The Xenophobic Times and the Mueller Report
Because it bothers me, again, I will just note The New York Times headlines about the Mueller report this afternoon continue their new tradition of woozily-reasoned anti-Russian hysteria.
This carries on the paper’s xenophobic practice of portraying any meeting with “individuals with ties to the Russian government” — an outrageously vague formulation — as morally questionable or unpatriotic at best, even if not always a provable crime.
I don’t know why the Mexican president ever agreed to meet with candidate-for-president Donald Trump. Mexico certainly did not get anything useful out of that photo op. Arranging that state visit no doubt involved “numerous” Trump campaign-Mexico contacts, and yet I’ve never heard anyone go on to observe, “but the evidence did not rise to the level of a crime.”
It’s tragicomic to remember that The New York Times and The Washington Post shared a Pulitzer last year for collaborating (colluding?) on our 21st century Red Scare.
“For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration,” according to the Pulitzer committee statement.
Sheesh. Relentlessly reported I’ll give you, but “deeply sourced”? It was one loosely sourced anonymous shriek after another!
“Maybe wait until we know the story is true before handing out reporting awards,” was the dry comment by an opinion-writer in The Washington Examiner this week.
Recklessly criminalizing all-things-Russian has had real consequences for real people. In closing, I’d like to offer you just one of many examples, in this case, excerpts from a disturbing comment in the Wall Street Journal by a man named Yuri Vanetik, under the headline, “I was smeared because I’m a Soviet émigré with GOP connections.”
I’m a private real-estate and energy investor in California, a donor to Republican political candidates and sometime lobbyist. On Feb. 1, 2018, McClatchy Newspapers published the first of four big stories on me — four parts! — with the opening headline: “Master of selfies with GOP pols, Soviet émigré has a confounding past.”
The stories suggested I have a “checkered past” and mix with “shady characters” and “controversial” foreign politicians. One noted that I have a limited liability corporation, which can be “used for a wide array of nefarious purposes.” McClatchy also falsely claimed I have had “run-ins with the law” (later softened to “legal troubles”). Others in the media picked up the smears, retweeting and speculating without asking me for comment.
McClatchy is right that I am a Soviet émigré. I was born in Ukraine and brought to America as a child in the 1970s by my parents, Jewish immigrants fleeing communism.
I never met President Trump. I never raised money for his campaign, as the McClatchy stories implied. I did raise money for Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio — and even contributed to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. In the general election, I voted for someone else.
But you are judged by the company you keep, and I did have flimsy “links” to three Russia-linked figures: Elliott Broidy, Paul Manafort and former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.
Mr. Broidy is a former Trump bundler who came under scrutiny last year for allegedly selling influence to foreign governments. We did one energy deal a decade ago, and he sued me and others when it went sour. That’s it.
I met Mr. Manafort at a restaurant in New York and posted a thumbs-up photo with him on Instagram. That was our only contact. The photo became Exhibit A in the smear campaign against me.
Mr. Rohrabacher, derided by the Russiagate-obsessed as “Putin’s favorite congressman,” shows up in my Instagram feed as well. He’s a family friend.
And yes, I registered late under the Foreign Agent Registration Act because of my lobbying work for a Ukrainian politician, as McClatchy ominously noted. It did not note until the end of the second story that 62% of FARA filings come late and only seven cases for failure to register have been brought in 50 years.
These stories were all innuendo. No specific allegations of wrongdoing were leveled. My Russian name and random adjacency to infamy were enough to invite suspicion, then damnation. One story dredged up my 78-year-old father’s tax case, without revealing it ended more than 30 years ago with a fine of $5,000.
Real people have suffered real consequences from the media malpractice and officially sanctioned xenophobia of Russiagate. Let’s hope this act of the tragicomedy is about to end.
