeds. Articles have been written asserting that this information has been provided by the CIA to the intelligence community and key people within the White House — including president-elect Donald Trump. There is only one tiny problem with the story floating around: it’s all a big hoax.

CIA Falls For The Lolz

In the new internet age, memes and pranks have as much power as credible news sources to sway public opinion. In fact, the power of memes and groups like 4chan is so momentous that people believe it had a hand in swaying the election. Of course, serious thinkers would consider this claim preposterous. After all of this, though, the pranksters at 4chan got the CIA to believe a bogus story. It all started when members of 4chan and Anonymous decided to come up with a scheme to spoof the media and intelligence community. Here is how the plan was hatched:

Anonymous/4chan members pretended to be anti-Trump (something that gives you instant access), spread false information to Rick Wilson (GOP consultant, Neocon and #NeverTrump) Rick Wilson rushes this fake news to his long time pal Evan McMullin (Ex-intelligence official, Neocon, #NeverTrump and Anti-Russia) Evan gives a dossier containing this fake information to John McCain (Neo-Con, #NeverTrump, Anti-Russia) John Mccain gives the dossier to the intelligence agencies Intelligences brief the White House and a leak to the press goes viral Buzzfeed obtains said leak and spreads all this nonsense for the world to see

All For the Lolz

The evil geniuses at 4chan do not conjure up pranks, gaffes, and goofs to be jerks. They single handily proved that these claims made by the CIA and other intelligence agencies are just as much hot air as the so called “fake news” the main stream media keeps complaining about. The CIA claims to be impartial and precise in their intelligence analysis, but they are being exposed for being as agenda-based and political as the mainstream news. The CIA is fundamentally exhibiting that it is not impartial and is capable of being misled due to its lack of impartiality. So much for trusting intelligence sources.

Fake News?

Buzzfeed and the other culprits spreading this fake news will most likely insist that they are to be trusted. Is the news media really about spreading the truth? It is clear what the answer is. Thus, the public has no real choice but to trust sources that the mainstream media deems “untrustworthy.” After all, when outlets like Being Libertarian report on the news, you can be sure that we are either objective or are quite upfront about our bias. The truth is a sacred institution far too precious to mar because of the likes of political position. Then again, we do not work for the mainstream media or the political machine, so we have the liberty to actually tell the truth.

The CIA was wrong.*