"Fake News" And How The Washington Post Rewrote Its Story On Russian Hacking Of The Power Grid

[truth_seeker]

"Fake News" And How The Washington Post Rewrote Its Story On Russian Hacking Of The Power Grid

by Kalev Leetaru

On Friday the Washington Post sparked a wave of fear when it ran the breathless headline “Russian hackers penetrated U.S. electricity grid through a utility in Vermont, U.S. officials say.” The lead sentence offered “A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials” and continued “While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations of the utility, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss a security matter, the penetration of the nation’s electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability.”

Yet, it turns out this narrative was false and as the chronology below will show, illustrates how effectively false and misleading news can ricochet through the global news echo chamber through the pages of top tier newspapers that fail to properly verify their facts.

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/01/01/fake-news-and-how-the-washington-post-rewrote-its-story-on-russian-hacking-of-the-power-grid/#29a35a1291e5

[The_Reader_David]

Of course credulous reporting of false stories by mainstream media outlets is not fake news.  Why not?  Because "fake news" is a Newspeak phrase that in standard English means "anti-lefist and anti-globalist propaganda from non-state, non-mainstream-media sources".  It doesn't matter whether the "fake news" is actually true or actually false, if it goes against the agenda of the left or the globalists and isn't "properly" sourced, it's "fake news".