"Very often the enemy is held to possess some especially effective source of power: he controls the press; he has unlimited funds; he has a new secret for influencing the mind (brainwashing)…" —Richard Hofstadter, Harper's Magazine, November 1964

On November 24, The Washington Post published what at first glance looked to be a deeply troubling report on the far-reaching, insidious influence of the Kremlin on the American media. The Post's national technology reporter Craig Timberg writes that "a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of…helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy."

According to Timberg, a group which goes by the moniker PropOrNot, a "nonpartisan collection of researchers with foreign policy, military and technology backgrounds" has identified "more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season, with combined audiences of at least 15 million Americans."