Washington Post Distances Itself From Anti-Russian Propaganda Group That Called Out Fake News PeddlersTheWrap

The Washington Post is distancing itself from PropOrNot, an anti-Russian propaganda organization with anonymous members, after citing it in a story last month detailing how Russia may have influenced the election through a carefully executed operation to spread fake news to American voters.

The newspaper added a lengthy editors note to the Nov. 24 story, headlined “Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say,” explaining the Post “does not itself vouch for the validity” of the organizations findings.

The original story, written by Craig Timberg, cited PropOrNot’s report identifying more than 200 websites that may have knowingly or unknowingly shared fake news. In wake of many sites listed challenging PropOrNot’s methodology and conclusions, the Post decided to update the article with a note to readers.

Also Read: Media Matters Shifts Focus From Fox News to Fake News, 'Alt-Right' Sites

“A number of those sites have objected to being included on PropOrNot’s list, and some of the sites, as well as others not on the list, have publicly challenged the group’s methodology and conclusions. The Post, which did not name any of the sites, does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so. Since publication of The Post’s story, PropOrNot has removed some sites from its list,” the note reads.

Made-up news has been such a problem across the media landscape that Media Matters, a liberal media-watchdog organization known for its fixation on Fox News, recently announced that fake news will now be its prime target.

“There was a period of time which we were, rightfully so, described as the ‘Fox antagonist’s,” incoming Media Matters president Angelo Carusone told Politico. “Now, our mission is to be principally focused on the value of journalism.”

Also Read: #PizzaGate: 4 Things You Need to Know About Fake-News Freakout Du Jour

Preventing the spread of fake news and conspiracy theories on social media platforms such as Twitter is a top priority in the media industry, and some Democrats believe the issue helped Donald Trump win the election.

10 Times Donald Trump Shared Fake News (Photos)

Donald Trump is the country's most prominent spreader of fake news. Here are ten unquestionably fake news stories he has shared.
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In 2009, Trump helped create fake news when the USA Network and WWE falsely reported that Trump was planning to buy "Monday Night RAW." It turned out that it was all part of a wrestling storyline.
Trump spent years demanding that President Obama produce his birth certificate and other papers in response to false e-mails that Obama was a Kenyan-born Muslim. He finally admitted Obama was born in this country in September, then accused Hillary Clinton of starting the lies about Obama.
In December 2011, Trump said President Obama "issued a statement for Kwanza but failed to issue one for Christmas." That was provably false. (This photo is from 2014.)
Trump said in 2015 that "thousands and thousands of people were cheering" in Jersey City, N.J. when the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2011. Although some radio stations and websites reported celebrations in nearby Paterson, N.J., the city denied the reports.
In February 2016, Trump entertained conspiracy theories that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered when he said he was found with "a pillow on his face." Alex Jones' InfoWars had earlier reported on suggestions Scalia was killed. But the owner of the ranch where Scalia died later clarified that he did not have a pillow over his face.
In June 2016, Trump tweeted a photo that purported to show a family of African-Americans who supported him. But they told BuzzFeed they definitely did not.
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In another case of Trump creating the fake news, he scored 22,000 retweets on Election Day by posting, "Just out according to @CNN: 'Utah officials report voting machine problems across entire country.'" But it was just one county. No R.
On Nov. 10, Trump tweeted that post-Election Day protestors were “professional,” but a professional fake-news writer, Paul Horner, admitted that he had invented a story about protesters being paid.

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After saying for months before election day that the vote would be rigged, Trump won. He subsequently said “million of people” voted illegally. A guy on Twitter who had tweeted that 3 million voted illegally declined to provide any source. Trump has continued to make baseless claims about millions of illegal voters since he took office.
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Let's give credit where its due: On Dec. 6, Trump fired one of his transition team staffers for tweeting a fake news story that led to an armed confrontation in a Washington, DC pizza restaurant. The issue became known as "pizzagate."
On his first full day in office, Trump visited the Central Intelligence Agency and claimed 1.5 million people attended his inauguration. The New York Times said that photographs "disproved" that number. Vox did a deep dive into why Trump's numbers appeared to be off. And a Texas NHL team, among others, made fun of him.
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