Thursday, February 24, 2022

Caveat Emptor

 Tamara Lich, leader of the Ottawa Trucker Convoy, found dead in her cell – reports [More]

You'll note the link goes to the Internet Archive, as the "live" story link goes to a "Forbidden access" page. So does a search for "VancouverTimes.org."

So what's going on?

A search for "Vancouver Times" on Google produces nothing. It shows up on DuckDuckGo, but clicking the link gets another "Forbidden" result. 

Scam Detector gives the site a 58.5 out of 100 rating.

There is a "The Vancouver Times" Facebook page, but it gives the link as TheVancouverTimes.NET, and clicking on it results in a "This site can’t be reached" message. Reloading doesn't change that.

Going back to the original VancouverTimes.org link and checking it out on WhoIs shows a .ua domain, which is the country code for Ukraine, and shows it coming from Kyiv.

A "News" search shows no one else reporting on this.

Unless someone can come up with some evidence to the contrary, this appears to be suspect "news," in this case from a foreign source with strong incentives to stir up disinformation and anger in the West. If so, that's beyond irresponsible, it's evil, as people kneejerk believing it and not checking further to find the truth of the matter, particularly those of the "low-hanging fruit" variety, could be provoked into the type of violence that could discredit the Canadian trucker convoy and the U.S. version, already suspected in some corners to be loaded with provocateurs. That, in turn, could result in a retaliatory crackdown and discrediting of the entire effort. 

Bottom line: Beware of believing this without evidence. After all, we're supposed to be "the side" that believes in that and in due process. Would you expect any less from a juror evaluating your guilt or innocence? If you see anyone spreading this story, send them the link to this post and challenge them to account for all these discrepancies.

And if it eventually turns out the whole thing is true in spite of this, that means there's a whole 'nother and terrifying dynamic going on.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Am I wrong or is that a picture of Mr. Epstein's cell?

Henry said...

I can get to vancouvertimes.org no problem. Its top story right now is that Russian forces have killed the Ukrainian president(!). The site is lousy with "download me" and "Update your Flash" popups. All its IP addresses go through Cloudflare, which tells us nothing. Some of their articles are stolen verbatim from Daily Wire, complete with DW attributions. Conclusion: clickbait site.