Excellent post, Mrzz, and I take a lot of your points. Particularly that it is rather laughable and ironic to talk about fiddling elections from the POV of a South American. Believe me, when George W. Bush was awarded the presidency by the Supreme Court in 2000, we could all see how FL was likely jiggered in a few different ways. In a state where the candidate's brother was the governor, and his father had been the head of the CIA...who better to know how to rig an election? We are not naive to this.
However, if you think if Russia was just using social media to influence the US elections...who's being naive, now? We know it was also selective leaks, and there could have been electronic fixing of the numbers...they were very close in key states. It wouldn't have taken much.
As to freedom of the press v. state-sponsored media, there are differences. There's the BBC in Britain. There's NPR and PBS in the US. But Putin has done a lot of work to dismantle the free press in Russia and go back to the old Pravda days. Maybe you don't believe that and think that they are all filled with journalists with the same esprit de liberté, one as the other. But there is a lot of evidence that the Russian ones are under a lot more scrutiny and strong-arm.
I cited social media as an example. That is the whole point, we don´t know -- and we are very far from knowing - the exact extent of the activities. We already discussed the question of the selective leaks -- is not that simple. About the eletronic fixing, that is a whole different story. This, if proven, or even if credible reasons for suspicious would be found, would be serious. Again, I never criticized the investigation in itself, but rather the public use of it (while nothing of substance has emerged).
It is a different story for two reasons: first, this would be really getting your hands dirty. Second, this is completely unrelated to any internet stuff. You operate it differently, you need people on the ground, the expertise is different... is really another ball game. From here it looks like that people are putting everything electronic on the same bag -- and that is what sounds silly. I saw the data from the election, there were also close calls in favor of the Democrats... those it prove anything? Again, I am not saying that I am positively sure that nothing happened, I am saying that the evidence given so far is poor. By the way, I do not think the Republicans would need, and that neither would want, Russian help to do such a thing... anyway, just a guess.
By the way, I am well aware of the fact that the Russian media is under the scrutiny of the state. As I said, I
assume that it is biased. I read too much SoljenÃtsin to forget this for a second (teddy is cursing me as he read this name...), but, on the same note, I know that is perfectly possible for people to find a way to go against the current from within the system. The Russians has been practicing this for over a century now.. My point is always that you need to reach for both sides in order to get closer to the truth, if there is such a thing as simple as "truth".