The Washington Post went from claiming that Russian bots were using alternative media outlets to spread “fake news” to admitting that they were actually sharing mainstream media stories that favored Trump.

During the 2016 election, the narrative that interference from “the Russians” had an impact on Donald Trump’s success was alive and well, and it was pushed heavily by the Washington Post. However, the Post is now claiming that the propaganda it accused Russian bots of spreading was actually American, and it was “factually accurate.”

In a new story titled “Russia used mainstream media to manipulate American voters,” the Post admittedthat instead of creating and spreading “fake news,” the accounts it claimed were controlled by Russians actually focused on sharing stories from American mainstream media outlets, and one of their most used sources just happened to be The Washington Post.

Citing an analysis by Columbia University social-media researcher Jonathan Albright, the Post noted that the majority of the “Russian propaganda” spread by these accounts was made up of “factually accurate” stories from American sources:

“Some well-chronicled hoaxes reached large audiences. But Russian-controlled Twitter accounts, Albright said, were far more likely to share stories produced by widely read sources of American news and political commentary. The stories themselves were generally factually accurate, but the Russian accounts carefully curated the overall flow to highlight themes and developments that bolstered Republican Donald Trump and undermined his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Among the tweets Albright studied, the most common links were to Breitbart News, followed by The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. The list of the top 25 linked sites had a conservative bent, with the Daily Caller, Fox News and the Gateway Pundit appearing.”

Damn you Russian bots, with your widely read mainstream sources and your factual accuracy!