"As Malley and representatives of the State Department, including Wendy Sherman and Secretary of State John Kerry, engaged in formal negotiations with the Iranians, to ratify details of a framework that had already been agreed upon, Rhodes’s war room did its work on Capitol Hill and with reporters. In the spring of last year, legions of arms-control experts began popping up at think tanks and on social media, and then became key sources for hundreds of often-clueless reporters. 'We created an echo chamber,' he admitted, when I asked him to explain the onslaught of freshly minted experts cheerleading for the deal. 'They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.'"
That comes from David Samuels' New York Times profile of Ben Rhodes, Obama administration deputy national security adviser, published one year ago.
How did the pro-Iran deal echo chamber work in practice? Omri Ceren of The Israel Project uses a current example—a coordinated attack on the reporter who exposed a secret giveaway to Iran hidden in the nuclear deal—to lift the curtain on the mechanics of the echo chamber.
How the Iran echo chamber is coordinating attacks vs @JoshMeyerDC for story on Iran side deal that killed yrs of anti-nuke work
A thread 1/ pic.twitter.com/AjjeVR258j
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
Echo chamber built to mislead about goal of Iran diplomacy, which was realignment. A key funding hub: Ploughshares Fund (@plough_shares) 2/ pic.twitter.com/Yl2eDWu8QI
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
During Obama, echo chamber learned to attack reporters for news about deal flaws. Did it to NYT on Iran cheating & AP on self-inspections 3/ pic.twitter.com/BnQEPtfJP2
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
Now they're doing it to @JoshMeyerDC for story showing Obama kneecapped and reversed yrs of DOJ work vs Iran nuke devt, to get Iran deal. 4/
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
Day after @JoshMeyerDC story they sent around an email with oppo and talking points vs story and sources. Here is the email: 5/ pic.twitter.com/KQpqPRphWJ
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
Email was sent by Global Progressive Hub (@globalprogress), which is project of Center for Intl Policy, which is funded by Ploughshares 6/ pic.twitter.com/sLLqBzJ1TQ
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
.@globalprogress Global Progressive Hub used mailing list infrastructure from ReThink Media (@rethink_media), which is funded by Ploughshares 7/ pic.twitter.com/FAvL8ObOAs
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
Email talking pts were reprinted as analysis by Trita Parsi (@tparsi), president of NIAC (@NIACouncil), which is funded by Ploughshares 8/ pic.twitter.com/ihgLRdPCHD
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
Then that Parsi article that reprinted email talking pts was tweeted around by Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione), who is pres of Ploughshares 9/ pic.twitter.com/GRwbxYiIEY
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
Ploughshares gives millions of dollars across dozens of orgs to create false appearance of expert consensus. Just 2016 public disclosure 10/ pic.twitter.com/xaoXV9snXF
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
Been like this for yrs. Random 2015 "this deal or war" post on Center for Intl Pol (praising other echo chamber orgs incl Ploughshares) 12/ pic.twitter.com/UGswtZ6xhd
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
Reporters know Ploughshares pays lobbies, think tanks, comms & media to echo pro-Iran talking pts - incl attacks vs other reporters 13/
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
Reporters also know how echoing happens bc they're helping: they take pitches from Ploughshares orgs to quote other Ploughshares orgs 14/
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017
But reporters play along. Publish pro-Iran echo chamber nonsense, which they knew is nonsense, from orgs that attack reporters. Weird. 15/15
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 1, 2017