The Washington Post stepped well over the line of questionable reporting today, venturing deep into a McCarthy-style smear campaign against hundreds of allegedly “fake news” sites accused of being under control of, or influenced by Russia.

by Mish

Ironically, the Washington Post headline, Russian Propaganda Effort Helped Spread ‘Fake News’ During Election, Experts Say reads like it a “fake news” supermarket tabloid.

The article, written By Craig Timberg, is even worse. It cites anonymous researchers, who propose a Russian fake news team may have delivered the election to Donald Trump.

The article asks Could better Internet security have prevented Trump’s win?.

The researchers blame an “online echo chamber” where some players were knowingly part of the propaganda campaign, while others were merely “useful idiots”.

“The way that this propaganda apparatus supported Trump was equivalent to some massive amount of a media buy,” said the executive director of PropOrNot, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid being targeted by Russia’s legions of skilled hackers. “It was like Russia was running a super PAC for Trump’s campaign. . . . It worked.”

That’s pretty damn amusing. The Washington Post just handed over the website of PropOrNot to those damn Russians (not that they didn’t know it already).

ZeroHedge was on The List at PropOrNot along with many other names you will recognize including that bastion of perpetual right-wing, Republican propaganda, Naked Capitalism (Hint – that was sarcasm).

I failed to make the grade. This post just might do it. Courtesy of ZeroHedge.

McCarthy would be proud,” commented ZeroHedge. Indeed. I gathered a collection of tweets on the article.

Collection of Tweets on Washington Post

Smear Campaign

The Washington Post article is nothing more than a McCarthy-style smear campaign against sites that are anti-Hillary, anti-war, or pro-Russia.

No evidence was provided. The authors of “the list” remain anonymous, purportedly out of fear of Russian hackers, who have ZeroHedge and others under their control.

Don’t worry, it’s not McCarthyism. They are merely calling for “formal investigations by the US governments” because they “strongly suspect individuals violated the Espionage Act, the Foreign Agent Registration Act, and other related laws“.

ZeroHedge, Yves Smith at NakedCapitalism, Charles Hughes Smith at OfTwoMinds, Alex Jones at InfoWars, David Stockman, Lew Rockwell, and many others are suspects.

How did I miss being on the list? Should I be pleased or disappointed?

Mike “Mish” Shedlock