Anyone seen that documentary on PBS? I only caught a bit of it (can't remember the name either) but it's about the presidential campaign. In particular the timing of events was crucial to what big stories received the most attention. Obama knew that the Russians had been interfering with the election and that it came with the highest authority, i.e. Putin. They were reticent about going that far in terms of releasing the details because Obama and his advisers were worried about an outgoing Democrat president influencing the election by releasing damaging links between the Republican candidate and foreign intervention from Russia. In the end the story stated that it was impossible that Putin couldn't have known, without actually detailing the proof that that he approved the whole thing (CIA had intercepted various communications showing as much). The story was still a big one though, a foreign state actively trying to influence the outcome of the US presidential election. But here's the thing, the story was released and was just beginning to gain leverage with all the networks when the story about the recording of Trump having the conversation about grabbing women by the crotch etc. also came out. The salacious nature of this almost completely buried the story about Russian influence before it was properly in the public consciousness. Then, when the Trump story was just dying down those heroic freedom fighters at Wikileaks (who weren't at all played by the Russians) started releasing the Russian hackers stuff.
