That would be, per this piece, pairing with Bellingcat.
For the unawares, Bellingcat is, contra how the Observer describes it, a Cold War 2.0 and Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ facilitator. See this Mark Ames Tweet, for example. Or see this retweet by Ames, noting that Bellingcat has gone radio-silent over Gaza. Wiki glosses over most of the challenges to Bellingcat reporting. Shock me; in related news, Wiki also glosses over Alexei Navalny's alt-right nationalism, Islamophobia and more. Update, March 1: Per this Ames Tweet, yep, Bellingcat hunting down left-wing German grannies instead of talking about Gaza is a hoot. Yes, per the NYT story, Daniella Klett was a fugitive. But, she'd done nothing in 40 years. Bellingcat could have bigger fish to fry if it wanted. And, a response Tweet to Ames notes that Bellingcat employs an ex-Stasi agent.
On Bellingcat in general? Read this for more. Even the New Republic notes that Bellingcat gets money from The National Endowment for Democracy, for doorknob's sake.
Was the Southern Poverty Law Center and its oft-overinflated (and pimped out) claims of "X is a hate group" not available as a reporting partner?
I would repeat the old joke about Bernard Rapoport turning over in his grave over the Observer, but that's been used by me so often that he would have bedspins. (Also, I don't know, vis-a-vis the Ames retweet, if he was a Zionist or not.)
Update, March 2: Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat has now blocked me, so, I can't, via Jeet Heer, see just how bad of hasbara he's spouting:
I remember when the hasbara was better. They're not even trying anymore. https://t.co/nKCvUmi9h5
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) March 2, 2024
There you go, if you can see it.
"Congrats" to the Observer, and any staffers who follow this blog still, or follow me on Twitter.
Let me add that an Internet search shows that MANY organizations besides Bellingcat have written about, and researched, the "Active Club movement." My comparison to the Southern Poverty Law Center didn't just come out of nowhere.
And, one Observer staffer who had followed me on Twitter, and perhaps was a follower of this blog by RSS? Editor-in-chief Gabriel Arana is now "the former," allegedly to help the Observer as it still loses money, and being replaced by fundraising staff apparently paid off what was his salary. Well, hs salary and two other editorial staff also canned. They were explicitly canned to free up money for fundraising staff. The first piece hints at unspecified additional reasons for Arana getting the boot. The two other staffers have spoken in support of the Observer. At the time, at least. Arana had radio silence. More in a separate post. That is now up. And, I wonder if wrangling over the Bellingcat partnership is part of what led Arana to get the boot.
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