Reading List: January 12, 2017

Thursday is here.

At The District Sentinel, Sam Knight reviews the Rex Tillerson Secretary of State confirmation hearings — and some of Tillerson’s more outlandish claims.

At the onset of his confirmation hearing, Rex Tillerson called the group “an agent for radical Islam like al-Qaeda…and certain elements within Iran.”

The assessment raises the possibility that the Trump administration will not eschew the sort of Islamophobia and authoritarianism that Trump himself promoted during the presidential campaign.

Republican advisers and lawmakers have, in recent years, pushed bizarre theories about the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, calling, at times, for crackdowns on the organization, modeled after dictatorial governments abroad.

David Bauder, at AP, explains that when it comes to Trump stories develop faster than facts can be checked. That’s going to present problems going forward for an incoming administration that has a combative relationship with the truth as it is.

Hours after news reports circulated that Trump had been briefed by intelligence officials about the existence of the dossier on him, BuzzFeed News published a summary of those allegations. It published despite its editor noting that there is reason to doubt the truth of them.

Most news organizations, including The Associated Press, held back on the specific allegations because they had not been substantiated.

But if critiquing the media is going to be done, it must be done right. At FAIR, Adam Johnson looks at how the US government has tried its hand at media criticism with the DNI report — and how that criticism failed.

Would the average American not think our democracy corrupt if it weren’t for the pesky Russians? If an idea we’ve been protected from seems plausible when we’re finally exposed to it, that in itself seems like evidence of a much broader systemic media failure.

Other ideas that the US government thinks are “supportive of [Russia’s] political agenda” are “broadcasting, hosting, and advertising third-party debates” by Green and Libertarian candidates. Serving those who feel underserved, politically, by our corporate media is here a subversive act in urgent need of Washington’s attention.

And at The New Republic, Clio Chang tells us about how Clinton ally David Brock is now ingratiating himself to the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party — and wonders if he should be trusted.

It is clear that Brock is working hard to position himself as a leader of the left in a post-Clinton order. Whether it’s because of the “American values” he claims to share with Sanders or the need to shore up his constellation of formerly pro-Clinton organizations is another question.

Finally, the aforementioned District Sentinel discusses Jared Kushner and more in their “Unanimous Dissent” radio show.

Tomorrow will be one week from the Trump inauguration. Get ready.