The Washington Post Promotes Obscure Website’s Claim of Large-Scale Russian Propaganda Effort

An unknown website created a 'McCarthyite Blacklist' of 200 news outlets with very little evidence — and WaPo published it as fact.

By Nancy Flory Published on November 29, 2016

The Washington Post on Thanksgiving Day published a story titled “Trolling for Trump: How Russia is Trying to Destroy Our Democracy,” giving credence to a previously unknown website smearing dozens of credible news sites as pro-Russian because they criticized U.S. foreign policy and allegedly helped spread “fake news” during the recent election.

In what has been described by multiple news outlets as a “McCarthyite Blacklist,” an anonymous website calling itself PropOrNot claims websites conspired with Russia to deceive the American public during the recent presidential election by spreading “fake news” and pushing pro-Russian propaganda.

The Washington Post published the information as fact. According to The Intercept, however, it was based on “obviously reckless and unproven allegations, and fundamentally shaped by shoddy, slothful journalistic tactics.”

PropOrNot lists several key characteristics indicating “Russian propaganda,” among them “support for policies like Brexit, and the breakup of the EU and Eurozone,” “opposition to Ukrainian resistance to Russia and Syrian resistance to Assad” and “support for the anti-vax, anti-Zika spraying, anti-GMO, 9/11-‘truther,’ gold-standard, and other related movements.”

But Fortune questions the methodology by which PropOrNot arrived at their conclusions:

There’s also little data available on the PropOrNot report, which describes a network of 200 sites who it says are ‘routine peddlers of Russian propaganda,’ which have what it calls a ‘combined audience of 15 million Americans.’ How is that audience measured? We don’t know. Stories promoted by this network were shared 213 million times, it says. How do we know this? That’s unclear.

In addition, some information initially appearing on the website has been proven false. PropOrNot initially published a list of “allies,” one of which was a research organization called BellingCat. The only problem is, BellingCat had never heard of PropOrNot:

Just want to note I hadn't heard of Propornot before the WP piece and never gave permission to them to call Bellingcat "allies" https://t.co/jQKnWzjrBR

— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) November 25, 2016

The allies list has since been renamed “Related Projects,” reported The Intercept.

PropOrNot updated “The List” today, according to the site, but still contains 200 websites, including several legitimate news outlets such as The Drudge Report, WikiLeaks and Zerohedge, among others.

As punishment for those news outlets that made their list, PropOrNot called on the congressional leadership and the Obama administration to:

Immediately begin investigations to determine whether any U.S. government action or inaction has allowed Russia to manipulate the US domestic political process, and interfere in the 2016 election, through online propaganda.
Immediately begin investigations to determine whether, by action or inaction, the American public has been deprived of related information that they need to vote in an informed manner.
Work with our European allies to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT financial transaction system, effective immediately and lasting for at least one year, as an appropriate response to Russian manipulation of the election.

Although the Post describes those at PropOrNot as “experts,” they remain anonymous, even the executive director. While the group calls on the FBI to investigate those on their list for espionage, they will not be named themselves. They simply call themselves “civilian Davids taking on a state-based adversary Goliath.”

But they do give something away about their character through immature and childish tweets:

https://twitter.com/propornot/status/802473476279762944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/propornot/status/802243300824449024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

PropOrNot’s credibility is rapidly unraveling, according to Alternet, as credible media outlets dig deeper into its claims and background. At this point, the McCarthyite scare tactics over pro-Russian propaganda slanders reputable and legitimate news sites, according to The Intercept, committing “outright defamation.”

The Washington Post‘s publication of the story, an action described by reputable media outlets as “shameful,” “disgusting,” “lazy,” “deeply troubling,” “problematic,” “bizarre” and “disgraceful,” among other terms, has many media outlets up-in-arms over “McCarthyite” tactics, wondering how a stalwart figure in news reporting allowed such shoddy work to slip through to publication.

The Post has not retracted or rescinded any of its untenable statements, nor has it provided any information regarding its source, methodology, figures, or anything else regarding the shadowy organization. “Most high school papers wouldn’t touch sources like these,” reported the Rolling Stone. “Any sane reporter would have booted them out the door. You want to blacklist hundreds of people, but you won’t put your name to your claims? Take a hike.”