Posted on 11/24/2016 9:32:21 PM PST by bigbob
The flood of “fake news” this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy, say independent researchers who tracked the operation.
Russia’s increasingly sophisticated propaganda machinery — including thousands of botnets, teams of paid human “trolls,” and networks of websites and social-media accounts — echoed and amplified right-wing sites across the Internet as they portrayed Clinton as a criminal hiding potentially fatal health problems and preparing to hand control of the nation to a shadowy cabal of global financiers. The effort also sought to heighten the appearance of international tensions and promote fear of looming hostilities with nuclear-armed Russia.
Two teams of independent researchers found that the Russians exploited American-made technology platforms to attack U.S. democracy at a particularly vulnerable moment, as an insurgent candidate harnessed a wide range of grievances to claim the White House. The sophistication of the Russian tactics may complicate efforts by Facebook and Google to crack down on “fake news,” as they have vowed to do after widespread complaints about the problem.
There is no way to know whether the Russian campaign proved decisive in electing Trump, but researchers portray it as part of a broadly effective strategy of sowing distrust in U.S. democracy and its leaders. The tactics included penetrating the computers of election officials in several states and releasing troves of hacked emails that embarrassed Clinton in the final months of her campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I see the MSM is putting out fake stories about where the fake stories really came from (them). Damn I bet it’s hard to be a propagandist arm of the WH and keep your stories straight. One thing I really despise about the MSM is how dumb they think people are. Well maybe they are are almost half right...
When Russia did it in the 1980s with the Nuclear Freeze movement, the Washington Post was a willing participant. No stories about Soviet lies and manipulations back then.
Yep.
Trying to cover their butts when the pizza sauce hits the fan.
““Fake News” - the new rallying cry of the left. Pay attention, fellow Freepers...”
This is a REAL danger to Democracy, folks.
The DNC Plan is to justify censorship of opposing viewpoints across ALL platforms. They are livid that our media exposed them for the shills, PAID SHILLS, in many instances, that they are.
And there are literally BILLIONS of dollars at stakes for the people who control the big media conglomerates.
And I don't think the Washington Post thinks the D+9 polls the MSM loved to be the fake news in question.
Social Justice crusader Father Coughlin was against it after that.
And thank you for doing it
The “fake news” concept sure seems recent, but it’s getting the downhill snowball effect. Of course everyone (I’d assumed) with some web experience knows you can’t believe everything you read on the internet. There was a time, however, when people did believe that if it was in print, it must be true.
“It was all a dream, children! Go back to sleep ... Please!”
The “fake news” invented by democrat “experts”. When the whining is being done by “experts”, then you know it’s bs.
print journalism is still struggling with the legitimacy of internet news. print journalism is decreasing in importance and has not hit bottom yet, due to the internet. as a result, print journalists periodically attack the internet’s legitimacy due to one premise or another over the years.
So the Washington Post is trying to tell us there’s nothing wrong with Hillary’s brain after all those “I don’t recalls?”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
