https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/03/the-atlantic-published-an-unfounded-conspiracy-the.html
"A cloud of scandal hung over Tuesday’s announcement that the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign had hired investigative journalist David Sirota to fill the role of senior adviser and speechwriter. An article in The Atlantic by Edward-Isaac Dovere, titled “Bernie Sanders Just Hired His Twitter Attack Dog,” made the explosive claim that the veteran journalist had been secretly working for Sanders behind the scenes since December, and using his role as a journalist to attack the Vermont senator’s potential primary opponents.
“Since December, David Sirota has, on Twitter, on his own website, and in columns in The Guardian, been trashing most of Sanders’s Democratic opponents—all without disclosing his work with Sanders—and has been pushing back on critics by saying that he was criticizing the other Democrats as a journalist,” Dovere wrote, moving on to note that thousands of Sirota’s tweets had been deleted.
It was a story that seemed tailor-made to go viral—a political unmasking of a candidate whose brand was integrity while also playing up familiar tropes about his online supporters. In that regard, it did not disappoint—it was quickly picked up and regurgitated by multiple outlets, including The Washington Post and USA Today.
But there was a problem with Dovere’s bombshell: It wasn’t supported by any real evidence. The story hinged on an unverifiable quote which the speaker claims was misrepresented, along with innuendo stemming from the fact that Sirota deleted thousands of tweets following his employment. Paste spoke to multiple campaign insiders familiar with the matter, all of whom disputed Dovere’s timeline and narrative. Their accounts lined up with what we found through our own reporting on unrelated matters over the last few months. Other individuals have also come forward to publicly refute the article’s claims."
More at the link.
