Washington Post’s Crazy Iran War Conspiracy Theory

Why do so many Americans distrust the Washington Post? “Pro-Iran propaganda network gains traction with posts about Epstein” offers a tankerload of clues.

Social media is overflowing with bogus claims and A.I. videos related to the Iran War.   Prudent folks are already wary about any wild-eyed claims of total victory or glorious destruction they see online.  But can political shysters exploit the war to vaccinate President Trump against his biggest scandal?

Long before Trump partnered with Israel to attack Tehran, Democrats, libertarians, and even decent Americans warned that Trump would bomb Iran again to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein pedophile scandal.  Most American voters believe that “Trump launched the war on Iran at least in part to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal,” according to a new poll by DropSite News. Fifty-two percent of voters agreed with that statement, while 40% disagreed.

But according to the Washington Post, anyone who still complains about the Epstein scandal is propelling Iranian propaganda. Early in the Post article, the Post flourishes nuggets of wisdom from a certified Washington expert:  “There is a lot of Epstein-related content being pushed out to draw eyeballs… You come for the Epstein content, and you stay for the propaganda.” That quote is from Bret Schafer, who the Post identifies as a research director “at the nonprofit Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD)”.

The Post neglected to mention that nonprofit institute is bankrolled by the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. State Department.  If you can’t trust Pam Bondi and Marco Rubio to protect America from propaganda, who can you trust?

Touting a federally-funded entity as “independent” doesn’t count as propaganda because the Washington Post is the Oracle of Delphi, at least inside the Beltway.

The Post damn-near-breathlessly notes that “disinformation researchers have also taken note of the campaign to link U.S. and Israeli leaders to Epstein.” I was disappointed that the Post didn’t disprove any links between Trump and Epstein by slavishly quoting Trump’s denial that he’d ever been friends with Epstein (despite droves of video and photographic evidence to the contrary).

Later in the story, readers learn that “Posts on X that used the phrase ‘Epstein regime’ — a derogatory reference to the U.S.-Israel alliance — increased one hundred-fold on the first day of the missile strikes, said Emerson Brooking, director of strategy at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.”

The Post four-alarm story on propaganda fails to mention that the Atlantic Council is heavily funded by the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department.  Or does the Post consider such funding as proof that the Atlantic Council is trustworthy?

That passage in the story caught my eye because the Digital Forensic Research Lab sought to tar me as a Russian agent in 2024.  In a post headlined, “Russian Outlets Amplify Conspiracies,” the Lab warned that Zero Hedge “is actively reprinting content from fringe sources that claims the establishment is manipulating legal and electoral system to ‘steal’ the election. Examples include an article by James Bovard originally published in The American Conservative, which alleges legal efforts to protect voting rights are part of a Democrat conspiracy to enable fraud.”

So I was part of a Russian-linked conspiracy because I objected to states counting mail-in ballots that arrived with no postmark long after Election Day? Alas, my Rubles kickback never arrived.

Did a Washington Post editor simply tell reporter Will Oremus: “Round up the usual suspects” and presume readers would swallow whatever the Post shoveled?

No such luck: the article evoked a head-snapping hostile backlash from hundreds of readers:

“This sounds like something Trump and his gang would do to spread distrust about all the Epstein revelations.”

“Seems to me this article is pro-Trump regime propaganda. Labeling anti-trump criticism as somehow pro-Iran is a blatant lie.

“Wapo is the definition of gaslighting.”

“Pro-Iranian Media and Everyone Else on Earth With an IQ Larger Than Their Shoe Size Believes This War Was Started To Distract…”. Fixed your headline for you WAPO.”

The Post article catalogued Twitter/X accounts that posted deceptive or false videos connecting Trump to Epstein.  By contacting Twitter/X headquarters, the Post succeeded in getting several of those accounts banned.

But the Post has ignored or downplayed almost all the falsehoods that have permeated Trump and his administration’s tub-thumping for the war.  Trump changes the rationale and the goals for the war practically every daily news cycle.  Does the president continue to deserve deference regardless of often he brazenly contradicts himself?

In a Florida press conference on Monday, Trump was pressed by New York Times White House correspondent Shawn McCreesh on the U.S.  Tomahawk missile that killed more than a hundred girls at an Iranian school.  Trump falsely claimed that Iran had Tomahawk missiles.  McCreesh followed up: “Even your Defense secretary wouldn’t say that when he was asked standing over your shoulder on your plane on Saturday. Why are you the only person saying this?”

Trump replied, “Because I just don’t know enough about it.”

Actually, that is the storyline for Trump and the entire war so far. Will the Washington Post grant total absolution to Trump based on his near-total ignorance?

That Tomahawk story got better on Tuesday.  At a White House press briefing, Karoline Leavitt insisted that people should wait for the Department of War to issue their official storyline on how that girls school happened to get blown up. Then she asserted: “The president has a right to share his opinions with the American public.” The president has a First Amendment right to lie about U.S. war crimes, right?  Leavitt talked as if Trump is akin to an innocent bystander who witnessed a fender bender during rush hour.

Leavitt then revealed the Rosetta Stone for the entire war: “Frankly, we’re not going to be harassed by the new York Times, who has been putting out a lot of articles on this making claims [about the school bombing] that have been verified by the Department of War.”

The Trump administration supposedly still has a monopoly over defining truth – regardless of its deluge of false claims on Iran and the war in recent weeks. And anyone who exposes official falsehoods is guilty of “harassing” the politicians who are saving America.

Both sides in the war between Israel and the U.S. versus Iran will continue to deluge the world with propaganda. When the war ends and the smoke clears, it will become easier to recognize more of the falsehoods endlessly retweeted by insufficiently skeptical folks. But the Epstein scandal won’t go away no matter how many wild-eyed victory claims that Trump makes.

An earlier version of this piece was posted by the Libertarian Institute.

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