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