George Eliason — Untying PropOrNot: Who They Are … and a Look at 2017’s Biggest Fake News Story

In this article, you’ll meet some of the people staffing Propornot. You’ll meet the people and publications that provide their expenses and cover the logistics. You’ll meet a few of the deep state players. We’ll deal with them very soon. They need to see this as the warning shot over the bow and start playing nice with regular people. After that, you’ll meet the NGO’s that are funding and orchestrating all of it. How am I doing so far?

In-depth analysis.

Washington's Blog
Untying PropOrNot: Who They Are … and a Look at 2017’s Biggest Fake News Story
George Eliason, an American journalist living in Ukraine.

The Russia Explainer — Who’s behind PropOrNot? I have a theory (with forensic linguistics!)

Michael Weiss?

The Russia Explainer
Who’s behind PropOrNot? I have a theory (with forensic linguistics!)

(Hank DeBwankey‏ @russiaexplainer)

RT Anti-Russia 'propaganda' group PropOrNot urges reporter to drop story on CIA arming Syrian rebels

PropOrNot caught out.

RT
Anti-Russia 'propaganda' group urges reporter to drop story on CIA arming Syrian rebels

Bill Boyarsky — Investigation Into ‘PropOrNot Blacklist Case’ Finds Shoddy Methods and an Ominous Potential

In-depth analysis of PropOrNot. Bayarsky concludes that the aim not exposure but censorship. Neo-McCarthyism. And this would likely have gone nowhere without promotion by the Washington Post.

Truthdig

Investigation Into ‘PropOrNot Blacklist Case’ Finds Shoddy Methods and an Ominous Potential

Bill Boyarsky | Truthdig columnist, former city editor of the Los Angeles Times, former lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California and former member of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission

Yves Smith — NBC Evening News in Denver Defames Naked Capitalism

"There's no such thing as bad publicity." Stuff like this will just drive up traffic to the venues being attacked. 

Naked Capitalism
NBC Evening News in Denver Defames Naked Capitalism
Yves Smith

Kurt Nimmo — PropOrNot: Evidence of a CIA Psychological Operation

Tracing the covert connection. Lots of tentacles. Shows how ridiculous and hypocritical the US is being based on false equivalence regarding state sponsored propaganda, disinformation and information war.

The article mentions Cass Sunstein but fails to include that he is the spouse of Samantha Power.

Newsbud
PropOrNot: Evidence of a CIA Psychological Operation

Kurt Nimmo

Yves Smith — The Washington Post Responds to Our Letter Demanding a Retraction and Apology for Its Article Defaming Naked Capitalism and Other Sites

Looks like this will end up in court.

Naked Capitalism
The Washington Post Responds to Our Letter Demanding a Retraction and Apology for Its Article Defaming Naked Capitalism and Other Sites

Yves Smith

Yves: Please tweet and circulate this letter widely.

Naked Capitalism
We Demand That the Developer of “Fake News” Blacklist Software B.S. Detector Cease Distribution and Issue an Apology
Yves Smith

Moar links on fake news

All links below are from Naked Capitalism

Black Agenda Report
White Supremacy, U.S. Exceptionalism and Capitalist Dogma are All “Fake News”

Glen Ford | BAR executive editor

Columbia Journalism Review
Washington Post fake news story blurs the definition of fake news

David Uberti, CJR

Jonathan Turly
Washington Post Issues Correction To “Fake News” Story 

Jonathan Turly

Free Thought Project
Corporate Media Admits Its Own ‘Russian Propaganda’ Story May Be ‘Fake News’

The Guardian
Hillary Clinton warns fake news can have ‘real world consequences’ 

Lauren Gambino

Business Insider
Top Clinton ally hints at a major battle against fake news

Maxwell Tani

Truthdig — Here’s The Washington Post’s Letter Responding to Truthdig’s Demand for a Retraction

Legal battle looming. The Washington Post is doubling down.

Truthdig
Here’s The Washington Post’s Letter Responding to Truthdig’s Demand for a Retraction

Dan Wright — PropOrNot Not Only Smears Journalists, But Adds Fuel To Next Cold War

Anyone with a cursory knowledge of American history knows the US intelligence services are not above targeting their own citizens for disinformation campaigns. In perhaps the most famous case, the CIA employed a cadre of journalists to spread disinformation during the Cold War under a program known as Operation Mockingbird.

The program was supervised at the time by the publisher of The Washington Post, the late Paul Graham, and included approximately 3,000 writers, editors, and publishers.

The network was not just large, but pervasive throughout the mainstream media. According to Carl Bernstein, the network included: CBS, Time Inc., The New York Times, NBC, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps‑Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the New York Herald-Tribune....

The Washington Post is still deeply connected to the CIA. The new owner of the Post, Jeff Bezos, is also the CEO of Amazon, which has a $600 million contract with the CIA for cloud computing services.…

Again, who is PropOrNot? Is it a front group for US or Ukrainian intelligence, or just some group of trolls? Does The Washington Post know? Does the Washington Post care?
Or is the hunt for “fake news” and foreign propaganda really about silencing dissent and undercutting new media competitors? These questions need to be answered.

Deep state operation?

Firedoglake

PropOrNot Not Only Smears Journalists, But Adds Fuel To Next Cold War
Dan Wright

CJ Hopkins — Manufacturing Normality

Hopkins is a satirist. This is a well-crafted humorous takedown that is well deserved. It is also deadly serious and a wakeup call to a hijacking in progress.

As I suggested in these pages previously, what we are experiencing is the pathologization (or the “abnormalization”) of political dissent, i.e., the systematic stigmatization of any and all forms of non-compliance with neoliberal consensus reality. Political distinctions like “left” and “right” are disappearing, and are being replaced by imponderable distinctions like “normal” and “abnormal,” “true” and “false,” and “real” and “fake.” Such distinctions do not lend themselves to argument. They are proffered to us as axiomatic truths, empirical facts which no normal person would ever dream of contradicting.

In place of competing political philosophies, the neoliberal intelligentsia is substituting a simpler choice, “normality” or “abnormality.” The nature of the “abnormality” varies according to what is being stigmatized. Today it’s “Corbyn the anti-Semite,” tomorrow it’s “Sanders the racist crackpot,” or “Trump the Manchurian candidate,” or whatever. That the smears themselves are indiscriminate (and, in many instances, totally ridiculous) belies the effectiveness of the broader strategy, which is simply to abnormalize the target and whatever he or she represents. It makes no difference whether one is smeared as a racist, as Sanders was during the primaries, or as an anti-Semite, as Corbyn has been, or a fascist, as Trump has relentlessly been, or peddlers of Russian propaganda, as Truthout, CounterPunch, Naked Capitalism, and a number of other publications have been … the message is, they are somehow “not normal.”

Send them to the locked down psychiatric ward. (snark)

Counterpunch
Manufacturing Normality
CJ Hopkins — American playwright and satirist based in Berlin.

Yves Smith — Washington Post Makes Bare Minimum Retreat from Article Defaming Naked Capitalism and Other Sites

The Post has made clear that it does not consider fairness and accuracy to be important. How can journalists there, who, unlike Timberg, care about the integrity of their work, feel comfortable working for a management that is promoting a rush to the bottom in the interest of getting stories out faster and getting more eyeballs? And why should the public at large trust the Post? After the firestorm of criticism, the editors and publishers of the Post should recognize that they have a serious quality control problem. If Timberg and the editors responsible are not fired or demoted, this sends a clear message to all other writers that anything goes.

Naked Capitalism
Washington Post Makes Bare Minimum Retreat from Article Defaming Naked Capitalism and Other Sites
Yves Smith

John Helmer — Amazon.Com Announces All Products May Be Defective – Russian Fake News And Kremlin Propaganda To Blame For Future Billion-Dollar Collapse Of Sales, Share Price

Cutting to the chase and going directly after Jeff Bezos to make corporate media responsive.

Some interesting revelations about PropOrNot, too.

Dances with Bears

Amazon.Com Announces All Products May Be Defective – Russian Fake News And Kremlin Propaganda To Blame For Future Billion-Dollar Collapse Of Sales, Share Price

John Helmer

Mark Ames — The Anonymous Blacklist Promoted by the Washington Post Has Apparent Ties to Ukrainian Fascism and CIA Spying

Mark Ames lands another knockout punch, connecting the Trump hearts Putin meme, the "Russian hack," and the PropOrNot site with Ukrainian nationalists sewing disinformation in the US media.

AlterNer
The Anonymous Blacklist Promoted by the Washington Post Has Apparent Ties to Ukrainian Fascism and CIA Spying
Mark Ames, editor at Exiledonline

Pam and Russ Martens — Who’s Behind PropOrNot’s Blacklist of News Websites

The Martens do some sleuthing into PropOrNot's anonymity, while holding their noses.

Wall Street On Parade
Who’s Behind PropOrNot’s Blacklist of News Websites
Pam Martens and Russ Martens

Yves Smith — PropOrNot’s Grandiose Fabrications

The intended mission of PropOrNot revealed. Not only intimidation but also censorship. Admit the error of your ways and you will be removed from The List.

PropOrNot has been eager to get sites to contact them to engage in “constructive conversation,” as they suggested in Reddit that it would be just peachy if TruthDig “were to reach out to us, though, we would probably have a constructive conversation with them that would result in their removal!”

In other words, PropOrNot, contrary to its claims of merely providing analysis, is seeking to act as a censor. In corporate-speak, “constructive conversation” is the sort of thing one has with an employee who is being put on warning for possible termination.

Naked Capitalism
PropOrNot’s Grandiose Fabrications
Yves Smith

Yves Smith — We Launch PropOrNot.Org To Identify Inept Propagandists and School Amplifiers Like The Washington Post on How to Spot Them

We trust readers will enjoy and link to our new site, PropOrNot.org: Your Friendly Guide to Better Propaganda. Its aim is to combat serious deterioration of the standards of American propaganda, with the ultimate goal of restoring the US to its standing of a propaganda export powerhouse....

Humor is often the best weapon.

Naked Capitalism
We Launch PropOrNot.Org To Identify Inept Propagandists and School Amplifiers Like The Washington Post on How to Spot Them
Yves Smith

Yves Smith — We Demand That The Washington Post Retract Its Propaganda Story Defaming Naked Capitalism and Other Sites and Issue an Apology

As the lawyers like to say, res ipsa loquitur. Please tweet and circulate this letter widely. You will notice that our attorney Jim Moody is a seasoned litigator who has won cases before the Supreme Court. He has considerable experience in First Amendment and defamation actions. Past high profile representations include Westomoreland v. CBS and defending Linda Tripp.

I also hope, particularly for those of you who don’t regularly visit Naked Capitalism, that you’ll check out our related pieces that give more color to how the fact the Washington Post was taken for a ride by inept propagandists, particularly our introduction to our spoof PropOrNot.org site, which uses the PropOrNot project as an example of sorely deficient propaganda and shows where it went wrong, or the humor site itself. Be sure not to miss its FAQ.

We have another post today that describes how the few things that are verifiable on the PropOrNot site don’t pan out, as in the organization is not simply a group of inept propagandists but also appears to deal solely in fabrications. If the site is flagrantly false with respect to things that can be checked, why pray tell did the Washington Post and its fellow useful idiots in the mainstream media validate and amplify its message? Strong claims demand strong proofs, yet the Post appeared content to give a megaphone to people who make stuff up with abandon. No wonder the members of PropOrNot hide as much as they can about what they are up to; more transparency would expose their work to be a tissue of lies.

Naked Capitalism
We Demand That The Washington Post Retract Its Propaganda Story Defaming Naked Capitalism and Other Sites and Issue an Apology
Yves Smith

Norman Solomon — WPost Won’t Retract McCarthyistic Smear

The Post doubles down. Opposition gears up.

The takeaway is twofold. First, the Clinton backers are not only in deep denial but don't accept the legitimacy of the 2016 US presidential election. They have become unhinged and are dangerous.

Secondly, the Establishment is gearing for a media war with the new president, who has a reputation for getting even and has his own media arm in the person of Steve Bannon and in Breitbart News. Donald Trump is also adept at social media and is unlikely to abandon it as a tool. 

Expect the Establishment media that doesn't fall into line to discover that they no longer have access and are shut out in the cold, having to get their news from other sources. The result will be an increase in fake news as the Establishment attempts to recapture dominance of the narrative.

Consortium News
WPost Won’t Retract McCarthyistic Smear
Norman Solomon | co-founder of the online activist group RootsAction.org