Former US Ambassador to Russia: It's my job to regurgitate unconfirmed rumors

We touched on this here, but it really deserves a stand-alone post.

To recap: Earlier today, Stanford University professor Michael McFaul, who until February 2014 was United States’ ambassador to Russia, tweeted this:

Russian GRU officer Strelkov admitting that he ordered the missile strike against the Malaysian jet.

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) July 17, 2014

Note that McFaul did not qualify this report by calling it “unconfirmed” or a rumor.

If his goal was to spread this allegation (which may or may not be complete bullcrap), he did a great job of it. 2,300+ retweets and counting!

For a moment, he seemed almost apologetic:

@msbcw agree

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) July 17, 2014

@LucieSnape yes. Now I see

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) July 17, 2014

@corbandalas I will not say more and await better reporting

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) July 17, 2014

But then the former Ambassador explained that he was just doing his job:

@ShannonPoe agree. But it's my job Asa a media analyst. Asked to draw conclusions based on imperfect info

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) July 17, 2014

Nice job if you can get it.

Related:

Strobe Talbott claims that Russian-backed separatist has admitted shooting down #MH17; Update: Now it’s all very ‘murky’; Update: Tweet deleted