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A Mole Infiltrated the Highest Ranks of American Militias. This Is What He Found. (www.propublica.org)
submitted 21 hours ago by melp@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org
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A) "Reporting Highlights

A Freelance Vigilante: A wilderness survival trainer spent years undercover, climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t tell police or the FBI. He didn’t tell his family or friends. The Future of Militias: He penetrated a new generation of militia leaders, which included doctors and government attorneys. Experts say that militias could have a renaissance under Donald Trump. A Secret Trove: He sent ProPublica a massive trove of documents. The conversations that he secretly recorded give a unique, startling window into the militia movement."

B) There's also an audio version of the article for those who need vision asst or time asst.

C) The reason I shared this was William's record dump was just shared on ddosecrets this month - https://ddosecrets.com/article/paramilitary-leaks

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[-] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 12 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Williams is no shit a modern-day Thompson. I'm loving how much evidence he gathered (ProPublica didn't break the story), and how many ties to officials he found. The unfortunate part is it means fuck-all for the system as a whole.

Edit: maybe they did. I didn't realize this was a Jan. 4 piece, and it started sounding really familiar.

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 8 points 19 hours ago

It was a pro publica story. This is another case of mainstream news outlets not wanting to touch an important story, so a smaller outlet got the scoop. If this was the 70s the NYT or Washington Post would've jumped on this story, now I'm not sure if other outlets even covered pro publica's coverage of this story.

[-] remington@beehaw.org 7 points 19 hours ago

I have been coming to the realization that most of what we hear and read is highly suspect. We may never know what goes on in our world outside of our immediate communities.

[-] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 3 points 9 hours ago

Thank god Gannett and Sinclair will make damn certain we don't even know what's going on locally.

[-] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 6 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Noam Chomsky would call that phenomena Manufacturing Consent, which highlights the importance of citizen controlled media, which has a much better (though not guaranteed) chance of accurately reporting on reality

[-] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 6 points 19 hours ago

Yeah, to go back to an era of the Fourth Estate doing its job would be nice. Instead, we have a Fourth Reich.

And look, I'm going to continue making that reference, because people need to understand where we are. And also that it doesn't end well.

I penned my first published piece in 1998. I am beyond fucking furious with where the media have gone.

[-] melp@beehaw.org 1 points 2 hours ago

I quit journalism as a profession for the same reason.

[-] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 1 points 1 hour ago

That's the truly insidious part. Consolidation led many of the better journalists to head for the exits, though that has nothing to do with the bullshit at the Post.

[-] Gerudo@lemm.ee 4 points 17 hours ago

I can't believe I made it through the whole article. What a wild ride.

[-] melp@beehaw.org 1 points 2 hours ago

I felt the same way but it was actually an easy read for my adhd butt.

[-] chuymatt@startrek.website 3 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

How did they see anything? And how did they not know he was a mole, what with those crazy nose whiskers and shovel shaped paws?

[-] melp@beehaw.org 2 points 2 hours ago

Maybe they were like uWu he's so cUUUUttttte!!!

this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
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