Bizarre, Media, Politics, Society

Washington Post Issues Correction To “Fake News” Story

220px-Washington_Post_buildingThe Washington Post has been under fire for its publication of an article entitling “Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say.” The article by Craig Timberg relied on a controversial website called PropOrNot, which published what is little more than a black list of website that the authors deemed purveyors of fake news including some of the largest sites on the Internet like Drudge Report. However, the previously unknown group was itself criticized for listing “allies” that proved false. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton ramped up the call for action against “fake news” which she described as an epidemic. Now the Washington Post has published a rather cryptic correction to the fake news story. The controversy is the subject of my latest column in USA Today.

The organization listed a variety of news sites as illegitimate. It included some of the most popular political sites from the left and right Truthout, Zero Hedge, Antiwar.com, and the Ron Paul Institute. It even includes one of the most read sites on the Internet, the Drudge Report. Notably, it also included WikiLeaks, which has been credited with exposing political corruption and unlawful surveillance programs.

The Washington Post is the largest newspaper to buy the clearly biased list as the work of objective “experts” — ignoring that the site relies on anonymity of those contributors. When the Post ran the story, some were eager to push the story as a reason why they lost the election. The former White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer tweeted, “Why isn’t this the biggest story in the world right now?” The reason is that it was facially absurd.

The Post has now added the following “correction”:

Editor’s Note: 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.

One of the spins offered by the Clinton camp was that the election loss was not (1) the establishment engineering the primary win for Clinton; (2) the selection of the ultimate establishment figure when all polls showed people wanted an outsider; (3) the record low polls of Clinton for popularity and honesty; or (4) the continual missteps of Clinton or her staff in just being honest in dealing with various scandals. Instead it was the “fake news” problem. When this has been raised during speech appearances in the last few weeks, I have repeatedly asked people to point to the fake news that influenced the election. They often cite the FBI investigation but that is not fake news. It was real news. They also cite Wikileaks. However, while Clinton and DNA head Donna Brazile suggested that emails were tampered with, they produced no proof of any such false emails on Wikileaks.

When the New Yorker pressed the anonymous spokesman (a curious position) for ProporNot, he struggled to explain why conservative sites like Drudge were put on the list.

Yet, when pressed on the technical patterns that led PropOrNot to label the Drudge Report a Russian propaganda outlet, he could point only to a general perception of bias in its content. “They act as a repeater to a significant extent, in that they refer audiences to sort of Russian stuff,” he said. “There’s no a-priori reason, stepping back, that a conservative news site would rely on so many Russian news sources. What is up with that?”

Now there is hard journalistic work. The Post insists that it had other sources, but what would prompt the reliance on this anonymous band of obvious amateurs?

I have been highly critical of sites like The National Report, a group of truly juvenile idiots who get a thrill by just placing false news stories. Those sites are the Internet version of graffiti and should be addressed by servers. I have also encouraged lawsuits for defamation and false light when available. However, there are thankfully few adults who actually get a kick out of tricking people into posting false stories. They are the same type of people who love to watch fire departments rush to false alarms. It gives some weird sense of worth to degrade others by tricking them.

The current controversy is different. Many people in Washington are irate over Wikileaks — not because the email were untrue but because they proved what many had long suspected . . . that Washington is a highly corrupt place full of truly despicable people. For people who make their living on controlling media and information, it was akin to the barbarians breaching the walls of Rome. So the answer is to call for government regulation to combat what will be declared “fake” news or propaganda. It is only the latest effort to convince people to surrender their rights and actually embrace censorship.

140 thoughts on “Washington Post Issues Correction To “Fake News” Story”

  1. “Fake news” is classic liberal projection and lies. The MSM specializes in fake news w/ this WashPo cluster coitus being a great laugh. There must be a memo out since the Pope just railed against “fake news.” Anything to protect Lady Macbeth and explain why liberalism is dying across Europe and the US.

  5. Id also like to point this out. This is from a Leftwing site as well

    The Clinton Campaign via SuperPAC Correct The Record, which btw, was created by David Brock, theex-bf of Comet Ping Pong Pizza owner Jamie Alefantis, is believed to have spent over 8 million dollars on online propagandists. ….. Isnt that interesting…

    They call it ‘Astroturfing’

    Now the MSM is engaged in astroturfing along with the David Brock’s. But in addition we are also seeing Democrat Politicians engaging in this propaganda war. Obama and Hillary both are spreading propaganda. There is a clear coordinated effort to make heavy use of the term ‘Fake News’. What should truly frighten you is the politicians are suggesting that something needs to be done to chill or silence the voices of opposition to them.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/4/21/1518537/-Clinton-SuperPac-Admits-to-Paying-Internet-Trolls

    Clinton SuperPac Admits to Paying Internet Trolls

  7. The Washington Post is still in the tank for the Democratic Party. They are the problem and they don’t realize.

    1. aka Fake News

      I will say it. the Democrat Party is the greatest threat to America this country has ever faced outside the Civil War.

      “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.” Marcus Tullius Cicero

      1. “…I will say it. the Democrat Party is the greatest threat to America this country has ever faced outside the Civil War…”

        If the S had won the war and split the US, because of the industrial revolution, and because of growing world wide boycotts against slave ownership, one by one the S States would have outlawed slavery till it was gone by the early 20th C.

        Besides, borders of nations change all the time. I would have no problem if the S had split. It’s not the end of the world. I am also convinced the main reason for the war was not specifically slavery, but too much centralizing of power (i.e. money) in the NE. Sound familiar?

        The USA’s greatest threat is its relationship w/Israel, a nation of zero interest to the USA, yet one to which the USA is socially, militarily, and economically wedded. Mix in the fact that the aggregate human race hates Israel more than any other nation, and has since the USA and then-League of Nations (now the UN) created Israel by coercion and military force, and you have a fatal mixture. Isreal’s Judaic creators have promised to “incinerate the planet” if anyone threatened their borders.

        George Washington, in his Farewell Address, forbid the USA’s current relationship w/Israel. GW forbid foreign entanglements, and said “all foreign relationships are temporary,” meaning they last only as long as they net BENEFIT for America and Americans. The USA’s relationship w/Israel nets the USA hell and damnation and no benefit, absolutely none. (My understanding is, of all persons convicted of treason/spying, more are Israeli than any from any other nation.) Israel is immune to federal laws requiring reporting of foreign agents: Israel finances pro-Israel Judaic groups in the USA who constantly lobby Congress and POTUS to do Israel’s bidding. Persons representing nations other than Israel have been convicted of felonies if not reporting first as foreign agents.

        All USA diplomatic relations w/Israel are Federal Felony Crimes. How so? The USA signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, giving the Treaty the Power of the Constitution. The Treaty forbids/outlaws any signatory nation from diplomatic relations w/any nuclear armed non-signatory nation, which includes and described Israel, India, and Pakistan.

        Again, all USA diplomacy w/Israel is a Federal Felony Crime.

        1. All USA diplomatic relations w/Israel are Federal Felony Crimes.

          You’re very adept at exposing yourself as a frothing-at-the-mouth fanatic. What happened to you? Rob Kaplan steal your lunch money in grade school?

    2. Keep in mind who now owns the newspaper. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon bought the Washington Post in 2013. In today’s media environment it is always prudent to know who owns the newspaper or news organization and who the corporate sponsors are.

    1. btw the jared and subway references? Pedophile….buwe we all have our preferences lol right?

      sick stuff

  11. jimmycomet btw is James Achilles Alefantis

    His instagram avatar above next to the name jimmycomet is also a symbol of pedos

  13. I hope everyone recognizes what is going on.This is a war on Free Speech by the Left.
    This is extremely dangerous and only further displays the Democrats determination to take Iron Fist control of the country. This is not about accuracy. It is about censoring thought and news. This is the stuff of dictators like Stalin, Hitler, Mao.

    The MSM has become a propaganda arm of the Democrat party. They push false narratives such as Hands Up Dont Shoot and then cover the chaos. They attack Republicans on issues such as The Patriot Act or Drone wars, Medical Marijuana raids etc and then turn a blind eye when the Democrats take those issues and make them even worse than before.

    Then consider the fact that the MSM is the one most damaged by viewers tuning out of their propaganda and seeking alternative news sources. As you read about FAKE NEWS, consider the source of the ones blasting so called Fake News. The ones who stand to gain the most from taking out alternative news sources. The MSM and Democrat Party.

    There is indeed a very ruthless Propaganda war on Free Speech. But its not coming from the Right, its coming from the Left.

    Take Pizzagate. I challenge anyone here to read these documented facts and come away feeling anyway but thinking there needs to be an official investigation. The media is refusing to do its job.

    Read all the way down. This btw is not all the evidence dug up so far.If you refuse to read then you refuse to make an informed opinion on the subject.

    http://themillenniumreport.com/2016/11/james-achilles-alefantis-and-his-comet-ping-pong-network/

    “A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.”
    James Madison

    1. It’s just the Left’s turn at attacking free speech. Both sides hate the First Amendment. (Recall the Repubs “free speech zones” far away from any event.) That’s why the Amendment is so invaluable.

  14. Excellent post, Turley, exposing the mainstream media for what it has become.

    The press, which at one time had been revered as the Fourth Estate, will be forever mired in filth, the public never forgiving the media’s dishonesty, character assassinations, selective reporting, collusion with the DNC and government, piling on Trump while passing debate questions to Clinton, nodding and winking, and treason for aiding and abetting a criminal establishment that has sold out the middle class and America to foreigners and enemies.

    The mainstream media is on a course of extinction by attrition. They only have credibility now with hangers-on and sore losers, and as these deplorables die off so too will the mainstream media.

    It remains to be seen if the mainstream media had ever been a Fourth Estate, given the incredible daylight that Wikileaks and so many others have shed on criminal journalists who have been, wittingly and unwittingly, aiding and colluding with perpetrators for the overthrow of America and its Constitution. The evidence against them is mounting by the day, but it’s going to take a long time for forensic truth seekers to get to the bottom of terabytes of data exposing corruption and rape of the middle class that already goes back to the Fifties.

  15. The Podesta emails in Wikileaks indicate to me that an investigation of the “Pizzagate” situation (declared to be “fake news”) must happen. The facts that the promoters of #pizzagate who have discovered in those emails what seems to be, to them, a serious child rape network like those found in England, Canada, and around the world may exist in (gasp) the United States.
    If those emails are fake — if Wikileaks has faked them somehow, that fact must be proved.
    If those emails are not fake — if Wikileaks has not faked them at all, that fact must be proved.
    Amateurs — unpaid seekers after truth — have reached conclusions that at least need to be investigated by professionals. This should not be swept under the rug by a propaganda declaration that those emails are “fake news.” The attack on so called “fake news” is itself fake news.
    #Pizzagate was misnamed. It is not about Comet Pizza, although they are involved. It is about the fact that according to the FBI “pizza,” as used by pedophiles, is a code word for sexual assault of girls. It is really #Pedophile-gate.
    Using the “fake news” narrative Reddit removed subreddit pizzagate. Google has censored a number of users who have promoted investigation of pizzagate by removing their uploads.
    The assault on free speech is important whether pizzagate is true or false. If true then many in Washington are involved. If false, suppression of the evidence by declaring it “fake news” is not the right way to go.
    My daughter, a victim of pedophilia, did not reach 21. I joined CyberAngels, a group devoted to getting “Cheese Pizza” (CP – Child Porn) off the internet in the 1990s. I helped to remove about a dozen such sites. I have a bit of confirmation bias. When I read the Podesta emails I see child exploitation. Of course a more neutral person like yourself should disprove the accusations of pedophilia if disprovable. Or perhaps when you investigate you may find at least enough evidence to investigate.

    1. Please correct me if I’m wrong. IMO there is absolutely no relationship between Julian Assange’s Wikileaks and alleged Pizzagate fake news. Again, my understanding is never ever has even one Assange leak been proven to be false. Assange is the real deal.

      1. The WikiLeaks Podesta emails reveal the close friendship between John Podesta and his brother Tony Podesta and the owner of Comet Pizza. And some of the language used in John Podesta’s emails seems to match FBI ‘code words’ used in pedophile rings. So there is a connection. Plus some of the art collection in Tony Podesta’s home is very creepy showing children in their underpants in submissive positions and some in what looks like bondage. Maybe there’s nothing to it, but all the odd questions it raises can’t help but make one wonder if there is more to this than pizza parties and unsettling “artwork.” I hope the feds have an active investigation going on.

    2. Wow, I am so sorry for your loss and what must have been a horrific experience. Let’s keep on talking about this story. Too many in the press won’t go near this story if they suspect it could expose and take down powerfully connected people in Washington. Kind of like the Catholic church and how long they tried to bury the truth when they knew exactly what was going on. Penn State too.

  16. It’s up to the people to remove the cesspool of dangerous &incompetent elitist deriving from both political parties.

      1. We are not out of the woods yet. Jumping on bandwagons now would be dangerous. We need to hold Trump to the Constitution. Every president before him has sworn to defend and uphold it and then far too many have forgotten their oath. Do not assume Trump will be different.

        1. An early positive sign is selecting two US Marine Corps officers to head up both Defense and DHS. The first tells the troops that unlike Obama who is trying to find away to change their oath to the Constitution to one favoring a President he’s sticking with the real thing. The Second puts the same mind set and returns a set to be runaway rogue agency back on track for the same reason.

          I don’t know about you civilians but the signal sent and what it tells us and our children is very clear. ‘support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreignn and domestic.’ So DHS may turn into a what it was supposed to be instead of a nothere Schutz Staffel Protective Echelon with as ObeyMe said equal or greater power than the Military.

          It tells the military the same thing and their move through voting and other clear signals was recognized and received and made a part of the countries future. While many thought it meant tanks in the streets and streets and more Kent States I remember saing, often, you don’t have a clue how the military will flex it’s muscles then usually mentioned ballots over bullets – a two vowel difference.

          Two thirds of the combat arms voted against Comrade Clinton.

          Now to clean up DHS (pronounced Dis- before they become a true Directorate of Internal State Security. Starting with cleaning up the language in their operating instructions

          And maybe finally getting rid of the draft. Somethining the left wing fascists are loathe to give up.

  17. One of the best posts by the Prof.

    D.C. truly is a cesspool of dangerous & incompetent elitists deriving from both political parties, even though at this moment the Democrats seem to be engaging in the most corrupt and dishonest tirades.

  18. not to support WaPo it’s more like WaHappeen? Hillary will blame anybody but herself so will Brazile, Reid, Pelosi blame anybody but themselves. Couldn’t ask for a better stance. That’s worth not eight but sixteen years. Bring on the Stupids!

  19. Bravo!

    Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange posted, and I have not seen this contradicted, that no one ever proved Wikileaks published one false and/or inaccurate leak. Further, Sweden has officially dropped all charges of sexual misconduct against Assange (the US obviously coerced Sweden into filing the original false charges). SM/government tools covered the original charges ad nauseam, the charges being dropped, not so much.

    Regarding the “implied news” (never ever confirmed) that Putin’s Admin hacked the Podesta emails that helped destroy HRC: No one has ever confirmed nor offered any proof of same. Consider this more important point: the US government confirmed the hacking of several other major government accounts, including IIRC even the IRS, etc. Yet, the only hack the government ever mentions or cares about is the one that helped destroy their pathetic POTUS candidate. All the other hacks don’t matter!

    Obama presided over the worst hacks of the US government, but it’s a well kept secret by MSM (the real fake news media). I wonder if a case could be made for criminal negligence.

    DNC reps including Donna Brazile said Podesta’s leaked emails might be fake. One of the DNC reps said the DNC did not have time to fact check. What utter, complete BS. Of course, seconds after Assange published Podesta’s email, the DNC confirmed they were deadly accurate! If the emails were fake, within minutes the DNC would have published signed statement under penalty of perjury stating so. LLPOF!

    1. I bought some Wiki Leaks tee shirts in their shop to support the work their organization is doing and I will wear them proudly. #Free Julian

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