Ben Swann - Russia Hackers or CIA Fake News? Washington Post Fake News on Russian Hacking in Vermont

Russia Hackers or CIA Fake News?
Reality Check: Proof That Those "Moderate Rebels" in Syria are Really Jihadists

Reality Check: Why WaPo's Russia Hacking U.S. Power Grid Story is Epitome of "Fake News"

so the CIA says that Russia did in fact

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attempt to sway the u.s. presidential

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election in favor of Donald Trump and

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while most of the media is taking that

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statement as fact we're pushing back and

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looking at at least five problems with

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this claim this is a reality check you

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won't see anywhere else

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well by now you've heard of the CIA is

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sure that Russia did hack the DNC and

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John Podesta emails with the intent to

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swing the election toward Donald Trump

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and predictably here's how some

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politicians have responded the Russians

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are not our friends

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it defies belief that somehow

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Republicans in the Senate are reluctant

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to either review Russian tactics or

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ignore them

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our men and women in the intelligence

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community who gather and assess

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intelligence are very careful very

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deliberate and if they weren't they

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wouldn't be in the position that they

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occupy but what most media isn't doing

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is actually asking for evidence of these

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claims i'm gonna give you five problems

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with what the CIA is saying problem

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number one how the information was

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released in the first place because the

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CIA did not officially release this

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information rather anonymous sources

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inside the CIA leak this conclusion to

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the washington post on friday and then

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another anonymous source leaked the same

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conclusion to the new york times from

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the post the CIA has concluded in a

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secret assessment that Russia intervened

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in the 2016 election to help Donald

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Trump when the presidency rather than

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just undermine confidence in the u.s.

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electoral system the post goes on to

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report this intelligence agencies have

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identified individuals with connections

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to the Russian government who provided

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WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked

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emails and both the DNC and John

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possesses email accounts so here's the

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second problem here these anonymous

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sources they did not provide any

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evidence to support those statements and

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by releasing the information anonymously

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there's no one accountable to provide

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that proof the third problem here

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the CIA lies maybe they should have been

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the first problem not always but i can

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give you a number of recent stories

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where that agency has made claims that

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have been proven untrue

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there are many public examples but just

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two recent one

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the Senate Intelligence Committee

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blasted the CIA in 2014 for an ongoing

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quote culture of Miss information which

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they said has undermined the public's

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trust in America's intelligence

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leadership also Democratic Senator Ron

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Wyden of Oregon said that quote that

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trust has been seriously undermined by

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senior officials reckless reliance on

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secret interpretations of the law and

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battered by years of misleading and

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deceptive practices within the CIA and

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what about that huge Senate report on

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CIA torture practices remember this was

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a four-year 40 million other Senate

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report it found that the CIA repeatedly

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lied about brutal techniques in the

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years after nine eleven so please excuse

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us if the public needs the CIA to do

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more than just leaked anonymously its

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conclusion that Russia tried to sway the

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election

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oh and by the way the fourth problem

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here even according to the post article

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those CIA investigators they haven't

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even come to an agreement on the

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conclusion again from the post there

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were minor disagreements among

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intelligence officials about the

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agency's assessment in part because some

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questions remain unanswered

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what does that mean one of those

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disagreements and without providing that

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information

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how can we trust these disagreements are

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actually minor since that's of course a

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relative term and that leads us to our

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fifth problem the fact that repeatedly

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Julian Assange the founder of wikileaks

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has said that the DNC leak was not a

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hack it was information leaked to

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WikiLeaks from someone inside the DNC

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will only days ago a former British

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ambassador to with becca Stan Craig

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Murray said that he has met the person

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who gave the DNC emails to a sonj and

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WikiLeaks and he says it is not the

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Russians quote I know who leaked that

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Marie told the UK Guardian I've met the

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person who leaked them and they are

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certainly not Russian and it's an

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insider it's a leak not a hack the two

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are different things so what you need to

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know is that on top of all of these

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questions is one fundamental issue that

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everyone is missing the claim is that

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russia decided to hack the election not

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by altering voting results but by making

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public actual emails from the Clinton

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campaign and the DNC look I have said

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this before and I will say it again

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how bizarre isn't that the argument is

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not the

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options were trying to influence the

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election through lies or electronic

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voting but rather the claim if you

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really boil it down is that the Russian

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sway the election for Donald Trump by

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revealing the truth about the Clinton

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campaign and the truth about the DNC

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that's reality check let's talk about

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that on twitter

 Audio # 2 

 

Reality Check: Why WaPo's Russia Hacking U.S. Power Grid Story is Epitome of "Fake News"
 

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russian hackers penetrated us

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electricity grid through a utility in

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Vermont US officials say that was the

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headline from The Washington Post on

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friday by now you might have heard that

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these Russian hackers attempted to

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access the power grid in Vermont

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the only problem with the story it's not

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true but this fake news story was

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published by the post and yet among most

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media and social sites like Facebook

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there is no outrage over this fake news

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so what happened let's give it a reality

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check so i've got about three minutes to

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explain to let me give you the rundown

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it was friday night 755 p.m. when the

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Washington Post ran its first article

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claiming that Russian hackers connected

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to a high-level Russian government

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operation known as Grizzly steep had

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penetrated the Vermont utility the post

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did not have even one single name source

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for this information and instead was

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relying on an anonymous source from

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Homeland Security and yet that same

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evening between 924 until 6pm the post

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updated the article to state that

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multiple computer systems at the utility

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have been breached quote officials said

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that it was unclear when the code

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entered the Vermont utilities computers

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and that investigation will attempt to

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determine the timing and the nature it

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says of the intrusion of the article

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began to spread on social media and it

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grew from 818 paragraphs but as it grew

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it did not include one single statement

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from the utility in question which is

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why within an hour and a half of that

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first article being published the

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utility company itself came forward

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releasing this statement which actually

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corrected the post article they said

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quote we detected the malware in a

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single burlington electric department

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laptop not connected to our

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organizations grid systems we took

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immediate action to isolate the laptop

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and alerted federal officials of this

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finding

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ok so did you get that it was not the

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power drain it was a single laptop not

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connected to the grid but that laptop

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was still access by Russian hackers

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right well no maybe not and here's why

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burlington electric said in a statement

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that the company well it detected a

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malware code used in the Grizzly step

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operation but the malware in question is

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actually available for purchase online

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that means anyone could have used it or

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what is most likely here is that an

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employee using that laptop had access

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the website infected with malware five

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days after blowing this story the post

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finally admitted it got it wrong saying

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this the post initially reported

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incorrectly that the country's electric

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grid have been penetrated through a

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Vermont utility after burlington

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electric released a statement saying

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that the potentially compromised laptop

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had not been connected to the grid the

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post immediately corrected this article

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and later added an editor's note

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explaining the change

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yeah but that's really not true see the

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paper kept changing and amending the

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story with no editors notes explaining

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what was being changed and Forbes

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explain it like this

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the following morning nearly 11 hours

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after changing the headline and

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rewriting the article to indicate that

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the grid itself was never breached and

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that the hack was only an isolated

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laptop with malware the post still had

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not offended any kind of editorial note

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to indicate that it had significantly

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changed the focus of the article so what

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you need to know is that glenn greenwald

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makes a great point when he says that

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journalists especially in cases like

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this must not simply accept what

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government state as absolute truth

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remember it was a DHS source who

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initially leaked the story but likely

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happen here

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someone from DHS tipped off the post

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reporter about Russians hacking the u.s.

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power grid and the paper decided to

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simply believe that source rather than

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take the basic journalistic step of

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checking the facts

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it is precisely for these reasons that

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news organizations cannot simply accept

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anyone's word government law enforcement

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trusted sources the average citizen it

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doesn't matter without verifying the

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basic facts because to not do so well

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that is the real definition of fake news

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that's reality check let's talk about it

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on Twitter

Published on Jan 6, 2017

 

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