Matt Taibbi goes after Washington Post for Their Propoganada Attack Piece on Independent Media

Link for Matt Taibbi article is HERE.

The Washington Post ran an unsupported article insinuating various websites (Naked Capitalism, Truthdig, etc.) were affiliated with Russian Propaganda. Of course what really links some of these websites is their refusal to promote the Corporatocracy and their preferred Candidate.

From the Washington Post Article:

PropOrNot’s monitoring report, which was provided to The Washington Post in advance of its public release, identifies more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season, with combined audiences of at least 15 million Americans. On Facebook, PropOrNot estimates that stories planted or promoted by the disinformation campaign were viewed more than 213 million times.

[Could better Internet security have prevented Trump’s win?]

Some players in this online echo chamber were knowingly part of the propaganda campaign, the researchers concluded, while others were “useful idiots” — a term born of the Cold War to describe people or institutions that unknowingly assisted Soviet Union propaganda efforts.

Makes you wonder if the efforts by Google and Facebook to control "Fake News" is really a push to censor the internet of unwanted information that may harm future profits or censor the internet to control elections.

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Comments

However like anything fake, trying to discern fake (including Wapo, NYT,) from real can be daunting.

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It's no worse or better than anytime.

A bigger problem is how narrow the Overton Window has become.

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You have to research everything because sourcing is so loosey-goosey. Most of us don't have time for digging deeply enough, so there are a batch of news sources we tend to go to on regular basis. Now we have so many choices to find news to consume, but it's not necessarily better.

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The only difference today is that echo chambers are more prevalent.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

The Sanders campaign accomplished that much.

Which is probably why the establishment has gone into overdrive McCarthy mode.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

something like 16 negative stories about Bernie just because the DNC wanted them to? Is the DNC the equivalent of the Russians for the Mainstream media?

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glitterscale

WaPo jumped the shark long before this latest steaming pile.

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ThoughtfulVoter's picture

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gendjinn's picture

fake news volume was the equivalent of a couple of days of Fox & Limbuagh.

So defo was the Russians wot swung it!

FYI Mark Sumner's recent diaries have got to be satire. Right? Otherwise, sheesh.

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dervish's picture

were websites all across the political spectrum, Socialist, Nazi, Libertarian, Conservative, Progressive, etc.

What these websites all had in common is that they didn't support Hillary Clinton for POTUS. Thus, according to the slimy anonymous shills at Propornot, the sole criteria for being a Russian agent was opposition to Hillary. Paranoia and CT currently rule the day among the Dem. establishment.

Greenwald had an excellent take-down of Propornot here.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

TheOtherMaven's picture

No government at any level had anything to do with it, but it terrorized Hollywood and the media into summarily firing/not hiring anyone on their lists. Careers, and lives, were ruined.

Here we go again....

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

When the news refer to Pete Peterson as a philanthropist instead of a lobbying vampire squid, that is propaganda. They do it in a million subtle ways.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

detroitmechworks's picture

Is trying to claim they're like Wikileaks, telling stories that have to be done behind anonymity, because otherwise they'd be retaliated against by... wait for it... Russia.

That's cute. Trying to steal the "Whistleblower" narrative... in support of people who would have the whistleblowers rounded up and shot preemptively.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Centaurea's picture

And as we know, Wikileaks is not telling stories. They're simply publishing emails written by other people.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

detroitmechworks's picture

Want folks to forget that Wikileaks is simply releasing documents that THE PTB THEMSELVES wrote.

Yes, they do think we are that stupid.

(Everyone can inadvertently catch themselves using the dominant, but false spin choices when talking about it... Thanks for the reminder.)

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Big Al's picture

Period, end of story.
I read it on a fake news site.

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CB's picture

Thanks to the WaPo report, Americans now know the names of the alternate media. Drinks

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Big Al's picture

Now everyone will know where to go to get the truth.
Idiots.

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GreatLakeSailor's picture

The Streisand Effect

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Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

dervish's picture

the CIA doesn't bother itself with crap like that. More likely it's the FoC (Friends of Clinton), which could be anybody, including Herself, but might include Saban, Soros, Sandler, Schmidt, et al.

The only websites not on "the list" are those that supported Clinton, everyone else is a Russian spy.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

That's cute. Trying to steal the "Whistleblower" narrative... in support of people who would have the whistleblowers rounded up and shot preemptively.

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Greyhound's picture

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/5f57xu/the_american_political...

Good old WaPo, dumbing America down since 1917. Now with more Bezos.

In trying to decide where to even start examining this screed, I realized that there's no point to the effort. This is a narrative developed and repeated for so long that few even hear it anymore, it just is. Point after point, distraction after distraction, it goes all the way around anything that might lead the reader to look at what is.

"Identity Politics" and "Fake News" is what they want you to listen to. Pretend that this election is the result of some "other", be it Russian, Young, Male, or Racist, it most assuredly has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the "party of the people" spent the last decade lowering expectations and telling millions of Americans that they just don't count. That their experience and pain don't really exist, and if they do, they aren't important enough to bother about.

The Clinton campaign literally told America to "quit fucking whining" about not getting their share and now they're all asking each other for some rationalization for losing the nation to a sideshow barker.

American Political Parties Have Broken our Political System. Once we allowed them, they took over the whole system and took it for themselves.

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sojourns's picture

n/t

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"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

Anja Geitz's picture

"The capital's paper of record crashes legacy media on an iceberg"

Great article. Thanks for posting.

P.s. Minor point: Matt Taibbi last name needs an 'I' in the title.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

paradigmshift's picture

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"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Alligator Ed's picture

It shocks many people to learn the the formerly respected NYT is now widely disrespected. Even my Lefty brother was shocked when I told him my opinion of the NYT--it isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

P.S. Don't actually try using NYT for toilet paper because it will leave black stuff on your butt.

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solublefish's picture

after about page A17 or so. That's where the real news was always buried. Haven't picked it up since about 2003, though, so not sure.

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CB's picture

KGB mastermind Vladimir Vladimirovich. Vlad's right hand man in the Kremlin, Akita Inu, has been put in charge of this reverse psychology PSYOP.

The purpose of the PSYOP was to increase American readership of the 200+ websites listed and the Washington Post was chosen because Bezo's has managed to make it "the paper of record" with the largest on-line viewership in the US. WaPo's editor's took the bait. They swallowed it - hook, line and sinker - like a 50 pound pike, and got reeled in by Vlad.

Prior to this operation, less than 0.5% of the US population knew these 200 sites even existed. But now, due to the American penchant for anything new, sources within the Kremlin have reported exponential increases in traffic to their sites - in some cases ten, twenty fold. The Propornot PSYOP has proven to be a resounding success.

BTW, the reason the people behind Propornot cannot be revealed is because many of the names could possibly be tracked back to double agents from the former KGB.

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ROFLMAO! I think I love you!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

CB's picture

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riverlover's picture

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver