Current and ongoing news across the world
Russia Hysteria Infects WashPost Again: False Story About Hacking U.S. Electric Grid
The Washington Post on Friday reported an genuinely alarming event: Russian hackers have penetrated the U.S. power system through an electrical grid in Vermont.
Russia Hysteria Infects WashPost Again: False Story About Hacking U.S. Electric Grid
theintercept.com




Mass media has been publishing fake news ever since there's been a mass media. What's has changed is they are being exposed in a big way for the first time in history.
Back when news papers were a thing, they made corrections days later in a section of the paper that no one reads or notices. They'd get caught and come clean but without any real consequence.
"PHENOMENAL COSMIC HEADLINE. itty bitty correction." - The Genie from Aladdin*
In one sense it's not too much different now. Even if the article is corrected, who goes back to read that correction? And by most accounts, by the time they make their correction, they already got the bulk of the clicks that they were going to get. Yeah, they got their reward and all the corrections in the world isn't going to unclick the article.
* Update: Genie didn't actually say that
The difference today is that their lies and "errors" live on forever on the web, never to be forgotten.