Patribotics

Patribotics is the blog of British-American independent investigative journalist Louise Mensch. The blog was launched in January 2017. In addition to hosting articles by Mensch, the site has occasionally hosted articles by tech expert Laurelai Bailey,[1] and articles jointly written by Mensch and Claude Taylor, a former official in Bill Clinton’s White House.[2]

Although some of the reports in Patribotics have been later confirmed by major mainstream news outlets, the blog is controversial, since Mensch's claims, theories, and hypotheses are cited to information from unnamed sources connected to the intelligence community. A few critics have considered the blog posts to be conspiracy theories.

Inception

Louise Mensch, a former British MP who moved from England to the U.S. in 2012,[3] launched Patribotics in January 2017, after stepping down as writer and manager of the news, opinion, and commentary site Heat Street, which she had co-launched in February 2016.[4][5][6]

In February 2017, Mensch told The Guardian that she moved from writing for Heat Street to her own blog site because she prefers the freedom of self-publishing; she stated, "I didn't want to be subject to an editing process. Editors would ask: who are your sources? And I can't tell them."[7] She said that she has been able to cultivate sources in the intelligence community because of her staunch advocacy of US and UK intelligence agencies following former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's revelations about mass surveillance.[7]

Reception

Mensch's inaugural post on Patribotics, titled "Dear Mr. Putin, Let’s Play Chess", was published January 17, 2017.[8][9] One month later Vanity Fair described it as a "must-read primer" on the Trump-Russia situation and "prescient as hell",[10] and GlobalSecurity.org quoted it extensively and described it as "well-informed".[11]

Mensch's February 14, 2017 article in Patribotics,[12] which elaborated her theory that the 2016 Anthony Weiner sexting scandal was a hoax perpetrated by Russian-led hackers who also planted Hillary Clinton's emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop, was criticized by several journalists and commentators as conspiracy theory.[13][14][15][16][17] On May 9, 2017, Russ Baker and two co-authors posted a month-long independent investigation of the Weiner scandal in the investigative news site WhoWhatWhy; the report mentions Mensch's article and parallels or supports some of her conclusions.[18][19][20] After national news outlets reported on May 19, 2017 that Weiner had pleaded guilty to transferring obscene materials to a minor,[21] Mensch added some corrections to her February 14 article.[22][12] On May 22, 2017, The Hill picked up and analyzed the WhoWhatWhy exposé,[20] and the political blog JPCvoice, citing The Hill, subsequently noted further parallels to Mensch's original Patribotics article.[23]

Several news outlets and journalists, including Keith Olbermann,[24][25] Inquisitr,[26][27][28][29][30][31] and others,[32][11][10] have cited Mensch's Trump-Russia Patribiotics articles as credible theories and informed speculation. Some outlets have posted details of assertions Mensch makes in Patribotics and have characterized them as being unsubstantiated theories with varying degrees of plausibility.[33][34][35][36][37]

Reviews of the blog as a whole have characterized it as being of mixed reliability,[38] with some of Mensch's statements therein having been later confirmed by major mainstream news outlets.[2][29][39][40][41][42][43] Some reviewers have asserted that Patribotics articles overall are conspiracy theories.[6][4][44]

References
  1. Vankin, Jonathan (March 15, 2017). "Wikileaks: Russia Could Now Spy On Anyone Who Reads Wikileaks Site, Report Says". Inquisitr. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  2. Swaine, Jon (May 16, 2017). "New fake news dilemma: sites publish real scoops amid mess of false reports". The Guardian. Retrieved May 27, 2017.
  3. Wintour, Patrick (August 6, 2012). "MP Louise Mensch resigns to move family to New York". The Guardian. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  4. Waldman, Katy (May 24, 2017). "The Rise of the Liberal Conspiracy Theorist". Slate. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  5. Gold, Hadas (January 5, 2017). "Louise Mensch no longer leading News Corp.'s Heat Street". Politico. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  6. Beauchamp, Zack (May 19, 2017). "Democrats are falling for fake news about Russia". Vox. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  7. Borger, Julian (February 17, 2017). "Louise Mensch: the former British MP who scooped US media on Trump's Russian ties". The Guardian. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  8. Mensch, Louise (January 17, 2017). "Dear Mr. Putin, Let's Play Chess". Patribotics. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  9. Fitzpatrick, Catherine A. (January 24, 2017). "What We're Reading". The Interpreter. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  10. Wolcott, James (February 21, 2017). "5 Essential Twitter Feeds For Keeping Up With Trump And Russia". Vanity Fair. Retrieved April 25, 2017.
  11. "FSB - Active Measures - aktivniye meropriyatiya". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  12. Mensch, Louise (February 14, 2017). "The Carolina Conspiracy". Patribotics. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  13. Isikoff, Michael (March 6, 2017). "The woman behind the story behind the Trump Twitter storm". Yahoo! News. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  14. Johnson, Adam (March 29, 2017). "Conspiracy Theorists Welcome in Corporate Media–if They Have the Right Targets". Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  15. Weindling, Jacob (March 29, 2017). "5 Twitter Accounts to Avoid When it Comes to Donald Trump's Russian Connections". Paste. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  16. Grove, Lloyd (March 8, 2017). "Is Conspiracy Queen Louise Mensch Right About Donald Trump?". The Daily Beast. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  17. Johnson, Adam / FAIR (March 30, 2017). "New Media Darling Louise Mensch Believes Putin Killed Andrew Breitbart... and Much More". AlterNet. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  18. Harvey, Matthew; Larsen, Jonathan Z.; Baker, Russ (May 9, 2017). "Exclusive: How Trump Backers Weaponized Anthony Weiner To Defeat Clinton". WhoWhatWhy. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  19. Harvey, Matthew; Larsen, Jonathan Z.; Baker, Russ / WhoWhatWhy (May 10, 2017). "Exclusive: How Trump Backers Weaponized Anthony Weiner to Defeat Clinton". AlterNet. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  20. Shelbourne, Mallory (May 22, 2017). "Report: Girl in Weiner sexting case lied to damage Clinton". The Hill. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  21. Weiser, Benjamin; Rashbaum, William K. (May 19, 2017). "Anthony Weiner Pleads Guilty to Federal Obscenity Charge". New York Times. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  22. Mensch, Louise (February 4, 2017). "The Carolina Conspiracy". Patribotics. Archived from the original on April 18, 2017.
  23. Fender, Woody (May 23, 2017). "Dirty Tricks on Weiner's Laptop?". JPCvoice. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  24. "WATCH: Keith Olbermann Drops Bombshell 'Tape' Revelation About Trump Treason". LearnProgress.org. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  25. Howard, Greg (May 8, 2017). "Keith Olbermann Was Once Cable News's Liberal Standard-Bearer. Now He's Missing Its Boom Times". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  26. Beswick, Christine (March 4, 2017). "Donald Trump Russia Tip Sheet: Meet Carter Page And Other Key Players". Inquisitr. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  27. Vankin, Jonathan (March 28, 2017). "Trump Russia Scandal: Trump Caught On Tape With Russian Spy, New Report Claims". Inquisitr. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  28. Vankin, Jonathan (April 2, 2017). "Trump Impeachment: Trump Tower Server Holds Key To End Trump Term, Report Claims". Inquisitr. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  29. Vankin, Jonathan (May 17, 2017). "Trump Russia Indictment Rumors: U.S. Marshals Move on Trump After Hearing, Online Report Claims". Inquisitr. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  30. Francis, Nathan (May 20, 2017). "Impeachment Coming? House Judiciary Committee Reportedly Starting Process To Remove President". Inquisitr. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  31. Francis, Nathan (May 29, 2017). "Donald Trump Indictment: N.Y. Attorney General Reportedly Brought RICO Charges For Trump's Russian Mob Ties". Inquisitr. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  32. Perry, Douglas (April 17, 2017). "Why some national-security experts say Kremlin-gate will lead to Donald Trump's impeachment". The Oregonian. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  33. Edwards, David (April 17, 2017). "Conspiracy blogger: Carter Page went to Russia with secret recording of Trump asking Putin to hack election". The Raw Story. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  34. Ferguson, David (May 13, 2017). "Has a 'sealed indictment' been issued against President Trump?". The Raw Story. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  35. Woods, Baynard (April 17, 2017). "Democracy in Crisis: Move over Louise Mensch, Roger Stone has a Carter Page theory of his own". Baltimore City Paper. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  36. Longman, Martin (May 15, 2017). "Preet Bharara Is on the Warpath Against Trump". Washington Monthly. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  37. Blitzer, Ronn (May 30, 2017). "Report Says NY Attorney General's Case Led to Sealed Trump Indictment". LawNewz. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  38. Otero, JD, Vanessa (July 28, 2018). "Why Patribotics is all the way left (even though its author is a self-described conservative) and National Enquirer only skews right (even though its owner squashed a damaging Trump story)". ad fontes media. ad fontes media Inc. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  39. Guzior, Betsey (May 26, 2017). "Media: Rachel Maddow's job offer from Roger Ailes". BizWomen. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  40. Lanting, Bert (May 6, 2017). "Trump-jager Louise Mensch zal niet rusten voordat de president is afgezet". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  41. Perry, Douglas (May 19, 2017). "Donald Trump critic Louise Mensch vies for journalism respect while also pushing conspiracy theories". The Oregonian. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  42. Wolcott, James (Summer 2017). "Never Say Die: The #NeverTrumpers Still Waging War On Twitter". Vanity Fair. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  43. Dejean, Ashley; Levintova, Hannah; Vicens, AJ (June 1, 2017). "Hacker, Banker, Soldier, Spy: A Guide to the Key Players in the Trump-Russia Scandal". Mother Jones. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  44. Heer, Jeet (May 23, 2017). "No, Liberals Are Not Falling for Conspiracy Theories Just Like Conservatives Do". The New Republic. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
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