The Washington Post just committed journalistic suicide with a shoddy, shady feature to try to silence competing news sites

Sunday, November 27, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: Washington Post, fake news, Russia conspiracy

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(NaturalNews) The managing editors of the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post are losing it. Since Donald J. Trump beat Hillary Clinton – the Post's chosen candidate – in the Nov. 8 presidential election, the paper has gone full tin-foil hat in its attempt to de-legitimize the Trump win while undermining his administration before he even takes office.

As Natural News founder/editor Mike Adams pointed out in a recent column after learning that the Post, relying on some "anonymous," shady organization, accused our publication and hundreds of other alternative media sites of being Russian propaganda tools in the employ of the Kremlin. As crazy as that is, the Post offered no evidence whatsoever of its allegations, save for citing a pair of hidden 'organizations' who have made the charge as well.

This just shows you how off-the-rails the Post's managing editors are

Yes. The Washington Post just alleged Adams, myself, and the rest of our correspondents purposely spread propaganda fed to us by Russia during the presidential campaign, for the purposes of "undermining" our democracy while helping Trump.

That's what happens when you cover issues fairly and are legitimately hard on a candidate who has a 30-year record of political chicanery and criminal investigations: You so unhinge the "mainstream" media that they will latch on to the wildest of conspiracy theories in order to assuage their failure to help drag their candidate across the finish line.

It doesn't get any goofier than this. But it just tells you how utterly off the rails the managing editors and reporters for the paper who backed Clinton have gone.

Even the reliably Left-wing site The Intercept—which was founded in the wake of revelations by former NSA contractor analyst Edward Snowden that the Obama administration was conducting mass surveillance on the American people—is astonished (and disappointed) that the paper which co-published many Snowden revelations has lost its bearing (and its symbolic mind).

In a piece comparing the Post's promotion of some group called PropOrNot and it's "McCarthyite list" of news sites it falsely claimed were purposely spreading Russian propaganda, The Intercept deemed it "disgraceful."

No proof, no identity, no evidence – only baseless accusations

To wit:

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 expose. It was the most-read piece on the entire Post website after it was published on Friday.

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.

The Post report even went so far as to describe those behind the questionable web site as "experts," then went on to describe it as simply this "nonpartisan collection of researchers with foreign policy, military and technology backgrounds."

As a journalist of many years, I can tell you with complete honesty that description is practically meaningless but it is written in such a way as to make the reader believe it is 100 percent authentic. 'So many experts from such important backgrounds - who would fake that?

The Post, that's who. And the ironic part is, the Post ran this phony news story on the premise that the sites on the list, including ours, was spreading fake news.

You just can't make this stuff up.

What the Post did not do is name a single person who is supposedly a member of this shadowy group. And the only quotes – from its alleged executive director – are anonymous. Why? Well, "to avoid being targeted by Russia's legions of skilled hackers," the Post said.

Of course!

You see how that works? So official-sounding! And yet readers learning zilch about this organization – like where it came from, all of a sudden...after Clinton lost the election. Surely if she'd won, we'd have still heard about this alleged massive Russian psy-op and propaganda effort - right? I mean, it still would have been news – yes?

Maybe this headline: Clinton pulls out victory despite massive Russia-fed 'fake news' effort from the Alt-right - or something similarly idiotic.

Someone will have to answer for this absurd accusation

So in the end, what has happened is that the Post – using this shadowy group – has accused journalists and news outlets who opposed Clinton politically of being tools of Russian propaganda, and even called on the FBI to investigate us, all "while cowardly hiding their own identity," The Intercept noted.

Sen. Joe McCarthy's spirit lives – in the newsroom of the Washington Post.

The Intercept said that its reporters contacted PropOrNot and asked numerous questions about about its team, but received only this?reply: "We're getting a lot of requests for comment and can get back to you today =) [smiley face?emoticon]." The group added: "We're over 30 people, organized into teams, and we cannot confirm or deny anyone's involvement."

What happens next is up to people other than myself, but I can't imagine that my publication will take this accusation lightly. It's one thing to create a stupid narrative – 'the fake news did Clinton in!' – but to accuse hundreds of news organizations and reporters of colluding with the Russians (as PropOrNot has done) in violation of federal espionage laws is serious.

"The Washington Post has just committed journalistic suicide," said Adams.

"The once-esteemed publication ran with a highly publicized but journalistically shoddy hit piece, sourced from a secretive and shady group of shadowy people who refuse to identify themselves, with the intention of blacklisting news sites that disagree with the kind of state-run propaganda printed by WashPost," he added.

"The Post's commission of journalistic malpractice was so blatant and malicious that Gleen Greenwald, a mostly left-leaning independent journalist at The Intercept, tore into the shoddy journalism with his own analysis."

And someone will have to answer for it, of that you can be certain.

Sources:

NaturalNews.com

WashingtonPost.com

TheIntercept.com

Twitter.com