Not at all ... I do think there is a difference. Part of me liked the curtain being pulled back on some of the hypocrisy that it exposed.
IMO ... the DNC did a true disservice to their members in how they ran their primaries and drove to tip the scales in HRC's favor. Despite their efforts, I feel that had Bernie Sanders taken a tougher stance on the HRC email issue, &/or her performance at State, he might have gained momentum before he did and beat her in spite of the DNC's efforts.
The leaks also showed how many within the DNC really regard some of their key constituencies ... they aren't necessarily as truly accepting / inclusive as they would want people to think ... but they do like the votes from those constituencies.
Conspiracy theorist? No ... but he also is not receiving reports on it other than what is in the media.
That is possible, and I would imagine that is getting looked at. Tracing a cyber intrusion to point origin can be tricky, but I would say an insider-leak would likely involve a Snowden or Manning like copying of files from a server with a physical connection or legitimate credentials for system access; an insider wouldn't need to hop through several servers to do that ... could they to create a false flag, sure. Is it detectable? Yes. I can think that there may be an insider who is really good at that type of thing ... I also know first hand the people we have to do forensics on that type of thing are very good too.
Agree, there are reforms in the IC that need to be done. Largely the last 8-years have seen the politization of intelligence product to meet a predetermined policy or goal (happened during the Bush Administration too ... but not like this.) The current administration has ignored radical Islamic movements around the world to avoid the appearance of Islamaphobia ... There are people of diverse backgrounds all around the world that wish to do us harm ... the fact remains that the largest portion of those people are radical Muslims ... not being able to use those facts is stifling.
I don't see Flynn having too much impact unless Trump radically changes the role of the National Security Advisor ... some of which is limited because he is not confirmed by the Senate and won't have budgetary or policy authority over the IC.
I think a lot of people go there because they find a news source that presents news in a manner that aligns with their generally predetermined ideology. Also, smaller percentages of people go there because they don't agree with that ideology but to 'keep tabs' on the 'opposition' ... (some of my very .... VERY liberal friends watch a lot of FOX and read Breitbart for this reason).
Duped ... not quite. I think most people go to a conservative site wanting conservatively slanted news, same for people who go to liberal sites wanting liberally slanted news. I don't go to a seafood restaurant when I really have an appetite for Mexican food. I do think that too many people take what they get at face value and don't do research on what they are reading to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Hard term to define, I consider most of them 'legitimate', but I tend to know what I am getting when I look at MSNBC, or FoxNews, or Breitbart. As I have said, I do consume mainstream media in many cases as a jumping off point to actually research things. Depending on the topic I get a lot of data from work, I do work in the IC so I get a lot of tactical & operational reporting before it is ran out at the strategic level (which is where I see more politization).
The Hill: Conservative leaning, its writers and columnists are folks like Lanny Davis and James Carville but their style of writing there is much more non-partisan and generally more intelligently written than stuff on MSNBC or Fox etc.
FactCheck.org: Good factual data.
Congressional Budget Office: their reports are really good sources of non-partisan data as it is presented to Congress prior to the individual offices spinning it.
Also, having worked on Capitol Hill, I regularly do read the text of legislation ... crazy thing ... reading the bills and laws that effect our country.
I don't regularly peruse the National Enquirer unless I am in the check out line looking at the cover for a quick chuckle ... but it is also a fact that the National Enquirer was the first outlet to report that Sen. John Edwards had a mistress, a child with that mistress and had been stepping out on his wife for some time. They beat everyone to the punch on that ... and also report that Elvis was abducted by aliens to play a concert for JFK on their homeworld ...