{"id":2685468,"date":"2026-10-16T08:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T12:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignhow-democrat-activists-conned-the-country-by-pretending-to-be-journalists\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T08:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T12:10:12","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignhow-democrat-activists-conned-the-country-by-pretending-to-be-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignhow-democrat-activists-conned-the-country-by-pretending-to-be-journalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem Activists Conned Americans By Pretending To Be &#8216;Journalists&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignhow-democrat-activists-conned-the-country-by-pretending-to-be-journalists%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2685468&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>This article reveals how certain media outlets and journalists have been deeply entangled in political and intelligence operations, particularly exemplified by Russiagate. It highlights past instances where journalists like Ken Dilanian and others had covert relationships with intelligence agencies, such as consulting with the CIA, raising questions about their independence. the piece details how major media organizations actively participated in manufacturing and spreading false narratives, including the discredited Trump-Russia collusion story, often working in concert with political operatives and intelligence officials. Specific cases, like ABC News\u2019s handling of Sergei Millian and the suppression of their interview, exemplify efforts to manipulate public perception. The article argues that these media participants are no longer functioning as unbiased journalists but are part of a larger &#8220;lawfare&#8221; machinery operating behind the headlines to influence politics and law.It calls for a paradigm shift, urging authorities to scrutinize media figures as active participants in this system rather than just as biased reporters, emphasizing the need for greater clarity and understanding of this hidden ecosystem.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>On Oct. 14, MS NOW\u2019s Ken Dilanian <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/alexchristy17\/status\/2110429365930504463\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> that FBI Director Kash Patel had secretly traveled to Russia for meetings with the Russian security service, the FSB. The sensational story was attributed to two anonymous sources and immediately suggested that the FBI director was involved in some sinister dealings with Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>There was just one problem. Patel was in Virginia, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FBI_Response\/status\/2110418419862610189\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">attending<\/a> an event at Liberty University. Within hours, Dilanian was forced to retract his report.<\/p>\n<p>What makes this episode particularly revealing is Dilanian\u2019s history. In 2014, The Intercept <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2014\/09\/04\/former-l-times-reporter-cleared-stories-cia-publication\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exposed<\/a> emails showing that Dilanian, then at the Los Angeles Times, had routinely submitted drafts of his articles to CIA officials for review before publication, even making changes based on their feedback. In one exchange, he sent a revised draft to his CIA contacts asking, \u201cDoes this look better?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At what point does it become absurd to keep treating people like this as journalists?<\/p>\n<p>There is an entire world operating behind the headlines that most Americans know almost nothing about. A world in which political operatives, intelligence officials, and the media work together in an interconnected system that manufactures scandals, destroys reputations, and unleashes the power of government against political opponents.<\/p>\n<p>Russiagate exposed this world, yet 10 years later, conservatives still talk about media bias, as though the problem were simply journalists who dislike Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The real problem is media lawfare. The media are embedded in the machinery itself, performing functions every bit as important as those carried out by political operatives and intelligence officials. And that machinery will never be understood or taken down so long as its media participants continue to be treated as journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Russiagate remains the prime example of how this machinery operates. Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 campaign manufactured the Trump-Russia collusion narrative and used its contractors, Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele, to disguise its allegations as independent intelligence. That much is now widely understood, at least among conservatives. What remains far less understood is that major media organizations were themselves integral to the operation.<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Post helped launch the Russia narrative in June 2016 with a breathless <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/russian-government-hackers-penetrated-dnc-stole-opposition-research-on-trump\/2016\/06\/14\/cf006cb4-316e-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> declaring that Russian hackers had stolen files from the Democratic National Committee. Years later, CrowdStrike Services\u2019 own president <a href=\"https:\/\/intelligence.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/shawn_henry_testimony_dec_5_2017.pdf#page=75\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">admitted<\/a> under oath that his firm had no evidence that the data had ever left the DNC\u2019s computers. Meanwhile, Fusion GPS worked <a href=\"https:\/\/fusion-gps.medium.com\/barry-meiers-spooked-ef502cceb1c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">directly<\/a> with New York Times editors and reporters, supplying material for the paper\u2019s false August 2016 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/08\/15\/us\/politics\/what-is-the-black-ledger.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">story<\/a> about Paul Manafort that directly led to his removal as Trump\u2019s campaign chairman.<\/p>\n<p>But perhaps the most revealing example involved ABC News and an innocent American businessman named Sergei Millian.<\/p>\n<p>In the summer of 2016, ABC\u2019s Matthew Mosk arranged for Millian, who was traveling in Asia, to return to New York for a July interview with Brian Ross. According to Fusion GPS\u2019s own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/sections\/news\/articles\/limited-hangout-lee-smith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">account<\/a>, its founders, Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, told ABC to get Millian on camera.<\/p>\n<p>The arrangement served two purposes. First, to obtain footage of Millian that could be weaponized against Trump. Second, it would bring Millian to New York at a specific time, allowing Steele\u2019s operative Igor Danchenko to meet him and subsequently attribute fabricated allegations of Trump-Russia collusion to him.<\/p>\n<p>Danchenko <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Swiftboating-America-Russiagate-Crossfire-Investigation-ebook\/dp\/B0D184GD2Z\/ref=books_amazonstores_desktop_nis_default?_encoding=UTF8&#038;pd_rd_w=LlcT8&#038;content-id=amzn1.sym.435556c5-06d7-4526-a37d-a99d4655f1b2&#038;pf_rd_p=435556c5-06d7-4526-a37d-a99d4655f1b2&#038;pf_rd_r=135-8088036-0140004&#038;pd_rd_wg=nruL4&#038;pd_rd_r=96f1c80d-3f27-4407-b000-235e1ba036b6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">traveled to New York but failed<\/a> to meet Millian. That failure was instrumental in exposing the fraud underlying Steele\u2019s central collusion allegation. The supposed source of the dossier\u2019s most explosive claims had never even spoken to the man who supposedly obtained them from him. The entire sourcing chain for the central conspiracy allegation was nonexistent.<\/p>\n<p>Mosk and Ross, meanwhile, got their interview. But ABC never broadcast it.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, two months later, on Sept. 22, <em>Good Morning America<\/em> suddenly <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/KGO_20160922_140000_Good_Morning_America\/start\/574.4\/end\/628.4?q=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">aired<\/a> a few carefully selected clips portraying ordinary real estate transactions involving Russian buyers as suspicious.<\/p>\n<p>That very same day, Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign released an attack <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HansMahncke\/status\/1947004996274254164\/photo\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">advertisement<\/a> featuring the ABC footage.<\/p>\n<p>The only inference that can be drawn is that ABC had supplied the footage to Clinton\u2019s operation in advance, with the <em>Good Morning America<\/em> broadcast providing a convenient alibi for how the campaign obtained it. After sitting on the interview for two months, ABC released precisely the material Clinton needed, on precisely the day she needed it.<\/p>\n<p>Millian understood that he had been set up. He accused Mosk of manipulating his statements, conducting the interview under false pretenses, and destroying his reputation. \u201cYou m[a]liciously lied to me,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SergeiMillian\/status\/1519708950685536256\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> Mosk.<\/p>\n<p>And these same so-called journalists reappeared in another Russiagate episode. On Dec. 1, 2017, Ross falsely <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/abc-news-statement-michael-flynn-report\/story?id=51536475\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> that Trump had \u201cinstructed\u201d Michael Flynn \u201cto contact Russian officials during the [presidential] campaign.\u201d ABC was forced to retract the claim and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/abc-news-reporter-brian-ross-suspended-serious-error-flynn-reporting-n825966\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suspend Ross<\/a>. Mosk <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/Politics\/michael-flynn-charged-making-false-statements-fbi-documents\/story?id=50849354&#038;cid=clicksource_4380645_1_hero_headlines_bsq_related\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">was also credited<\/a> on the report.<\/p>\n<p>Another revealing episode occurred in September 2016, when Clinton\u2019s contractors at Fusion GPS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2018\/03\/12\/christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">arranged<\/a> for Steele to brief supposed journalists from ABC, Yahoo News, The New York Times, and The New Yorker at Washington\u2019s Tabard Inn. The Washington Post received a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/21274481-220218-alfa-motion-for-extension#document\/p244\/a2085714.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">separate<\/a> briefing. Clinton\u2019s own operatives were personally introducing reporters to the man her campaign was paying to manufacture allegations against Trump. Yet none of those reporters disclosed the arrangement to their audiences. It took Devin Nunes\u2019 congressional <a href=\"https:\/\/intelligence.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/memo_and_white_house_letter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">investigation<\/a>, more than a year later, to begin exposing the connections that the media themselves had never seen fit to reveal.<\/p>\n<p>Two days later, Yahoo\u2019s Michael Isikoff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/u-s-intel-officials-probe-ties-between-trump-adviser-and-kremlin-175046002.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published<\/a> Steele\u2019s allegations against Carter Page, which the FBI subsequently cited in its surveillance application against Page. Clinton\u2019s political allegations had been turned into media stories and then used by federal investigators as apparent independent corroboration.<\/p>\n<p>After Trump\u2019s election, the process became even more brazen. FBI Director James Comey briefed Trump on salacious allegations from Steele\u2019s dossier, creating the official event CNN needed to report the story. Internal FBI correspondence <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsgac.senate.gov\/media\/reps\/johnson-releases-new-details-about-intel-briefing-on-steele-dossier-to-president-elect-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shows<\/a> that Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe were aware of how the briefing would provide CNN with its news hook.<\/p>\n<p>These were interconnected operations involving campaign contractors, intelligence officials, and media personnel, each playing a different role within the same machinery.<\/p>\n<p>And Russiagate was only the beginning. The Ukraine impeachment operation, CNN\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2159792\/cnn-reveals-second-crew-set-up-at-different-location-as-roger-stone-insists-network-was-tipped-off-about-fbi-raid\/?srsltid=AU7gw4XfDiJfAhPbJjeguoLhl5zlX_jywJf1LgpKoEUKKXaoul-IO59I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">presence<\/a> at the pre-dawn FBI raid on Roger Stone, the Trump indictments, and the Covid origins cover-up, including the \u201cProximal Origin\u201d paper, all involve deeply entangled working relationships between political operatives, government officials, intelligence agencies, and media organizations.<\/p>\n<p>There is an entire lawfare ecosystem whose participants, relationships, and methods remain largely hidden from public view. And nothing protects that ecosystem more effectively than the continuing fiction that its media participants are merely journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Which brings the story back to Ken Dilanian of MS NOW. On Oct. 13, just one day before his latest Russia story collapsed, federal Judge Timothy Kelly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/judge-extends-order-blocking-trump-030954600.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">extended<\/a> an order preserving White House access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, finding that the administration had likely violated their constitutional rights by excluding them over unfavorable coverage.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling illustrates how conservatives remain trapped in a fundamentally mistaken paradigm.<\/p>\n<p>Trump complains about fake news, DOJ argues about White House access, journalists invoke press freedom, and judges apply the same old precedents about viewpoint discrimination. The entire debate revolves around the supposed rights and privileges of journalists, when the fundamental question should be whether the individuals claiming those privileges are actually performing the functions of independent journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Take Marc Elias and Norm Eisen, two prominent figures in the political lawfare onslaught of the past decade. No one would seriously argue that either man has a constitutional right to access the West Wing to pursue his political objectives. Yet when media personnel perform essentially the same functions, participating in the same operations, pursuing the same objectives, and working toward the same outcomes, we are suddenly told that denying them access is an assault on the Constitution. The fact that one operates under a law firm\u2019s letterhead while another operates under the CNN or ABC logo changes absolutely nothing about the function being performed.<\/p>\n<p>And this is the point which conservatives have failed to grasp.<\/p>\n<p>The entire approach must change. DOJ must begin examining media personnel as participants in the lawfare machinery rather than framing cases around journalistic bias. The FCC must bring far greater scrutiny to the conduct of broadcast licensees implicated in these operations. Above all, the public must understand how this hidden ecosystem functions.<\/p>\n<p>For 10 years, conservatives have been fighting the wrong fight because they have fundamentally misunderstood the machinery they are up against.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Hans Mahncke is the founder of the Counterlawfare Institute. He holds LL.B., LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees in law. He is the author of  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Swiftboating-America-Russiagate-Crossfire-Investigation\/dp\/B0FNXCQ8KM\/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.DjUY7RzzAZSNTHfV6s3mDQ.po8ROEXuuEtP_ZSfZOTJoE1AzqwYsCuRG4SGgBJl_7U&#038;dib_tag=se&#038;keywords=%22Swiftboating+America%3A+Exposing+the+Russiagate+Fraud%2C+from+the+Steele+Dossier+to+the+FBI%27s+Crossfire+Hurricane+Investigation.%22&#038;qid=1759949638&#038;sr=8-1\">&#8220;Swiftboating America: Exposing the Russiagate Fraud, from the Steele Dossier to the FBI&#8217;s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation.&#8221;<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FBI chief Kash Patel&#8217;s Russia trip false, retracted story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1441,"featured_media":2685469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Copy-of-Untitled-7.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[14436,56358,5157,4188,3970],"class_list":["post-2685468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-activism","tag-deception-2","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-protests"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Copy-of-Untitled-7.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1441"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2685468"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2685472,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685468\/revisions\/2685472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2685469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2685468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2685468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2685468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}