Brian Klaas writes:

In a newly released report, U.S. intelligence agencies outline how Russia yet again sought to subvert American democracy. The findings confirm that the Kremlin tried to plant damaging disinformation about Joe Biden among associates of then-President Donald Trump.

That report and others that preceded it are important, because the foreign threat to American democracy is real and growing. But they should not distract us from a disturbing reality: The most serious danger to the United States from the Russian propaganda playbook doesn’t come from Moscow. It comes from Manhattan, where Fox News prime-time hosts broadcast conspiracy theories and disinformation while mimicking tactics that insiders in Russian media easily recognize.

One person who finds the United States’ right-wing media ecosystem all too familiar is Peter Pomerantsev, who was born in the Soviet Union but fled and later settled in London. When Pomerantsev was in his 20s, he decided to return to Russia. He soon landed a plum job at the heart of Russian television production.

While Pomerantsev worked in entertainment TV, he regularly swapped stories with colleagues who were focused on “news” production— which was laced with state propaganda. Pomerantsev describes how they attended Friday meetings used to set Kremlin-backed news agendas for the following week. [Continue reading…]