title: Russia-Gate Was All the Rage Across US Media – Where Did it Go and Why?
text: 21st Century Wire says Russia-gate was pushed by US media outlets everywhere   only to disappear after the highly questionable chemical attack in the Idlib province of Syria. The fact is, the media drums over the Trump-Russia story soon fell silent after a US military strike was ordered on the Syrian government s Shayrat Air Base and a Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) was dropped on Afghanistan.The US media had been floating the  blame Russia  meme for months, and even more conveniently during this past 2016 US presidential election cycle, before morphing into the dodgy dossier that included unverified Trump-Russia claims. Now after two neocon approved US military missile strikes in Syria and Afghanistan, the heavily propagandized and unproven Trump-Russian narrative vanished from headline news as soon as war theater increased in the Middle East.More on the story from Consortium News below Consortium News Exclusive: For five months, there was a daily drumbeat on Russia-gate, the sprawling conspiracy theory that Russia had somehow put Donald Trump in the White House, but suddenly the  scandal  disappeared, notes Robert Parry.By Robert ParryDemocrats, liberals and some progressives might be feeling a little perplexed over what has happened to Russia-gate, the story that pounded Donald Trump every day since his election last November   until April 4, that is.On April 4, Trump fully capitulated to the neoconservative bash-Russia narrative amid dubious claims about a chemical attack in Syria. On April 6, Trump fired off 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase; he also restored the neocon demand for  regime change  in Syria; and he alleged that Russia was possibly complicit in the supposed chemical attack.Since Trump took those actions   in accordance with the neocon desires for more  regime change  in the Middle East and a costly New Cold War with Russia   Russia-gate has almost vanished from the news.I did find a little story in the lower right-hand corner of page A12 of Saturday s New York Times about a still-eager Democratic congressman, Mike Quigley of Illinois, who spent a couple of days in Cyprus which attracted his interest because it is a known site for Russian money-laundering, but he seemed to leave more baffled than when he arrived. The more I learn, the more complex, layered and textured I see the Russia issue is   and that reinforces the need for professional full-time investigators,  Quigley said, suggesting that the investigation s failure to strike oil is not that the holes are dry but that he needs better drill bits.Yet, given all the hype and hullabaloo over Russia-gate, the folks who were led to believe that the vague and amorphous allegations were  bigger than Watergate  might now be feeling a little used. It appears they may have been sucked into a conspiracy frenzy in which the Establishment exploited their enthusiasm over the  scandal  in a clever maneuver to bludgeon an out-of-step new President back into line.If that s indeed the case, perhaps the most significant success of the Russia-gate ploy was the ouster of Trump s original National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was seen as a key proponent of a New D tente with Russia, and his replacement by General H.R. McMaster, a prot g  of neocon favorite, retired Gen. David Petraeus.Consortium News continues here READ MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV