Washington Post Caught Blatantly Lying To Their Readers Yet Again

Horhey · May 27, 2017

"It is hard to imagine how anyone could doubt that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Powell offered a powerful new case that Saddam Hussein's regime is cooperating with a branch of the al Qaeda organization that is trying to acquire chemical weapons and stage attacks in Europe."

-The Washington Post Editorial Board, Feb 2, 2003

Washington Post Caught Blatantly Lying To Their Readers Yet Again

The corporate media never misses a chance to point out that RT is funded by the Kremlin but they never mention that the Washington Post is linked to the Central Intelligence Agency. The owner of the Post, Jeff Bazos, has a $600 million contract with the Agency. However, the paper never discloses these ties when it reports on CIA-related issues.

Ownership of WaPo by CIA Contractor Puts U.S. Journalism in Dangerous Terrain

Indeed, the paper has long record of publishing false stories involving Russia, including proven war propaganda and pieces accusing various independent media of producing "Fake News" for Kremlin interests:

Matt Taibbi, "Why the Russia Story Is a Minefield for Democrats and the Media," Rolling Stone, March 8, 2017

One could list the more ridiculous examples, like the Washington Post's infamous "PropOrNot" story identifying hundreds of alternative media sites as fellow travellers aiding Russia, or the Post's faceplant over a report about a hacked utility in Vermont.

There was the "Russian cybercrime arrests" story that multiple outlets incorrectly suggested was linked to last year's election, or the bizarre series of stories about Russia-linked murders around the world that are supposedly connected to this tale.
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Another conflict of interest within the paper:

Washington Post didn't disclose that writer who penned positive piece about Trump’s Saudi trip is paid by Saudi government, Salon

Why does the Post embarrass itself by publishing lobbyist Ed Rogers?

Media Matters has documented numerous instances over the years in which the Post failed to properly disclose Rogers’ clients when a piece aligned with their lobbying interests. These disclosure failures include topics such as the environment, military spending, and Wall Street.
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Let alone the paper's ties to Corporate America, financial institutions, weapons manufacturers, US oil majors, health insurance companies, the Department of Defense, and the like:

ACTION ALERT: WaPo's Post Live Series Is a Love Letter to Corporate Conflicts of Interest, FAIR, Feb 16, 2017

David Ignatius interviewing Susan Rice in the glow of sponsor Raytheon. (photo: John Vela/Twitter)

Since 2010, the Washington Post has been banking on its pedigree and prestige by putting on Q & A sessions with influential Beltway personalities—sponsored by corporations directly involved in the topics of discussion. Event sponsors include Bank of America, Eli Lilly, Qualcomm, WGL Energy, AFLAC, GlaxoSmithKline and UnitedHealth, among others.

These events, billed as “Post Live,” are generally fluffy, non-combative industry hype sessions sponsored by a relevant corporation and quarterbacked by a Washington Post columnist or reporter to lend it gravitas. The ideological scope, as one would expect based on who funds them, ranges from “how capitalism and the US military can be more awesome” to “capitalism and the US military are already awesome.” This ideological capture is seen most starkly in Post Live’s coverage of healthcare and war.

Four events from March, June, September and December of 2016, titled “Securing Tomorrow,” were all sponsored by weapons manufacturer Raytheon and the Center for a New American Security, a DC think tank largely funded by weapons contractors, the US Department of Defense, the Japanese government and US oil companies.

Raytheon on the agenda. (photo: Chris Shea/Twitter)
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Daniel Light · May 27, 2017

Did Bazos own the paper in 2003?

Horhey · May 27, 2017

Daniel Light said: ↑

Did Bazos own the paper in 2003?
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No, but what's your point? The paper has always been a propaganda organ for power.

What I wrote in Wikipedia:

Contras

On 1 May 1985 President Reagan announced that his administration perceived Nicaragua to be "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States", and declared a "national emergency" and a trade embargo against Nicaragua to "deal with that threat".[49] It "is now a given; it is true", the Washington Post declared in 1986, "the Sandinistas are communists of the Cuban or Soviet school"; that "The Reagan administration is right to take Nicaragua as a serious menace—to civil peace and democracy in Nicaragua and to the stability and security of the region"; that we must "fit Nicaragua back into a Central American mode" and "turn Nicaragua back toward democracy," and with the "Latin American democracies" "demand reasonable conduct by regional standard."[50]

Soon after the embargo was established, Managua re-declared "a policy of nonalignment" and sought the aid of Western Europe, who were opposed to U.S. policy, to escape dependency on the Soviet Union.[51] Since 1981 U.S. pressures had curtailed Western credit to and trade with Nicaragua, forcing the government to rely almost totally on the Eastern bloc for credit, other aid, and trade by 1985.[52] In his 1997 study on U.S. low intensity warfare, Kermit D. Johnson, a former Chief of the U.S. Army Chaplains, contends that U.S. hostility toward the revolutionary government was motivated not by any concern for "national security", but rather by what the world relief organization Oxfam termed "the threat of a good example":

It was alarming that in just a few months after the Sandinista revolution, Nicaragua received international acclaim for its rapid progress in the fields of literacy and health. It was alarming that a socialist-mixed-economy state could do in a few short months what the Somoza dynasty, a U.S. client state, could not do in 45 years! It was truly alarming that the Sandinistas were intent on providing the very services that establish a government's political and moral legitimacy.[53]
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The government's program included increased wages, subsidized food prices, and expanded health, welfare, and education services. And though it nationalized Somoza's former properties, it preserved a private sector that accounted for between 50 and 60 percent of GDP.[54]
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Kill The Messenger: How The Media Destroyed Gary Webb (w/ Ryan Grim)

Illegal covert operations

With Congress blocking further contra aid, the Reagan administration sought to arrange funding and military supplies by means of third countries and private sources.[65] Between 1984 and 1986, $34 million from third countries and $2.7 million from private sources were raised this way.[65] The secret contra assistance was run by the National Security Council, with officer Lt. Col. Oliver North in charge.[66] With the third-party funds, North created an organization called The Enterprise, which served as the secret arm of the NSC staff and had its own airplanes, pilots, airfield, ship, operatives, and secret Swiss bank accounts.[65] It also received assistance from personnel from other government agencies, especially from CIA personnel in Central America.[65] This operation functioned, however, without any of the accountability required of U.S. government activities.[65] The Enterprise's efforts culminated in the Iran–Contra Affair of 1986–1987, which facilitated contra funding through the proceeds of arms sales to Iran.

According to the London Spectator, U.S. journalists in Central America had long known that the CIA was flying in supplies to the Contras inside Nicaragua before the scandal broke. No journalist payed it any attention until the alleged CIA supply man, Eugene Hasenfus, was shot down and captured by the Nicaraguan army. Similarly, reporters neglected to investigate many leads indicating that Oliver North was running the Contra operation from his office in the National Security Council.[67]

According to the National Security Archive, Oliver North had been in contact with Manuel Noriega, the military leader of Panama later convicted on drug charges, whom he personally met. The issue of drug money and its importance in funding the Nicaraguan conflict was the subject of various reports and publications. The contras were funded by drug trafficking, of which the United States was aware.[68] Senator John Kerry's 1988 Committee on Foreign Relations report on Contra drug links concluded that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems".[69]

The Reagan administration's support for the Contras continued to stir controversy well into the 1990s. In August 1996, San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb published a series titled Dark Alliance, alleging that the contras contributed to the rise of crack cocaine in California.[70] In his subsequent 1999 book, also titled Dark Alliance, Webb asserted that the Reagan administration helped harbor known drug traffickers, offering political asylum to some, to help raise funds for the rebel effort.

Gary Webb's career as a journalist was subsequently discredited by the leading U.S. papers, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the LA Times, in collusion with the Central Intelligence Agency. An internal CIA report, entitled, "Managing a Nightmare", shows the agency used "a ground base of already productive relations with journalists" to counter what it called "a genuine public relations crisis."[71] In the 1980s, Douglas Farah worked as a journalist, covering the civil wars in Central America for the Washington Post. According to Farah, while it was common knowledge that the Contras were involved in cocaine trafficking, the editors of the Washington Post refused to take it seriously:

If you’re talking about our intelligence community tolerating — if not promoting — drugs to pay for black ops, it’s rather an uncomfortable thing to do when you’re an establishment paper like the Post. If you were going to be directly rubbing up against the government, they wanted it more solid than it could probably ever be done.[72]
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Horhey · May 30, 2017

Washington Post Doesn't Disclose Writers Paid By Defense Industry

Washington Post Can't Stop Running Op-Eds by Lobbyists Pushing, Alternet

They never disclose conflicts of interest.
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Horhey · May 31, 2017

Washington Post Purposely Downplays DNC Lawsuit And Corruption

Washington Post Ran 16 Negative Stories on Bernie Sanders in 16 Hours - FAIR

Sanders, Warren Not 'Genuine Progressives'–Says Washington Post - FAIR

If you want to be progressive, don’t be like this guy, says the Washington Post (11/14/16).

WaPo, Organ of Extreme Center, Calls MLK 'True Conservative' | FAIR

Horhey · Jun 8, 2017

WaPo Fails to Note Raytheon, Saudi Funding of Advocate for Raytheon Arms to Saudis - FAIR

The Washington Post (3/8/17) quoted former Ambassador Gerald Feierstein on the wisdom of selling Raytheon weapons to Saudi Arabia–without noting that Feierstein’s Middle East Institute is funded by both Saudi Arabia and Raytheon. (image: Middle East Institute)

In a piece for the Just Security blog (6/5/17) about the impact of weapons industry contributions on a Saudi arms vote, Ryan Goodman notes that “money also pollutes other policy spaces that influence congressional votes”—including the news media:

In March of this year, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee invited former ambassador Gerald Feierstein—director of the Center for Gulf Affairs at the Middle East Institute—to speak about the situation in Yemen and about his views on the sale of US arms to the Saudis. As one might have anticipated from his interview in the Washington Post, Feierstein told the committee, “Accusations of war crimes leveled against Saudi and Coalition armed forces and threats to end arms sales to the Saudis have the potential to inflict long-lasting damage to these relationships.” Limiting the supply of munitions, he said, would be “counter-productive,” and he added, “I don’t understand why if you’re concerned about Saudi actions causing collateral damage you would limit the ability of them to acquire the kinds of weapons that would limit collateral damage and would allow them to be more accurate.” (The answer is that you may be concerned the Saudis would use those more accurate weapons to target civilians, funeral homes and other objects on a no-strike-list.)
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Never disclosed in the Washington Post interview or in the Senate hearing was the source of funding for Feierstein’s Middle East Institute. According to its most recent public report, the Institute counts among its chief donors leading members of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and major arms manufacturers. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait provide the highest level of support as “Platinum Sponsors,” and the UAE is also a donor. Raytheon, the manufacturer of the very weapons at issue in the Senate hearing, is a Gold Sponsor of the Institute. It is worth noting, of course, that the Middle East Institute is not unique in Washington. The defense industry and foreign governments pump money into many think tanks.

The conflicts of interest posed by think tank funding are an endemic problem in establishment journalism, which often presents industry-funded institutes as neutral experts. For a recent example, see “Lockheed Martin–Funded Experts Agree: South Korea Needs More Lockheed Martin Missiles,” by Adam Johnson (FAIR.org, 5/8/17).
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