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XPost: ca.politics

A US network television host has plunged two-footed into the
conspiracy ether, claiming Putin pulled the strings on the
chemical attack in Syria.

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell is being ragged by all and sundry for
the seemingly batty "Wag the Dog" monologue he ran on his show
The Last Word this weekend.

O'Donnell posited the theory that Vladimir Putin engineered the
gas attacks in Syria so Donald Trump would retaliate, and in
turn Trump would look good because what's good for Trump is good
for Putin.

As proof of this theory, O'Donnell rightly said that it would be
impossible for anyone to prove that it isn't true.

"Wouldn't it be nice," O'Donnell said to stablemate Rachel
Maddow (who has already made a fool of herself this year), "if
it was just completely, totally, absolutely impossible to
suspect that Vladimir Putin orchestrated what happened in Syria
this week…?"

Never before in history, O'Donnell declared, has such a
suspicion – who appears to be strongly inspired by a blog called
the Palmer Report – seemed so feasible.

Ever since the attack "conspiracy theorists" on both the left
and right have been playing with unsubstantiated variations on
this story.

Indeed, some of the terms and phrases bandied around by
O'Donnell, like "false flag" and "this changes everything", are
staples of the fringe lexicon usually avoided by TV hosts…but
what if O'Donnell is actually running a false flag operation of
his own?

As a career newsman, surely O'Donnell must lament the old guard
being stripped of all credibility under the brand of "fake
news". What if his mad-eyed rant is actually an ingenious gambit
to get people to believe in the news again?

Maybe – and this is speculation, but it can't be disproven –
O'Donnell thinks that if he offers up some alternative facts of
his own, the credibility of MSNBC will be restored.

Because what's bad for the major networks is good for the
public. But it's good for the major networks too because they
need the public to keep talking about them, for good or ill.

If true, this changes everything. Or nothing.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2017

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2017/04/10/08/30/msnbc-lawrence- odonnell-wag-the-dog-conspiracy-theory-on-the-last-word
 

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