Gordon Duff, the arrogant, big-mouthed editor of the news website Veterans Today, recently made a surprising admission on an alternative talk show. So surprising was this admission, that it confirmed what many followers of alternative media had long suspected; that Duff was an “agent,” or propagator of disinformation.

Of course, the claim in question is Duff in his own words, admitting that he purposely writes 40% false information in his articles and editorials on Veterans Today. Interviewed on the October 12, 2012 broadcast of Mike Harris’ Short End of The Stick, which at the time was carried by Republic Broadcasting Network (archived here), Duff made the following statements:

I don’t know know any imaginable way you can get information…First of all…Because, about 30%, based on what I believe…and you know what? Who says I’m right? According to my belief, and I have as good of, uh access to information as anyone in the world, probably, anyone I know of. About 30% of what’s written on Veterans Today, is patently false. About 40% of what I write, is at least purposely, partially false, because if I didn’t write false information I wouldn’t be alive. I simply have to do that. I write…anything I write I write between the lines.

An mp3of the entire broadcast has been archived at the blog, Grizzom, and for your convenience the time-stamp for the above claim is  70m35s into the recording. The admission also appears to corroborate a charge made by anti-Zionist Jeffrey Blankfort that Duff “is definitely some kind of liar, either accidental or intentional.”

On November 6, a short two minute edit of the broadcast was cobbled together along with a bit of annoying background noise at the intro and outro of the clip, and uploaded to the account of YouTube member rubixlucifer. The video was entitled “Gordon Duff of Veterans Today Admits To Writing 40% False Informat...

After the video began circulating widely through the alternative media, Duff appeared to no longer want to stand by his admission that a significant amount of his writing was, or is intentionally false.

Veterans Today then launched a fairly extensive, over-the-top damage control campaign over the following days in response to the video. Participating members involved in the attempt to censor, deny, obfuscate, explain away, the video include the aforementioned Mike Harris, Kevin Barrett of Truth Jihad Radio, alternative news giant Jeff Rense of Rense.com and the Rense Radio Network, and of course Duff himself.

As previously mentioned, many in the so-called alternative media have noted that Duff’s musings on various topics, whether on radio or in print, have long appeared to be questionable. Due to the cartoonish denial from Duff and his associates, Under The Radar Media deemed it appropriate to document a factual account of the controversy for the record.

Coverup Begins as YouTube Pulls the Offending Video

 On November 9, 2012 (or possibly the day prior), Mike Harris, a Veterans Today staff writer and host of the Republic Broadcasting Network’s (RBN) Short End of the Stick, filed a copyright claim on the video “Gordon Duff of Veterans Today Admits To Writing 40% False Information,” and it was subsequently pulled from YouTube. As one Internet commenter noted, it’s the coverup that always gives them away, and the fact that the video was indeed pulled is a sure sign of guilt.

One slightly different version with of the original video with Duff’s claim featuring additional commentary can still be found on YouTube.

Under The Radar Media was previously unaware of Mike Harris and his radio program, and it appears that Harris stopped broadcasting his program on RBN shortly after October 12, 2012. According to several RBN subscribers, the October 12 broadcast of Short End of the Stick, as well as other broadcasts are no longer available at the archives of RBN.

Although it appears that Harris has not written anything for Veterans Today since May 2012, he is still listed as one of its staff writers. Harris has appeared on the Rense Radio Show, in November 2012, where Rense informed his audiences that Harris would be hosting his show on the Rense Radio Network.

Whitewash Continues With Kevin Barrett Dutifully at the Helm

The same day that the video was pulled, Duff appeared at beginning of hour 2 of Kevin Barrett’s of Truth Jihad, which broadcasts on American Freedom Radio (archived here, mp3 here). Barrett states that he invited Duff to appear because his scheduled guest was a no-show. The topic of focus was to be the resignation of then CIA director David Petraeus, although a considerable amount of time was spent discussing the “controversy” surrounding the video. Both Barrett and Duff were jovial as they attempted to make light of the issue.

Duff alleges that audio portions of video had been cut from the original broadcast and that his words had been spliced together (time stamp 4m34s). Duff admitted that he had neither seen the video nor had he gone back to review the audio from the broadcast, but that Mike Harris told him that the audio was overdubbed and that “it wasn’t real.” Once again, feel free to refer to the time stamp 70m35s from the mp3 of the October 12, 2012 broadcast of Short End of the Stick to confirm that Duff’s claim is indeed, word for word as presented here.

The fact that Mike Harris had filed a copyright claim to have the video removed was not addressed.

Even more curious was Duff’s claim that the video”was initially received by” famed Holocaust® revisionist Dr. Fredrick Toben, formerly of the Adelaide Institute. Because of Toben’s trouble with various Jewish lobby groups over Holocaust® denial, Duff was presumably trying to and establish guilt by association in order to weaken the credibility of the video. Duff presented no evidence which suggests that Toben either received or distributed the video to other parties.

At one point, Barrett appeared to (rather gingerly) press Duff on whether he made the 40% claim or not, but eventually dropped the issue and went along with Duff’s story that the audio wasn’t real. Barrett warned his listeners not believe everything they read on the Internet, and later seemed to suggest that the Mossad was behind the video (time stamp 43m54s).

Jeff Rense Declares Bloggers Are Dangerous

On November 13, 2012, the damage control campaign resumed as Duff appeared on the Rense Radio show for two hours, with Jeff Rense playing the role of the strong closer. The video was immediately addressed at the beginning of hour 1 (archived here, mp3 here).

Once again, Duff admitted that he still had not reviewed the broadcast in question, and repeated the lie that the audio was a manipulation. Unlike Barrett’s lighthearted show, the Rense broadcast was tense, with Rense’s voice dripping with contempt and indignation that someone would dare use Duff’s own words in their proper context. However just like Barrett, Rense didn’t press Duff on what he said or didn’t say, but instead stood in staunch support of Duff’s continuing obfuscation of his claims about the video being false. 

Again, the fact that Mike Harris filed a copyright claim to have the video removed was not addressed.

Duff also continued to display his bizarre fixation with Dr. Toben, and continued to suggest that Toben was involved in the creation and distribution of the video. Duff then told a strange, admittedly gossipy story about once having Toben as a dinner guest where Toben was alleged to have espoused a far-fetched theory on the AIDS virus. Duff made it clear that he neither liked nor trusted Toben. In fact, both Rense and Duff took the opportunity to take cryptic potshots at various Internet writers and alternative media personalities during the broadcast. 

Rense then engaged in a textbook disinformation tactic and proceeded to build a straw man over Duff’s story on AIDS, and lamented on how the Internet is filled with misinformation or disinformation. The idea, it seemed was to distract from the issue, and to prop up Duff’s lie about the audio being chopped up and overdubbed.

At 3m06s into the broadcast Duff’s story of the 40% claim begins to change slightly. Duff’s new story was that if there was 40% false information to be found on Veterans Today, then it was the fault of his staff writers. He claimed that he gives his writers the freedom to post whatever they want, and that he simply does not have time to personally verify each and ever story from every writer. Rense quickly interjected and agreed that he too, gives his writers the same freedom and is unable to vet the claims from all of the writers whose articles appear on his website.

But the most outrageous, and perhaps most telling part of the program was at 10m22s into the broadcast, when Rense went on a tirade about his distaste for what he called “amateur bloggers,” how they harm innocent people and how dangerous the Internet really is with their malignant proliferation. This is most ironic since the writings of many amateur, but otherwise very talented bloggers have long appeared on Rense.com.

I’m fairly certain that there are at least a handful of Veterans Today staff writers who are indeed genuine individuals that are trying to put out good and honest information. At this point the genuine writers should be taking note of how Duff is so willing to casually throw them under the bus by blaming them for purposely putting out 40% false information on his site. 

By putting the blame on his staff writers for his loose lips, Duff effectively absolved himself of any wrongdoing, and the listeners were left with the impression that the video was indeed a put up job. Rense and Duff then positioned themselves to be the ones with good intentions while also allowing themselves the luxury of plausible deniability should they ever again get caught in a similar situation. Very sneaky.

Conclusion

Gordon Duff claims that Veterans Today’s intended audience is not the alternative news community, but rather the international military and intelligence community. If this is true, then it begs the question, “why does Gordon Duff appear on so many alternative radio broadcasts such as Rense Radio if his target audience is not the alternative news community, and why does Veterans Today feature prominent longtime members of the alternative news community?”

Gordon Duff also claims to be an a trained intelligence officer who runs an corporation that does intelligence work for major governments. If true, then this admission by Duff is arguably more questionable than his claim of intentionally writing 40% false information on Veterans Today. All freedom seeking veterans should at the very least be wary of any associations with Veterans Today, if not avoid them outright.