Drew Sullivan is unknown to the broad public, but the head of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project is one of the most influential journalists in the world.
I imagine OCCRP has not made any mention of the data that Wikkileaks has found; it is very telling that the organization only spots corruption outside the US....it has not found any corruption in the DOD?????? Which cannot pass an audit?.
It does seem though that Wikileaks and OCCRP are mirror orgs though, in that one only focuses on the US the other only on non-US.
It would have been a good addition to summarize all articles by OCCRP in terms of geography, and address the question of what's missing (the US). It is in the article to some extent, but could be made more clearly and explicitly
It smells and sounds fishy. The Wikileaks story in the last few paragraphs is the strongest evidence of that. And all the focus on Russia, one of the top US declared enemies. Funding journalism that aligns with US interests doesn't seem at all to be independent, investigative journalism. Bottom line about US support for 'democracy' is that it only supports 'democracy' in instances that advance US hegemonic control. Look at Gaza: no evidence the US supports 'democracy', but rather, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide. The article mentions David Petraeus connected to all this tangentially. I just read a horrible account of Petraeus and other US military commanders in both Iraq and Afghanistan chronically lying for years about the 'success' those two major American military campaigns were having...against all the evidence the officer who made the claim observed firsthand, in Bacevich's and Sjursen's "Paths of Dissent: Soldier's Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars". It smells and sounds fishy.
I admit to not knowing OCCRP existed. Your ability to better inform people like myself while at the same time pissing people off on a global scale is second to none.
It is the function of the intellectual [journalist] in any society not to be an uncritical "patriot" of the regime but rather to point out the flaws and discrepancies between what a nation professes and what it actually practices. For no nation lives up to its public statements. https://www.oldsoftware.com/Duty%20of%20Intellectuals.html
Investigative journalists cannot reply on one main source of funding and be uncritical. Although this organization is able to do some good work, this is not enough. If you have been following the commercial media you can see (for example, follow reporting on the Israel/Gaza war) how much is left out and how much is misinformation. Look to who funds commercial media. We need a media free of corporate and the one percent control. Investigative journalists need to be free of mostly one-source funding.
I share the concerns about how an arrangement like this works in the real world, I’m just struggling to understand the significance of this story, assuming the news coming out of this org is factual.
If shady actors come to light via these means don’t we all win? I’m with everyone else who wants to know the corruption happening in our own government, but can we really expect our own government to be accountable to themselves? What’s stopping another country, private donors, etc. from funding a similar organization and getting this kind of intel on the shady dealings of the USG? I’d throw some money into that, heck my paid subscription to Drop Site is that idea in action.
I’m just trying to figure out why I should be outraged by this assuming they’re not producing fake stories. I’ll reiterate, I don’t love the idea of our government funding entities like this. It just seems to rank lower on my list of concerns given the number of pressing issues facing us as a society.
I think the reason is just cause it's the right thing to do. This story exposes another possible effort from the U.S to undermine "democracy", one that is trivial compared to the genocide in Gaza. Journalists involved in this investigation received legal threats, so maybe Drop Site just wanted to help their fellows while exposing the nonsensical punishments big officials place on people just doing perfectly ethical investigations.
Still, if I overthink hard enough I can still see the usual dark picture painted by these stories. I really, really do not want to replace REAL journalism with a bunch of government -funded CIA-liked investigations used everyday in political mudslinging competitions. Reporting half truths, even if they are all concrete facts that expose corruption, can be just as damaging as disinformation because lies that are sprinkled with facts work best to undermine what whole truths can bring about. You see it all the time in politics especially about Gaza where people state some facts about the wrongdoings of a few along with a slew of misinformation and then conclude that drone strikes/military coup/genocide/segragation is the answer.
I imagine OCCRP has not made any mention of the data that Wikkileaks has found; it is very telling that the organization only spots corruption outside the US....it has not found any corruption in the DOD?????? Which cannot pass an audit?.
It does seem though that Wikileaks and OCCRP are mirror orgs though, in that one only focuses on the US the other only on non-US.
It would have been a good addition to summarize all articles by OCCRP in terms of geography, and address the question of what's missing (the US). It is in the article to some extent, but could be made more clearly and explicitly
Very informative!
It smells and sounds fishy. The Wikileaks story in the last few paragraphs is the strongest evidence of that. And all the focus on Russia, one of the top US declared enemies. Funding journalism that aligns with US interests doesn't seem at all to be independent, investigative journalism. Bottom line about US support for 'democracy' is that it only supports 'democracy' in instances that advance US hegemonic control. Look at Gaza: no evidence the US supports 'democracy', but rather, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide. The article mentions David Petraeus connected to all this tangentially. I just read a horrible account of Petraeus and other US military commanders in both Iraq and Afghanistan chronically lying for years about the 'success' those two major American military campaigns were having...against all the evidence the officer who made the claim observed firsthand, in Bacevich's and Sjursen's "Paths of Dissent: Soldier's Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars". It smells and sounds fishy.
Wonderful article about something else that I had no idea existed. Thank you for the insight.
I admit to not knowing OCCRP existed. Your ability to better inform people like myself while at the same time pissing people off on a global scale is second to none.
It is the function of the intellectual [journalist] in any society not to be an uncritical "patriot" of the regime but rather to point out the flaws and discrepancies between what a nation professes and what it actually practices. For no nation lives up to its public statements. https://www.oldsoftware.com/Duty%20of%20Intellectuals.html
Investigative journalists cannot reply on one main source of funding and be uncritical. Although this organization is able to do some good work, this is not enough. If you have been following the commercial media you can see (for example, follow reporting on the Israel/Gaza war) how much is left out and how much is misinformation. Look to who funds commercial media. We need a media free of corporate and the one percent control. Investigative journalists need to be free of mostly one-source funding.
Apropos:
https://www.leefang.com/p/pardon-shields-hunter-biden-from?publication_id=1239256&utm_campaign=email-post-title&r=3nuq7x&utm_medium=email
I share the concerns about how an arrangement like this works in the real world, I’m just struggling to understand the significance of this story, assuming the news coming out of this org is factual.
If shady actors come to light via these means don’t we all win? I’m with everyone else who wants to know the corruption happening in our own government, but can we really expect our own government to be accountable to themselves? What’s stopping another country, private donors, etc. from funding a similar organization and getting this kind of intel on the shady dealings of the USG? I’d throw some money into that, heck my paid subscription to Drop Site is that idea in action.
I’m just trying to figure out why I should be outraged by this assuming they’re not producing fake stories. I’ll reiterate, I don’t love the idea of our government funding entities like this. It just seems to rank lower on my list of concerns given the number of pressing issues facing us as a society.
I think the reason is just cause it's the right thing to do. This story exposes another possible effort from the U.S to undermine "democracy", one that is trivial compared to the genocide in Gaza. Journalists involved in this investigation received legal threats, so maybe Drop Site just wanted to help their fellows while exposing the nonsensical punishments big officials place on people just doing perfectly ethical investigations.
Still, if I overthink hard enough I can still see the usual dark picture painted by these stories. I really, really do not want to replace REAL journalism with a bunch of government -funded CIA-liked investigations used everyday in political mudslinging competitions. Reporting half truths, even if they are all concrete facts that expose corruption, can be just as damaging as disinformation because lies that are sprinkled with facts work best to undermine what whole truths can bring about. You see it all the time in politics especially about Gaza where people state some facts about the wrongdoings of a few along with a slew of misinformation and then conclude that drone strikes/military coup/genocide/segragation is the answer.