• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Fraudster fools Fox News, for 13 years.

catsmate

No longer the 1
catsmate
Joined
Apr 9, 2007
Messages
34,767
For the last thirteen years Fox News has trotted out one Wayne Simmons on dozens of occasions to express opinions on various matters of "national security", "anti-terrorism operations" and "international relations" based on his 27 year service with the CIA.
Except it was all a lie and Simmons has been charged with fraud. Not based on fooling Fox but rather because he managed to use his stories to obtain clearance to work as an advisor to US government personnel.
Simmons is also facing other fraud charges.

So don't believe what Fox tells you is still good advice.

CNN.
 
Wow. That is some failure of source vetting.
 
That's pretty bad, but I think the real scandal is how much cable news trots out supposed political pundits and experts in all manner of things who are not reliably expert in anything. Then whenever a liberal entertainment celebrity expresses political/public policy opinions, they trash them for not being qualified to speak on the topic.

Whenever I see someone on the TV labeled "terrorism expert," I know it's some schmo off the street who read a few magazine articles. My favorite example goes back to 1995 and the Oklahoma City bombing, when "terrorism expert" showed up on the TV and stated with confidence that the nature of the bombing, large vehicular explosive in front of a glass facade building, was the hallmark of middle east Arab terrorists, and therefore that's who did it.

Then, during the Iraq War (Cheney edition), the news channels were filled to the brim with "military experts" -- lots of former generals and colonels -- supporting the cause of the war and the performance of the Cheney/Rumsfeld debacle. It turned out that half of them were in the pay of the Pentagon.
 
Last edited:
hgc said:
That's pretty bad, but I think the real scandal is how much cable news trots out supposed political pundits and experts in all manner of things who are not reliably expert in anything. Then whenever a liberal entertainment celebrity expresses political/public policy opinions, they trash them for not being qualified to speak on the topic. Whenever a see someone on the TV labeled "terrorism expert," I know it's some schmo off the street who read a few magazine articles. My favorite example goes back to 1995 and the Oklahoma City bombing, when "terrorism expert" showed up on the TV and stated with confidence that the nature of the bombing, large vehicular explosive in front of a glass facade building, was the hallmark of middle east Arab terrorists, and therefore that's who did it.
Click to expand...

And remember the DC sniper case? All those "profilers" appearing on TV, swearing up and down that in their expert opinion it just had to be a white man in his twenties.
 
hgc said:
Then, during the Iraq War (Cheney edition), the news channels were fill to the brim with "military experts" supporting the cause of the war and the performance of the Cheney/Rumsfeld debacle. It turned out that half of them were in the pay of the Pentagon.
Click to expand...

Doesn't that rather suggest that they were military experts?

Dave
 
Dave Rogers said:
Doesn't that rather suggest that they were military experts?

Dave
Click to expand...


No, not necessarily. But even if they were expert on the topic, they were there to propagandize for the war and the administration under the guise of supposed expertise.

In retrospect, if they truly believed the piffle they were propelling, they were massively incompetent as experts.
 
hgc said:
That's pretty bad, but I think the real scandal is how much cable news trots out supposed political pundits and experts in all manner of things who are not reliably expert in anything. Then whenever a liberal entertainment celebrity expresses political/public policy opinions, they trash them for not being qualified to speak on the topic.
Click to expand...
Well, people like Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh and Coulter seem to have made a good living out of exactly the same gig, and none of them are qualified in anything they talk about either. In fact even less so than this guy. But I suspect they won't see it that way at all.
 
Yikes. I bet this is going to make all the other phony experts they have on staff nervous.
 
From the article, it appears he fooled a great many others besides FOX.
And let's not forget this is being reported by CNN, a network that actually brought on an 'expert' who claimed a missing airliner was sucked into a tiny black hole caused by the Supercollider. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
It just proves what we've known all along: you can't trust anyone from the CIA, even if they aren't from the CIA.
 
Norman Alexander said:
Nope. They are way too dumb and self-absorbed to realise this might apply to them too.
Click to expand...

That's just the thing. Most of these faux experts aren't actually presenting a fraudulent resume. The real fraud is on the part of the news outlets that make their bread and butter on political punditry and special interest shilling, but like to dress it up as policy expertise. Real experts and relevant topics tend to be boring -- of no interest to a mass audience.
 
hgc said:
. . . experts in all manner of things who are not reliably expert in anything.
Click to expand...

When Fox aired their show about how we never landed on the moon, they presented Ralph Rene as a "Scientist." When I knew him in the early 1980s he was a disabled construction worker. He might have gained a degree in science in the interim but somehow I doubt it.
 
Mr. Simmons' web site indicates he is also a published author, having co-wrote a novel called The Natanz Directive. I liked one of the reviews mentioning the hero making a "clandestine SR-71 flight to Paris". Nothing says stealthy unobtrusive master spycraft like taking a Mach 3 Buck Rogers-looking reconnaissance jet into Le Bourget. Presumably they passed it off as an Air France Airbus.

But who am I to judge? After all, as Donald Rumsfeld said in his review, "Wayne Simmons doesn't just write it. He lived it..."
 
Mike! said:
From the article, it appears he fooled a great many others besides FOX.
And let's not forget this is being reported by CNN, a network that actually brought on an 'expert' who claimed a missing airliner was sucked into a tiny black hole caused by the Supercollider. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Wow, I missed that one. Do you have a link?
 
sts60 said:
Mr. Simmons' web site indicates he is also a published author, having co-wrote a novel called The Natanz Directive. I liked one of the reviews mentioning the hero making a "clandestine SR-71 flight to Paris". Nothing says stealthy unobtrusive master spycraft like taking a Mach 3 Buck Rogers-looking reconnaissance jet into Le Bourget. Presumably they passed it off as an Air France Airbus.

But who am I to judge? After all, as Donald Rumsfeld said in his review, "Wayne Simmons doesn't just write it. He lived it..."
Click to expand...

It's easy to sneer when shooting at fish in a barrel
 
This may be an opportunity for someone to create a new service, like Snopes, except for vetting people's background claims.

Though perhaps the risk of lawsuits would be prohibitive.
 
I find it fascinating. I personally am often so insecure about my professional abilities, and yet I have all the expected education, credentials, and experience. How must it feel for a complete fraud? They must have a very different perspective from mine where it almost never bothers them.
 
Mike! said:
From the article, it appears he fooled a great many others besides FOX.
And let's not forget this is being reported by CNN, a network that actually brought on an 'expert' who claimed a missing airliner was sucked into a tiny black hole caused by the Supercollider. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

No, that's not what CNN did. One of their anchors read the black hole theory off twitter (along with the Bermuda Triangle and something akin to Lost) and the expert they had dismissed each theory as "preposterous".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom