Alabama Election Meddling Timeline 3.0
1-26-19, PAGE 1 OF 3
This digg is like an octopus: keeps expanding in multiple directions. If you have not read up on this topic, start with older diggs (there are dozens; see >>4883279 pb). The problem at this point is understanding how the pieces fit together.
Why don't they fit so far? Because the MSM is trying to keep the story contained. So it provide partial accounts that blur out key details. For example, it is said that WaPo, Buzzfeed, and NYT all have copies of one or more reports upon which their stories are based, but what is published is either incomplete or their filtered interpretation of the report(s).
This timeline updates a previous timeline update (>>4833587 pb). If you haven't read it yet, you might want to first; it's simpler.
Three of the CAPPED articles are from Dec 17 (WaPo & NYT) and World Socialist website (to give context to Alabama story); the 4th is an obscure but excellent piece from World Socialist website. Two are new; others posted for easy reference.
The main purpose of this updated timeline is make it easier to understand the signicance of this story–how it points to so much more than just a Senate election in Alabama.(Details/links on PAGES 2 and 3).
TIMELINE 3.0 (now starts in Sept 2018; see pages 2 & 3 for links)
''Below is an update of the timeline from >>4816012 pb plus article CAPS: one from Morgan (posted pb but hard to read) and WaPo (new post). This info is complex; tried to make it accurate but plz read with care.''
EARLY SEPT 2018: NYT reporter Scott Shane attends an AET meeting where Mikey Dickerson & Sara Hudson detail the results of using social media to influence the 2017 Senatorial election in Alabama.
DEC 17:Both NYT and WaPo assert in splashy articles the results of "research" done by New Knowledge and others showing that Russian disinfo teams targeted the 2016 elections. Shane is lead author for NYT piece. Both articles righteously proclaim the need to guard against foreign interference in future elections. See CAP.
DEC 18: World Socialist website expresses skepticism about the "supposed" efforts of Russian to meddle in US elections. Reveals the name of the report given by NK to SSCI: "The Tactics & Tropes of the Internet Research Agency." See CAP.
DEC 18:Somehow, information is released (from somewhere) about "questionable tactics" being used in the 2017 Alabama Senate race. WaPo releases a very short article announcing this but does not give details how it knows.
DEC 19: Shane publishes the NYT "Secret Experiment" article indirectly referenced in Post 2635. Describes Project Birmingham but makes no mention about the role of AET, although Shane knew it in Sept (see below).
DEC 27: Buzzfeed publishes a story about Scott Shane being at a Sept 2018 conducted by AET, where Shane learns that that AET ran the anti-GOP fake bot campaign.
DEC 27 & 28: Sputnik runs 2 stories: first one discusses how New Knowledge sometimes mistakes real people for trolls; second one reports on Buzzfeed's claim of having a New Knowledge report that proves election meddling
DEC 31: World Socialist website summarizes events to date in a much less biased way than the US MSM; lots of DIGG leads here. See CAP.
JAN 2: Jonathon Morgan says his company only conducted a small experiment, nothing that could throw an election.
JAN 6: WaPo publishes an article referring to a 12-page doc titled "Project Birmingham," that seems to show Project Birmingham wasn't just an expt but an effort to throw an election.
JAN 11: In an interview, NYT author Shane "forgets" that AET organized Project Birmingham; implies it was done by New Knowledge. No mention of AET at all.