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Journalists Cry Foul After Washington Post Publishes Story Supporting ‘Blacklist’ of News Sites

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  The Washington Post headquarters in Washington, D.C. The paper’s report about purportedly pro-Russian propaganda sites implicated a list of more than 200 sources from various points along the political spectrum. (Evan Vucci / AP Photo)

Editor’s note: Glenn Greenwald’s and other journalists’ criticism (below) refers to a recent Washington Post article that suggested Truthdig and numerous other news outlets were propagandists for Russia. The Post’s story is false and is based on unsubstantiated allegations by an anonymous organization. Truthdig never has and never would propagandize for anyone.

A New McCarthyism has emerged in the wake of the contentious 2016 presidential election: Many independent thinkers and independent publications who criticize established power structures and policies have been accused of being pro-Russia propagandists.

What’s more, one anonymous source of these accusations has been given legitimacy and wide media exposure thanks to The Washington Post’s uncritical treatment and tacit stamp of legitimacy. On Thursday, Post reporter Craig Timberg published an article that relied heavily on the source, a vaguely defined organization promoting its claims via a sketchy website called PropOrNot.

Here’s an excerpt from Timberg’s story:

Despite the seriousness of PropOrNot’s allegations, not to mention its call for “official action,” the organization’s motives, institutional affiliations and methodology were all left unaccounted for and uncontested in the Post’s article, even as Timberg repeated claims that effectively blacklisted more than 200 outlets. Truthdig, along with Truthout, the Black Agenda Report and Naked Capitalism were included on PropOrNot’s list, along with the Ron Paul Institute, The Drudge Report, InfoWars, Russia Today and WikiLeaks.

How the group arrived at its conclusions is only vaguely described using a couple brief examples and a circuitous explanation containing the built-in means to shut down contestation on the basis of subjective and one-sided criteria:

An embedded hyperlink purporting to lead to more information about which “behavioral” criteria were used turned out to be a broken link.

The Post’s story was unquestioningly referenced in pickups by other mainstream outlets like USA Today and The Daily Beast. Comment threads on Reddit and Daily Kos lit up with discussion about the Post piece, and social media users spread the word by sharing links on Twitter and Facebook.

But not everyone in the media was convinced. Over the weekend, The Intercept and other media sources, some who were named as propagandists, roundly criticized The Washington Post for running with the PropOrNot report.

The Intercept’s Lee Fang weighed in on Saturday:

Fang’s Intercept colleagues Glenn Greenwald and Ben Norton went into more detail in their own story posted the same day:

Norton and Greenwald also pointed out that they had conversed with numerous “allies” listed on PropOrNot’s site who said they had had no contact with the organization, or even knowledge of it prior to the release of the Post’s story:

Greenwald, who noted that Timberg did not link to PropOrNot’s website in the Post’s story, pointed to PropOrNot’s Twitter account, which recently released these tweets:

That last tweet describes a plug-in designed to alert users when they land on sites designated as “propaganda” by PropOrNot.

Greenwald also took to Twitter to denouce the Post’s report:

He was joined by other members of the media who commented in 140 characters or less:

Max Blumenthal on Friday posted his analysis on AlterNet:

Finally, the Ron Paul Institute commented Saturday on being named by PropOrNot, and by extension by The Washington Post, as a mouthpiece for the Putin administration:

Only the Post’s journalists know their own motives for sure, but by running stories like this without proper vetting—and without contacting blacklisted sources for comment—the rest of us are left to read between the lines. What we see spells trouble for press freedom at a crucial moment.

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Source: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/journalists_cry_foul_as_washington_post_publishes_20161127/


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    • desertspeaks

      lets see, who tells/told the biggest lies, the alleged alt right, or the so called mainstream media? Lets check!
      Who told us lies that resulted in the murders of tens of millions of innocent, unarmed, men, women and children?
      Who told us the lie about mines sinking the USS Maine in Havana?
      Who told us the lie about there being not munitions on the Lusitania?
      Who told us the lie about torpedo’s in the gulf of Tonkin?
      Who told us the lie about WMD’s in Iraq?

      Was it the alt right? NOPE! Now “if you didn’t already” know that the msm are the proven pathological lying psychopaths whose lies MURDERED TENS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE!

      You should email/call/write the msm liars and tell them what you think of their LIFE ENDING LIES and tell them to shut the hell up about who the REAL FAKE MEDIA IS! IT IS THEM!

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