News site editor's ties to Iran, Russia show misinformation's complexity

A top editor at an online news site aimed at Americans who has worked extensively for Russia’s Sputnik also has taken money from Iranian government-owned media, according to newly unearthed documents — a sign of how widening geopolitical alliances are making it harder to identify and trace foreign influence operations.

Hacked emails and other documents from the Iranian government-funded Press TV show payments of thousands of dollars to Wyatt Reed, a writer who is now a Washington-based editor for the online publication Grayzone. In addition, the site’s founder, Max Blumenthal, regularly appears on Russian television and once accepted a trip to Moscow for a celebration of Russian state-controlled video network RT that featured Vladimir Putin.

Misinformation experts say the overlap in funding underscores concern that the spread of falsehoods and propaganda online is entering a more complicated stage as the United States’ November election draws closer.

“What you are reporting is, I think, the most practical example of that convergence we’ve seen, where you have someone who has deep ties to Iranian state media working for an organization that we also know is a destination for narrative laundering from Russia,” said Emerson Brooking, co-director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab.

Read More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/06/02/grayzone-russia-iran-support/


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Yup, it is happening and it ALL needs to be exposed. Russia and Iran are spreading misinformation through our own media.