The Washington Post—whose coverage of Watergate four decades ago angered 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.
So far the story—which has attracted millions of page views and more than 14,000 comments—has provoked lawsuit threats from at least two of the web sites, notably the widely respected financial blog Naked Capitalism, which fired off a legal letter demanding a retraction and apology even though the Post story does not specifically mention Naked Capitalism or any of the other allegedly Russian-influenced websites.
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.”
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5 comments:
When one becomes a billionaire, he or she can wield more power. The purchase of the WP was just such a venture. The stock price of the Post, over those years, has dropped from the high $700's per share to below $400. Many, many investors saw the change in public opinion early on and bailed. Readers, disappointed, even shocked, by the Ultra-Liberal slant taking over the paper left it in droves. Those readers who remained were the curious, confirmed Obama sycophants, unrealistic social idealists, or staid, ready believers as truth of whatever the Post published.
Follow the money.
Well said. The reality of what's published in the Washington Times defies rational belief.
The die is cast. It came up not as you had imagined. Either help it along or make it counter to creating a stronger nation.
If a media claim is not legitimized on Twitter, it's probably FAKE NEWS. Real easy....
The WP was always a CIA creation.
It is a propaganda piece
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