SKEWERING THE WASHINGTON POST

If you are into truly scathing newspaper commentaries – in this case, from John Merline at Investors Business Daily (IBD) –  which mince no words in attacking another newspaper – in this case, the eminently deserving Washington Post…

…today is your lucky day.

Mr. Merline has done a skewering job on The Post that would turn the owner of a shish kebab restaurant green with envy.

Here is just a, er, taste:

On Friday, the Washington Post published an earth-shattering report that Russian hackers had infiltrated the U.S. electricity grid through a Vermont utility.

This was huge news, and for good reason. If Russian hackers, or any hackers for that matter, had found their way into the U.S. electricity grid, there would be almost no end to the harm they could cause. Not surprisingly, the Post story spread like wildfire.

But it turns out that none of it was true. Zip. Zero. Nada.

There was no code, the grid was never at risk, and the “threat,” such as it was, had nothing to do with Russia.

In fact, hours after the story posted, it was updated to note that the utility in question said there was only one computer involved — not “computers” — which wasn’t in any way connected to the power grid. Strike one.

Three days later, the story fell apart completely.

Worse, the Post tried to bamboozle the public about what happened. 

Just a few weeks earlier, the Post had to basically retract another story, this one claiming Russian propaganda officials had spread fake news in the run-up to the election to help Donald Trump. The Vermont utility story also directly tied the breach to the Russian’s alleged hack of the DNC.

In other words, both of these fake news stories conveniently amplified the Democratic Party’s narrative that Russia had tilted the election in Trump’s favor. That’s a serious breach of journalistic ethics if ever there was one.

The public deserves a fuller accounting from a newspaper as influential as the Washington Post, and some clear evidence that it is taking concrete steps to ensure that it is honestly and fairly reporting the news, not making it up to help Democrats.

Wow.

And let me again remind you that this is just a taste.  Read the entire piece and you’ll find plenty more.

If the Washington Post responds to Mr. Merline’s commentary, I’ll let you know.

I can’t wait to see what kind of an answer it can come up with.