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"Troubling questions surround BBC ‘disinformation correspondent’ Marianna Spring"
Latest comment: 1 year ago7 comments4 people in discussion
Greyzone have raised concerns with evidence about Marianna, her background and her reporting here. I can't post it in the article because, I assume, Grayzone is not a reliable source, however I think these things should be aired, if only as the concern of Grayzone and others. Especially given Marianna's role as Disinformation & Social Media Correspondent for the BBC. I should add that one of Grayzone's concerns is about editing of her Wikipedia page by certain editors. 2A02:C7C:5B52:EF00:8D38:C4C7:90C5:39D5 (talk) 13:30, 2 June 2023 (UTC)Reply
I have not edited this page so let me respond. Well, you said it yourself "Grayzone is not a reliable source", is not an assumption, it is a well documented fact. find a reliable source and I will add this information myself. FuzzyMagma (talk) 11:01, 4 June 2023 (UTC)Reply
Interesting. I think there are 2 initial stages to this:
1) Identify what the Grazobne allegations are (unfortunately the Grayzone can be opaque)
I'll have a go at 1 now. The allegations seem to be:
a) "Verify is managing bogus personae on social networks in the manner of the British Army’s 77th Brigade, or the Pentagon’s Operation Earnest Voice"
b) Marianna studied at Oxford "during the period when disgraced former MI6 chief Richard Dearlove served as its master" However this does seem tenuous even if correct.
c) "While [a student at Oxford], she spent an extended period in Russia, working for the Western-funded Moscow Times.
d) "Her LinkedIn profile has been cached by the Internet Archive suspiciously few times since its creation, suggesting certain captures may have been scrubbed upon request." Again this one seems tenuous even if true.
e) "There can be little doubt Spring’s online footprint elsewhere has been subjected to a dedicated cleanup operation. One of the most prolific editors of her Wikipedia page is the mysterious ‘Philip Cross’ ..". Wikipedia logs may be a source for this. Note that Grayzone provide a BBC source about Phillip Cross: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-44495696 which may assist.
f)"Spring’s proximity to the British intelligence sector was highlighted by a shadowy Foreign Office contractor, Amil Khan, when he proposed her as a potential participant in a meeting aimed at devising methods to destroy this outlet, The Grayzone." Grayzone show an email which I will try and find WP:RS for.
g) "Spring relied heavily on an incestuous cluster of shadowy state-funded organizations to bolster her reporting. Foremost among them was the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a shadowy NATO state contractor that reaps millions to research supposed “disinformation”. I'll try and WP:RS this.
h) "Spring and the BBC routinely cited the ISD’s dubious research as proof that a cesspool of “extremist political and fringe medical communities” were working to “exploit the pandemic” for malicious purposes." There ia a quote within the quote there, I assume Greayzone got it from the BBC so shouldn't be too hard to locate.
i) "ISD and Spring presided over a concerted effort to falsely link British lockdown critics to the deranged US QAnon movement.". Grayzone provide 2 links, give me time to check them.
I think I said, I'll identify the claims and if I can find a suitable WP:RS for any, and if they are notable not tenuous, I'll put them in the article. Putting in correctly referenced information isn't WP:OR. I don't plan on any WP:OR.~~ 212.205.241.114 (talk) 21:06, 18 June 2023 (UTC)Reply