# Washington Post: Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 25, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945 "2016-11-25T03:41:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/241 "2016-12-12T19:17:31Z")
> [@pleks](#): > > …Here’s the simplest example: Anderson Cooper of CNN reports that a certain person never changed her “story”. > Donald Trump immediately produces the evidence that it’s a lie and the “story” has definetely changed. Anderson Cooper is forced to admit his fake reporting. > > It would literally take 5 seconds for Anderson Cooper (or, more likely, one of the myriads of "reporters" that CNN employs) to get its fact straight. Yet, they refuse to do so. (post shortened) Anderson Cooper’s biased/incorrect/fake news/twist/spin of the Lewandowski/Michelle Fields incident only hurt Cooper’s and CNN reputation. Every news media outlet that would like to be known as a news media outlet could have verified the facts of this story BEFORE they repeated Field’s version as if it were fact. And the news media wonders why they have lost credibility. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/242 "2016-12-12T19:19:06Z")
Or they could have just said whatever they wanted to and prefaced it with “People are saying…” ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/243 "2016-12-12T19:26:21Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Not so sure on that one, my impression was that the Pubbie stuff wasn’t released to anyone. I am open to citation, but that is my understanding as I type. > > The DNC stuff was pertinent because it was about stiffing Bernie. What would the RNC stuff reveal? That they didn’t want Trump? We already know that, right? There is still no evidence that the RNC was even hacked. It seems that “someone” is claiming that the RNC was hacked. Does that “someone” have any evidence that the RNC was actually hacked, or is this just another one of those _fake news_ stories that have become so popular? ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/244 "2016-12-12T19:28:05Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Not so sure on that one, my impression was that the Pubbie stuff wasn’t released to anyone. I am open to citation, but that is my understanding as I type. AFAIU (and I am open to correction, of course) there is nothing indicating that any RNC emails were compromised. From what I have seen, it has been determined that one email account of an RNC employee that has left several years ago was compromised, and last summer some emails [“from Republican campaigns and state GOP staffers”](http://www.thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/291317-gop-emails-leaked-on-site-connected-to-russian-hackers) were released. Other than that, I have seen no proof of the breathless pronouncements that “RNC was hacked too, but its emails were not released”. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/245 "2016-12-12T19:37:47Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > If I tell my buddy, “Hey, it sure would be great for all of us if someone murdered Tim,” I’m not sure it matters that I was joking when my buddy murders Tim. I don’t think the real timeliness matches your analogy. I’m pretty sure the DNC had already been hacked when Trump made his joke, and then neither the Russians nor anyone else managed to recover the 33,000 emails Clinton’s staff deleted. This is more like: Tim got murdered, then you joke with your buddies that it would be great if someone also murdered Tim’s brother Jim, but no one ever kills Jim. ---
**Author:** ![Neo-Calredic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/96bed5/32.png) [@Neo-Calredic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neo-Calredic)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/246 "2016-12-12T22:03:53Z")
> [@pleks](#): > > I get my news from the same source every normal person gets it–from looking at the number of Electoral votes won by Donald Trump and comparing them with the number of Electoral votes won by his opponent. > Out of curiousity, why did you decide to introduce into the mix what appear to be random and irrelevant benchmarks, such as pre-election polling and popular vote? > Whoever led you to believe that these things matter has misled you. > Btw, is [this](http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2016/forecast/president) the kind of pre-election polling you refer to? So, still not answering the question about what news sources you consider trustworthy, huh? ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/247 "2016-12-12T22:39:13Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > In terms of publicly asking a foreign nation to hack into your opponent’s emails and publicize them, implying they’ll receive rich rewards for doing so, there’s a significant difference which sort of emails are involved? > > I disagree. Of course the specific emails Trump requested to be “hacked” were considered lost and had already been deleted by HRC and Co. So it was more like “Hey Russians, you seem to have the technological expertise the FBI seems to lack or is unwilling to use, so do the American people a solid on this one.” And also, these emails were never published, so it isn’t like Trump made a request and Russia followed through on said request like some partisans are implying. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/248 "2016-12-12T22:46:58Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > If I tell my buddy, “Hey, it sure would be great for all of us if someone murdered Tim,” I’m not sure it matters that I was joking when my buddy murders Tim. Except nobody murdered Tim. They murdered Tim’s campaign manager. Trump wanted HRC’s deleted emails. The Russians allegedly responded to this by hacking Podesta. Your analogy fails, sorry. I haven’t checked the timelines on all of this, did the hacking of Podesta occur before Trump made his request? I know the release occured after, but the actual hacking could have occured before considering WikiLeaks sits on this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/249 "2016-12-12T23:01:25Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I haven’t checked the timelines on all of this, did the hacking of Podesta occur before Trump made his request? I know the release occured after, but the actual hacking could have occured before considering WikiLeaks sits on this stuff. Trump’s statement was on July 27, 2016. As much as it can be determined, the Podesta “hack” (really was a “phish”, but whatever) happened around [March 19, 2016](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/10/29/how-podesta-got-hacked-password-email-revealed-in-wikileaks-dump.html) or [maybe March 20](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-hackers-broke-into-john-podesta-and-colin-powells-gmail-accounts). ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/250 "2016-12-13T00:28:34Z")
These attempts to defend treason are quite sad, really. Well, if 2016 has taught the world anything, it’s that ideology\>reason+morals. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/251 "2016-12-13T00:54:16Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > These attempts to defend treason are quite sad, really. > > Well, if 2016 has taught the world anything, it’s that ideology\>reason+morals. Lol no. Trump lacks an ideology. 2016 taught the world that new \> old. That’s it. If you want to make something bigger out of it, you’re probably crafting a “think piece”. What’s sad to me is mindless unsubstantiated accusations of treason by neo-McCarthyites. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/252 "2016-12-13T01:12:04Z")
Lies, Putin envy, misogyny, cluelessness and bombast are “new?” ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/253 "2016-12-13T02:39:00Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Lol no. Trump lacks an ideology. 2016 taught the world that new \> old. That’s it. If you want to make something bigger out of it, you’re probably crafting a “think piece”. > > What’s sad to me is mindless unsubstantiated accusations of treason by neo-McCarthyites. Why do you think that a lack of ideology rules out treason? You would associate a right-wing ideology with treason? ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/254 "2016-12-13T03:19:31Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > These attempts to defend treason are quite sad, really. > > Well, if 2016 has taught the world anything, it’s that ideology\>reason+morals. As a child of the 80s, and a former Republican, that the party of Reagan has been reduced to this is pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/255 "2016-12-13T09:20:29Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > These attempts to defend treason are quite sad, really. > > Well, if 2016 has taught the world anything, it’s that ideology\>reason+morals. Where’s the treason? ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/256 "2016-12-13T09:22:25Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > If the NYT or WashPo received data from both the RNC and DNC and chose to only release the damaging DNC data explicitly to elect the Republican candidate, your equivalence would not be false. But, alas, that’s not what happened, so it is. The media ran with lots of stuff to damage Trump. After the media promoted Trump to damage the Republican Party. And now the media is talking about fake news. How sad. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/257 "2016-12-13T12:48:59Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Why do you think that a lack of ideology rules out treason? You would associate a right-wing ideology with treason? The poster made two wrong claims. One was that 2016 was about ideology vs. reason and morals. The other was that there has been evidence of treason by Trump. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/258 "2016-12-13T12:50:45Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Lies, Putin envy, misogyny, cluelessness and bombast are “new?” Trump was new. Everything he did was new to American politics. Clinton was old. Everything she did was stale. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/259 "2016-12-13T13:03:12Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Trump was new. Everything he did was new to American politics. Clinton was old. Everything she did was stale. And she still got more votes than Trump. Yes, I know. Not in the right places to make her President. All those “urban” votes don’t count. Or count about 3/5’s… And Trump is hauling out a bunch of old, stale fools & tycoons for his cabinet. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945/260 "2016-12-13T13:13:10Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > And she still got more votes than Trump. > > Yes, I know. Not in the right places to make her President. All those “urban” votes don’t count. Or count about 3/5’s… > > And Trump is hauling out a bunch of old, stale fools & tycoons for his cabinet. Your anger is not a refutation of my claims. Trump beat Clinton. Trump’s approach was new, which is why you are so angry. Clinton’s approach was stale. So in 2016 new\>old. The other guy said ideology\>reason and morals. Not true. Ideology, reason, and morals were absent on both sides. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-post-russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/772945.md?page=14)