The NY Times just posted one of the most atrocious pieces of journalistic malpractice I have ever read.

From the militarytimes.com, Dec. 18, 2018:

“Russia is positioned to quickly defeat forward-deployed U.S. and NATO forces and grab land before reinforcements could arrive, according to a new paper from the Atlantic Council, an international affairs think tank.

We know why the Military-Intelligence-Industrial-Complex wants a confrontation with Russia: To justify their outrageous military budgets.
We know why the Democratic Party establishment is pushing the "Scary Russia!" meme: To distract the public from their utter and complete incompetence and failure.

But why is the news media buying into it?
I was watching this Chris Hedges interview and Robert Scheer made a good point 10 minutes in.

America you don't really want to go to war.
America it's them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia's power mad. She wants to take
our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader's Digest. Her wants our
auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.

Who is too blame for the rise of populist candidates?
The failure of neoliberalism?
Nope.
It's all because of Scary Putin.