Examining the Bizarre Facebook Page of the Snopes ‘Fact-Checker’ of the White Helmets Terrorist Ruse in Syria

This post will delve into the Facebook postings, acquaintances and associations of Bethania Palma Markus who is the Snopes writer cited as the official so called ‘debunker’ of the claims that the White Helmets are terrorists posing as humanitarian aid workers in Syria. The official Wikipedia link of the White Helmets provides a citation from Snopes that leads to an article written by Bethania Palma Markus. Due to the fact that the Syrian war is such an important issue where millions of people are being displaced and killed one would think that highly professional and serious organizations/individuals would facilitate a proper non-biased investigation and verification of facts related to the war and organizations that facilitate Syrian war related propaganda. However, this does not appear to be the case. A quick look at the currently open Facebook page of Snopes employed writer Bethania Palma Markus shows that professionalism is being seriously disregarded.

Snopes which is used by Facebook and numerous mainstream media organizations for ‘fact-checking’ in the new “fake news” environment which was implemented, propogated and rolled out by the Washington Post and the secret group PropOrNot, is in fact employing a person whose Facebook page reveals them to be quite an odd character with many dubious connections that seem to point towards obvious bias and even online association with members of the FSA terrorist networks in Syria that are affiliated with the White Helmets who are in fact violent Islamic terrorists posing as humanitarian rescuers.

The fact that Snopes writer Bethania Palma Markus is considered the “go-to” source for accurate information on the White Helmets activities in Syria is truly an abomination and should be further examined by competent professional authorites. Here forth, I will layout the case that this person appears to be way out of their depth and is likely an incompetent propagandist. I will do this by utilizing screen captured images from their open Facebook page. The fact that Bethania Palma Markus left her personal Facebook page open for public viewing also should be taken into consideration when judging her competence, intelligence and character.

Link to the official Wikipedia White Helmets page where Snopes is cited for verification.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Helmets_(Syrian_Civil_War)

Screen captured images from the White Helmets Wikipedia page:

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Screenshot of Snopes citation at Wikipedia page

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Screenshot of Snopes cited link from Wikipedia page

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Wikipedia link 77 leads to the following Snopes cited article

http://www.snopes.com/syrian-rescue-organization-the-white-helmets-are-terrorists/

Screen capture from Snopes article cited by Wikipedia

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The UNPROVEN claim put forth by Snopes is provided by Snopes employee Bethania Palma Markus as verified by the following screenshot also taken from the same article Wikipedia cited above

bethania-palma-snopes-cite

Clicking on Bethania Palma Markus’s name at the Snopes link provides a glimpse at her attached Snopes bio/articles

snopes-articles-by-bethania

Now here’s where it gets really interesting and quite bizarre. The screen captured images below come directly from the Facebook page of Bethania Palma Markus. I have included snapped screenshots that include friends, associations and family members so that it can be easily verified that this is in fact the real Facebook page of Bethania Palma Markus. The page includes obvious Snopes affiliations, anti-Trump political biases, numerous media connections and various ‘friends’, some of which make up nefarious elements of the Syrian opposition forces associated with FSA terrorist groups.

Link to Facebook page of Bethania Palma Markus based out of Los Angelas, California

Screenshot of her Facebook page

facebook-1

Because the page is so bizarre I thought it necessary to add screen caps of family links in order for readers to understand that it is indeed her real Facebook page. Her friends list includes the controversial Snopes writer Kim LaCapria as well as Snopes founder David Mikkelson, plus various family members with the same name.

friends-and-snopes-family

Long angle screenshot provides more defined context

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Here is an example of an odd conversation from Bethania’s Facebook page

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On February 7th she changed her Facebook profile picture to Fred Armisen from the TV show Portlandia. These odd and petulant posts beg the question “Why is a person who posts absurd things like this being considered as the “arbiter of truth” when it comes to the White Helmet terrorist ruse and the atrocities that are being associated with them and the horrific Syrian war which is taking place thousands of miles away from their own home in Los Angeles?”

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A look at the pages she likes shows her connections……. and her obvious biases.

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2nd set of likes…..oddly the Satanic Temple is included amongst her likes.

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Now here’s where it gets much more interesting……this screen capture of people Bethania Palma Markus follows shows one Hamid Khalib who is one of the self appointed civilian ‘photographers’ who has been aligned with the FSA and the White Helmets who are actually terrorists posing as humanitarian rescuers in Syria. Hamid Khalib’s photos/propaganda is often used by Reuters and other western mainstream media outlets to provide propaganda information for public consumption, and for support of the overthrow of the Syrian government.

following

Link to my previous post on the aforementioned subject:

Massive White Helmets Photo Cache Proves Hollywood Gave Oscar to Terrorist Group

Now lets examine the link and screenshots from Hamid Khalib’s Facebook  page-

https://www.facebook.com/ham.khatib?fref=st

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Note that in the photo above he is clearly on the side of the FSA. The FSA has been filmed on numerous occasions conducting atrocities and working with terrorist groups. Please see my additional posts related to FSA activities and connections to terrorist groups:

White Helmets Exposed: Numerous Videos and Photo Evidence Directly Link White Helmets to FSA Terrorists Torture and Atrocities

Note that Abdullah Badawi is the person in the lower photo sitting with Hamid Khalib at the table. Here’s a link to his Facebook page which shows that he shares the posts of Bilal Abdul Kareem who is one of the lead terrorist propaganda disseminators and has been filmed on numerous occasions giving praises and interviews to Abdullah al-Muhaysini who is the leader of al-Nusra Front in Syria. Bilal led the “Last Messages from Aleppo” propaganda campaign in December 2016 when Syrian and Russian armed forces liberated Aleppo from the terrorist groups.

Abdullah Badawi Facebook page plus screenshot: abdullah-to-kareem

Alternet December 29, 2016 – Bilal Abdul Kareem, Prominent U.S. ‘Journalist’ in Syria, Serves as Mouthpiece for Violent Extremists A closer look at Bilal Abdul Kareem’s body of work reveals an established record of creating sectarian propaganda for extremist Syrian rebels.

Video link -Bilal Abdul Kareem interviews al-Nusra Front terrorist Abdullah Muhaysini.

On Nov. 10th the US State Department designated the Saudi cleric terrorist number one and the leader of al-Nusra Front terrorist group in Syria.

Treasury Designates Key Al-Nusrah Front Leaders

https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl0605.aspx?src=ilaw

11/10/2016

Action Targets al-Nusrah Front’s Financial Facilitation Networks

Excerpt –

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action today to disrupt al-Nusrah Front’s military, recruitment, and financing operations. Specifically, OFAC designated four key al-Nusrah Front leaders – Abdallah Muhammad Bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini, Jamal Husayn Zayniyah, Abdul Jashari, and Ashraf Ahmad Fari al-Allak – pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of these designated individuals subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

These designations were taken in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, which today named Jabhat Fath al Sham as an alias of al-Nusrah Front – al-Qa’ida’s affiliate in Syria.

“From recruiting fighters to raising funds, these sanctioned individuals are responsible for providing key financial and logistical support to al-Nusrah Front,” said John E. Smith, Acting OFAC Director. “Treasury will continue to target al-Nusrah Front’s financial networks and choke off their access to the international financial system.”

Abdallah Muhammad Bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini

Abdallah Muhammad Bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini was designated for acting for or on behalf of, and providing support and services to or in support of, al-Nusrah Front.

As of late 2015, al-Muhaysini was an accepted member of al-Nusrah Front’s inner leadership circle. As of July 2015, Abdallah al-Muhaysini served as al-Nusrah Front’s religious advisor and represented al-Nusrah Front in an Idlib Province, Syria, military operations room. He has been involved in recruiting fighters to join al-Nusrah Front and helping to form a new al-Nusrah Front “state” in northern Syria. In April 2016, Muhaysini launched a campaign to recruit 3,000 child and teenage soldiers across northern Syria for al-Nusrah Front.

Al-Muhaysini has played a crucial role in providing financial aid to al-Nusrah Front. Between 2013 and 2015, al-Muhaysini raised millions of dollars to support al-Nusrah Front governance efforts in Idlib Province, Syria. As of early October 2015, al-Muhaysini had set up institutions providing financial aid to terrorist groups, including a highly successful campaign that he claimed had secured $5 million in donations to arm fighters.

End excerpt –

What all the above information points to is a serious breach of integrity on the part of Snopes and their obviously biased, immature and unprofessional writer Bethania Palma Markus. This person is supplying ‘fact-check’ data to Wikipedia, the mainstream media, the general public and social media sites such as Facebook on the Syrian war which is an extremely important geopolitical issue which affects millions of lives. A life and death issue such as whether the White Helmets are terrorists or not deserves to be examined by real investigative professionals, and the power to conduct such an investigation should not be charged to someone with such a strange, petulant mindset coupled with verifiable, obvious biases.

Further proof that Bethania Palma Markus’s Facebook page shows bias is in the additional friends she has under her friends list which include the following individuals and organizations:

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The Black Lives Matter link she has on her page is also highly relevant due to the fact that George Soros supplied the group funding and he is also involved with the funding of opposition groups in Syria through Avaaz which is associated with MoveOn.org. Soros has a reputation for funding both sides of movements and hijacking SJW causes in order to incite conflict and produce desired results that benefit him.

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Please see my research on the subject of Soros funding Syrian activism groups here:

Avaaz involved in Syria linked to MoveOn, SumOfUs, Purpose, Soros activism

Additional links related to Soros funding…..

Free Thought Project – Leaked Soros Memo Reveals Potential Plan to Use Black Lives Matter to Federalize US Police Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/soros-memo-blm-federalized-police/#ZcgW3S4RAWMYjcXo.99

Washington Times – Black Lives Matter cashes in with $100 million from liberal foundations

The following link provides an example of how the Deep State and Snopes most likely really works……

Step 1: Create a false story (quote) and attribute it to other groups.

Step 2: Debunk the false quote while painting your adversaries as false news propagators

Pretty simple formula……..anyone can do it if they have enough money. Here’s an example of how Snopes debunks a story.

quote ostensibly uttered by billionaire George Soros about his goal of ‘bringing down the United States’ by funding ‘Black Hate groups’ is fake.

More Facebook friends and associates of Bethania Palma Markus highlighting Snopes media connections and what appears to be clear bias….

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All these connections and apparently biased ‘reporting’ paints the larger picture of how war propaganda is being disseminated in the United States and around the world in the year 2017.

Caveat: All information contained in the above post was attained from open internet sources and Facebook webpages. All this information is considered theoretical for legal reasons, however, my asserted theories are backed up by information that the aforementioned parties either posted themselves or associated themselves with on their own open Facebook pages. This information provides a basis for examining the claims of the White Helmets further, as well as examining the role that Snopes and its individual content producers conduct in disseminating possibly false and misleading information related to the horrific Syrian war and the various ruses that are being playing out in the media sphere of influence over the general public.

Final point…..this is the link to the Satanic Temple that Bethania Palma Markus has under her Facebook likes…..

The Satanic Temple

These are screenshots from that page:

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The ‘likes’ of Bethania Palma Markus are quite bizarre….. to say the least.

More discrediting info on the Snopes company is available here:

Daily Mail – EXCLUSIVE: Facebook ‘fact checker’ who will arbitrate on ‘fake news’ is accused of defrauding website to pay for prostitutes – and its staff includes an escort-porn star and ‘Vice Vixen domme’ Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4042194/Facebook-fact-checker-arbitrate-fake-news-accused-defrauding-website-pay-prostitutes-staff-includes-escort-porn-star-Vice-Vixen-domme.html#ixzz4kOVIAdwz

And here:

Snopes, the Supposed Arbiter of ‘Fake News’ — Accused of ‘Defrauding Own Site to Pay for Prostitutes’ – Dec. 22, 2016

A Facebook search conducted on October 10th, 2017 showed that the Facebook page of Bethania Palma Markus is no longer online.

Screen Shot 2017-10-10 at 8.53.09 PM

She is now posting at the following page:

https://www.facebook.com/bethania.palma?fref=ufi&pnref=story

Additional image from this account:

On October 27th, 2017 ABC news used Bethania Palma as their source for Snopes fact checking on the timeline of the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas Mass Shooting event at Mandalay Bay. That video is here:

ABC News has now removed the video featuring Bethania Palma Markus.

Compendium of Videos and Articles Revealing the Deep States Projection of the “Fake News” Propaganda Campaign

Ben Swann, the only real investigative reporter on US mainstream TV, starts us off with a reality check.

Reality Check: Pres.Obama Signs New Law To Allow U.S. Gov. to Fund Propaganda For U.S. Citizens

The video directly above has now been removed from You Tube, an exact copy is at the following link:

Reality Check: Pentagon Paid $500 Million to PR Firm To Create Iraq Propaganda Videos

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-24/obama-signs-countering-disinformation-and-propaganda-act-law

Obama Quietly Signs The “Countering Disinformation And Propaganda Act” Into Law

Late on Friday, with the US population embracing the upcoming holidays and oblivious of most news emerging from the administration, Obama quietly signed into law the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which authorizes $611 billion for the military in 2017.

In a statement, Obama said that:

Today, I have signed into law S. 2943, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017.” This Act authorizes fiscal year 2017 appropriations principally for the Department of Defense and for Department of Energy national security programs, provides vital benefits for military personnel and their families, and includes authorities to facilitate ongoing operations around the globe. It continues many critical authorizations necessary to ensure that we are able to sustain our momentum in countering the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to reassure our European allies, as well as many new authorizations that, among other things, provide the Departments of Defense and Energy more flexibility in countering cyber-attacks and our adversaries’ use of unmanned aerial vehicles.”

But while the passage of the NDAA – and the funding of the US military – was hardly a surprise, the biggest news is what was buried deep inside the provisions of the Defense Authortization Act.

Recall that as we reported in early June, “a bill to implement the U.S.’ very own de facto Ministry of Truth had been quietly introduced in Congress. As with any legislation attempting to dodge the public spotlight the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of 2016 marks a further curtailment of press freedom and another avenue to stultify avenues of accurate information. Introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Ted Lieu, H.R. 5181 seeks a “whole-government approach without the bureaucratic restrictions” to counter “foreign disinformation and manipulation,” which they believe threaten the world’s “security and stability.” Also called the Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016 (S. 2692), when introduced in March by Sen. Rob Portman, the legislation represents a dramatic return to Cold War-era government propaganda battles. “These countries spend vast sums of money on advanced broadcast and digital media capabilities, targeted campaigns, funding of foreign political movements, and other efforts to influence key audiences and populations,” Portman explained, adding that while the U.S. spends a relatively small amount on its Voice of America, the Kremlin provides enormous funding for its news organization, RT.

More at ZH link above……

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http://www.globalresearch.ca/news-speak-and-the-duplicity-of-mainstream-journalism/5563834

We are faced by a shocking fact these days: the profession of journalism, and I speak of mainstream media journalism, has descended into truly toxic levels of printed and broadcast disinformation. One can now virtually count on the fact that what is being said on any topic of political significance, will be a carefully scripted trotting-out of government and corporate propaganda.

That is not journalism. That is what George Orwell called ‘Newspeak’.

It is a dangerous game which these news hacks are playing. They are witnessing one event and describing it as quite another event. Let me amplify this by looking at the stories emanating out of the Middle East.

It must be obvious to most of us by now that Russia, via Putin, is being held responsible for pretty much everything which is no longer working well for Western engineered neoliberal/neocon globalism. In fact, the stream of accusations against Putin’s Russia have descended into near or actual farce, due mainly to the fact that they are not backed by any factual evidence. We are all simply supposed to ‘know’ that Mr Evil is at it again and that the West must ready itself to take action against his ‘tyrannical activities’.

 

And here’s how they do it……

http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/12/clamping-down-on-viral-fake-news-facebook-partners-with-sites-like-snopes-and-adds-new-user-reporting/

Clamping down on viral fake news, Facebook partners with sites like Snopes and adds new user reporting. A new system funnels fake news reports to fact-checkers from Snopes, PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, ABC, and AP.

Facebook screen image highlights the role the social media giant plays for the Deep State

Excerpt from article above:

Once a story has been flagged as fake, the most complex element of the new strategy begins. A Facebook spokesperson walked me through how the fact-checking process will work. Facebook is working with, to start, a handful of third-party, U.S.-based fact-checking organizations: ABC News, Snopes, PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and AP. (The sites are part of Poynter’s International Fact Checking Network and have agreed to a “fact-checkers’ code of principles.”)

Because the group of third-party fact-checkers is small at launch, and as part of its effort to focus on the highest-impact “worst of the worst,” Facebook is doing some sorting before the reported stories go to the fact-checkers. Its algorithm will look at whether a large number of people are reporting a particular article, whether or not the article is going viral, and whether the article has a high rate of shares. Facebook has also already had a system in place, for about a year, that uses signals around content (such as how people are responding to it in comments) to determine whether that content is a hoax.

The end result is tailored to the Deep States needs via the Facebook process: screen-shot-2016-12-15-at-10-59-05-am

And who gets to do all this ‘fact’ checking for you? The FreeThought Project has the scoop on Snopes……

Snopes, the Supposed Arbiter of ‘Fake News’ — Accused of ‘Defrauding Own Site to Pay for Prostitutes

Snopes, the Supposed Arbiter of ‘Fake News’ — Accused of ‘Defrauding Own Site to Pay for Prostitutes’ Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/snopes-fake-news-fraud/#Y7Zg8B1lsjShCDeA.99

Excerpt:

Facebook’s choice to hire Snopes to arbitrate which news items will be allowed to stand and which should receive the Scarlet-Letter label ‘disputed’ already brought outrage — the site is notoriously left-leaning — but an exclusive report from the Daily Mail on alleged shady dealings should turn Mark Zuckerberg’s cheeks a deep shade of red.

David and Barbara Mikkelson, ex-spouses and founders of Snopes, have been hurling accusations allegations at one another in an ongoing bitter legal dispute following their divorce — and many of the claims don’t exactly give the company an air of professionalism.

Barbara, in court filings, accuses David of “raiding” Snopes’ bank account “for his personal use and attorney fees” and embezzling “$98,000 from our company over the course of four years, which were monies he expended upon himself and the prostitutes he hired …”

….Since the acrimonious divorce, David hired Elyssa Young — better known as Erin O’Bryn, a longtime escort and porn star, and now his wife — as administrative assistant at Snopes. According to the Daily Mail, Young’s escort profiles on professional sites and social media are still active, though it’s unclear whether she still works in that field.

This part interested me because this person writes so much for Snopes. Is it true? Don’t know.

Young isn’t the only eyebrow-raising Snopes employee — Kim LaCapria, the company’s lead ‘fact-checker,’ boasts openly of being a dominatrix known as “Vice Vixen,” and wrote on her personal blog she “played scrabble [sic], smoked pot, and posted to Snopes. That’s what I did on my day ‘on’ too.”

 

The irony of fake news being decided by Snopes is so ridiculous that even the Daily Mail UK saw fit to point it out…..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4042194/Facebook-fact-checker-arbitrate-fake-news-accused-defrauding-website-pay-prostitutes-staff-includes-escort-porn-star-Vice-Vixen-domme.html

But the website’s own troubles and the intriguing choice of who carries out its ‘fact checks’ are revealed by DailyMail.com, as one of its main contributors is disclosed to be a former sex-blogger who called herself ‘Vice Vixen’.

Snopes.com will benefit from Facebook’s decision to allow users to report items in their newsfeed which they believe to be ‘fake’.

It is asking a number of organizations to arbitrate on items which are reported or which Facebook staff think may not be genuine, and decide whether they should be marked as ‘disputed’.

Picture credit of UK Mail

Husband and wife: David Mikkelson is now married to Snopes.com staff member Elyssa Young – but also engaged in a bitter legal battle with his former wife Barbara with whom he set up the site

 

How did this all come about? Fair.org decided to investigate the threat to powerful Washington Deep State information tools like the flagship “Washington Post” that sites that have been deemed ‘fake news’ are exposing…..

WaPo Spreading Own Falsehoods Shows Real Power of Fake News
By Adam Johnson

WaPo: Russian operation hacked a Vermont utility, showing risk to U.S. electrical grid security, officials say. Washington Post story (12/31/16) with revised headline and a never-mind editor’s note. Is this “fake news”? The putative scourge of “fake news” has been one of the most pervasive post-election media narratives. The general thrust goes like this: A torrent of fake news swept the internet, damaging Hillary Clinton and possibly leading to a Donald Trump victory.
A primary problem with this convenient-to-some narrative is that “fake news” has yet to be clearly defined by anyone. Vaguely conceptualized as misleading or outright fabricated stories, it can mean anything—as FAIR has noted previously (12/1/16)—from outlets that align with “Russian viewpoints” to foreign spam.

http://fair.org/home/wapo-spreading-own-falsehoods-shows-real-power-of-fake-news/

More at link….

Additional Fair article explains how the whole ‘fake’ news meme was pushed out by dubious outfit PropOrNot in collaboration with the flag ship of the corrupt Deep State, the Washington Post….

wapofakenews

Why Are Media Outlets Still Citing Discredited ‘Fake News’ Blacklist?

Excerpt:

The Washington Post (11/24/16) last week published a front-page blockbuster that quickly went viral: Russia-promoted “fake news” had infiltrated the newsfeeds of 213 million Americans during the election, muddying the waters in a disinformation scheme to benefit Donald Trump. Craig Timberg’s story was based on a “report” from an anonymous group (or simply a person, it’s unclear) calling itself PropOrNot that blacklisted over 200 websites as agents or assets of the Russian state.

The obvious implication was that an elaborate Russian psyop had fooled the public into voting for Trump based on a torrent of misleading and false information posing as news. Everyone from Bloomberg’s Sahil Kupar to CNN’s to Robert Reich to Anne Navarro to MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid tweeted out the story in breathless tones. Center for American Progress and Clinton advocate Neera Tanden even did her best Ron Paul YouTube commenter impression, exclaiming, “Wake up people.”

But the story didn’t stand up to the most basic scrutiny. Follow-up reporting cast major doubt on the Washington Post’s core claims and underlying logic, the two primary complaints being 1) the “research group” responsible for the meat of the story, PropOrNot, is an anonymous group of partisans (if more than one person is involved) who tweet like high schoolers, and 2) the list of supposed Russian media assets, because its criteria for Russian “fake news” encompasses “useful idiots,” includes entirely well-within-the-mainstream progressive and libertarian websites such as Truth-Out, Consortium News, TruthDig and Antiwar.com (several of whom are now considering lawsuits against PropOrNot for libel).

PropOrNot says their criteria for “Russian propaganda” is “behavioral” and “motivation-agnostic,” so even those who publish views that simply coincide with the Russian government’s, regardless of intent or actual links to Russia, are per se Kremlin assets—an absurd metric that casts a net so wide as to render the concept meaningless. Glenn Greenwald and Ben Norton of The Intercept (11/26/16) called PropOrNot “amateur peddlers of primitive, shallow propagandistic clichés” who were “engaging in extremely dubious McCarthyite tactics about a wide range of critics and dissenters.” Fortune magazine’s Matthew Ingram (11/25/16) insisted the report had the “beginnings of a conspiracy theory, rather than a scientific analysis,” while AlterNet’s Max Blumenthal (11/26/16) lamented that “insiders have latched onto a McCarthyite campaign that calls for government investigations of a wide array of alternative media outlets.”

More at link…..