Photo credit: The Goldwater

The mainstream media has adopted a vicious culture of misrepresenting facts and spreading fake news, this trend has become the mode of operation of most MMS outlets. The Washington Post is no exception, the outlet had recently posted some fake news that implied that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electricity grid via a utility in Vermont. However, the outlet has retracted the fake news story.

One of the editors noted on the Post’s story that the earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid. Adding that authorities confirmed that it was not true and no indication had been identified. The editor also acknowledged the fact that the computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the grid.

The outrageous story was originally posted by AFP newswire, which is followed by many mainstream media outlets. The mainstream media outlets such as Washington Post exposed their misleading headline at the end of the story which claimed that a code linked to Russian hacking efforts had been discovered in a utility system in Vermont which was a great indication of the vulnerabilities in the US electrical grid. The paper reported that the code detected in the northeastern state’s system did not disrupt its operations. Adding that the code was associated with the Russian hacking efforts that US officials termed as Grizzly Steppe.

Burlington Electric Department reported that it had been alerted by the government on Thursday night after which it carried out a scan and found the malware in one laptop that was not connected to the grid systems. They thus isolated the laptop.

This was just a great example of the mainstream media attempt to create fear using the Russian hacking hysteria.