Facebook and Google Algorithms Are the New ‘Useful Idiots’

On May 14, a little-known Donald Trump donor wrote an encouraging text message to a former Washington, D.C., cop. “Not to add any more pressure,” the donor, Ed Butowsky, texted Rod Wheeler, now a private investigator. “But the president just read the article. He wants the article out immediately.”

The article in question, which Fox News published two days later, claimed that Wheeler had uncovered evidence that a former Democratic National Committee staffer was the source of the WikiLeaked emails that helped win Trump the presidency. This was a bombshell, discrediting evidence that hackers close to the Russian government took those emails. (WikiLeaks has denied Russia was the source.) It also gave new life to a discredited viral conspiracy theory that someone connected to the Hillary Clinton campaign had killed DNC staffer Seth Rich. “This could become one of the biggest scandals in American history,” Sean Hannity declared on his show.