So much for the integrity of the WaPost, too.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/09/washington-post-on-the-fake-news-hot-seat.html
Washington Post on the ‘Fake News’ Hot Seat
At least one of the websites blamed in a story for supposedly circulating Russian propaganda is threatening to sue the storied newspaper.
The
Washington Post—whose
coverage of Watergate four decades agoangered the powers that be, toppled a president, and defined courageous journalism—has unleashed a hornet’s nest of a different sort, one unlikely to earn a Pulitzer Prize.
Indeed, Washington’s newspaper of record—which was
purchased in 2013 by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos from the storied Graham family—is uncomfortably weathering a barrage of criticism from fellow journalists and others for a front-page story published over the Thanksgiving holiday.
The story, by
Post technology reporter Craig Timberg and published Nov. 24, purported to reveal how “sophisticated” Russian propagandists had
spread fake news through hundreds of web sites to destabilize American democracy, thwart
Hillary Clinton and
elect Donald Trump to the White House.
...
There has also been a fusillade of disparaging commentary in publications ranging from
The Intercept to
The New Yorker.
“I thought it was completely ridiculous that the
Post would put this sorry piece of trash on the front page,” Andrew Cockburn, the Washington editor of
Harper’s magazine, told The Daily Beast in a typically vehement slam.
“The ‘Washington Post’ ‘Blacklist’ Story Is Shameful and Disgusting,” was the headline on
Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi’s takedown.
The critics panned the
Post story’s heavy reliance on the judgments of
unnamed “researchers” for PropOrNot.com, a shadowy website launched three months ago ostensibly to expose “Russian influence operations targeted at US audiences, distinguish between propaganda and commercial ‘clickbait’, and help identify propaganda and push back.”
