WaPo amends fake news story about fake news

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Media mainstreamers spent the entire election season pandering for Hillary Clinton and discounting Donald Trump’s chances for victory. When he won, they all looked pretty stupid… so they lashed out against alternative media in an attempt to regain relevance.

Now, MSM is once again proving it lacks credibility.

Late last month, The Washington Post published a story attributing Trump’s electoral victory to “fake news” and Russian propagandists.

Within the report, WaPo used as a source a questionable information on various popular (mostly conservative) alternative media websites from an organization called PropOrNot.

WaPo declared:

PropOrNot’s monitoring report, which was provided to The Washington Post in advance of its public release, identifies more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season, with combined audiences of at least 15 million Americans. On Facebook, PropOrNot estimates that stories planted or promoted by the disinformation campaign were viewed more than 213 million times.

Some players in this online echo chamber were knowingly part of the propaganda campaign, the researchers concluded, while others were “useful idiots” — a term born of the Cold War to describe people or institutions that unknowingly assisted Soviet Union propaganda efforts.

Among the popular websites the legitimate media newspaper called out as useful idiots and operatives for Russian propagandists were big names like Drudge Report, Zero Hedge and former Congressman Ron Paul’s Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Of course, it’s worth noting that the PropOrNot researchers calling members of the alternative media as stooges for Russian propagandists refuse to identify themselves publicly.

Very quickly, the Post came under heavy fire from alternative media consumers, reporters and the sites it defamed in its slanted report on fake news.

The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald and Ben Norton declared of the piece:

This Post report was one of the most widely circulated political news articles on social media over the last 48 hours, with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of U.S. journalists and pundits with large platforms hailing it as an earth-shattering exposé. It was the most-read piece on the entire Post website on Friday after it was published.

Yet the article is rife with obviously reckless and unproven allegations, and fundamentally shaped by shoddy, slothful journalistic tactics. It was not surprising to learn that, as BuzzFeed’s Sheera Frenkel noted, “a lot of reporters passed on this story.” Its huge flaws are self-evident. But the Post gleefully ran with it and then promoted it aggressively, led by its Executive Editor Marty Baron…

This week, WaPo quietly added the following editor’s note to the top of its debunked fake news story:

The Washington Post on Nov. 24 published a story on the work of four sets of researchers who have examined what they say are Russian propaganda efforts to undermine American democracy and interests. One of them was PropOrNot, a group that insists on public anonymity, which issued a report identifying more than 200 websites that, in its view, wittingly or unwittingly published or echoed Russian propaganda. A number of those sites have objected to being included on PropOrNot’s list, and some of the sites, as well as others not on the list, have publicly challenged the group’s methodology and conclusions. The Post, which did not name any of the sites, does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so. Since publication of The Post’s story, PropOrNot has removed some sites from its list.

In other words, WaPo just admitted that its entire report skewering the alternative media for publishing fake news based on shady sources was fake news based on shady sources.

Personal Liberty

Sam Rolley

After covering news and politics for traditional media outlets, Sam Rolley took a position at Personal Liberty Media Group where he focuses on his true passions: national politics and liberty issues. In his daily columns and reports, Rolley works to help readers recognize lies perpetuated by the mainstream media and develop a better understanding of issues ignored by more conventional outlets. Follow him on Twitter @SamRolley