***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
In a special NBC News investigation aired Thursday, anchor Lester Holt and chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel explained how Russia aimed to “spread racial tensions in America. It comes from new research showing Russians are behind the push to spread some of the most shocking viral videos.” But the kicker? Some of those same viral videos were proliferated by NBC News themselves.
“Turns out these videos and dozens of others all inflaming racial tensions in America did not go viral by accident,” Engel continued while a collage of such viral videos appeared on the screen. “They were pushed and promoted by Russian operatives, according to new research by cyber experts at Clemson University.”
One of the viral videos shown (the one on the far right in the picture provided) was of a white woman who confronted a black man as they were entering the same apartment building. She followed him to his apartment while demanding to know if he lived there.
It turns out that NBC News and ABC News both pushed that story hard.
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