Anti-Russia and disinformation
hysteria has reached new heights, and — after the Obama administration
announced the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S., among
other retributions for an ostensibly hacked election — the Washington Post continued its foray into Fake News with an article suggesting Kremlin actors hacked the electrical grid in Vermont.
Perhaps because the outlet got away with citing unnamed officials twice before during this reinvigorated Red Scare, the Post again blared its Russia Did It alarm with an article titled, “Russian operation hacked a Vermont utility, showing risk to U.S. electrical grid security, officials say.”
Interesting that one of the goliaths
of journalism — a long-trusted, venerated institution with a prior
history of admirable muckraking — would, of late, begin publishing
articles based solely on the testimony of unnamed officials offering
little more than references to past, equally vapid hysteria about
Russia.
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy joined the fervent fear-mongering by issuing a statement asserting,
“This is beyond hackers having
electronic joy rides – this is now about trying to access utilities to
potentially manipulate the grid and shut it down in the middle of
winter. That is a direct threat to Vermont and we do not take it
lightly.”
As tiresome routine would have it, corporate media joined in lockstep alarmism, parroting the Post’s
article as if The Russians — now that Vermont had been ‘compromised’ —
would bring down the power grid of the United States. Peter Shumlin,
governor of the state putatively threatened by Russian Operatives, roped
the whole country into the act, warning:
“Vermonters and all Americans should be both alarmed and outraged that one of the world’s leading thugs, Vladimir Putin, has been attempting to hack our electric grid, which we rely upon to support our quality-of-life, economy, health, and safety.”
