Retracted

Fortune: C-SPAN 'confirms' it was hacked by Russian TV

After RT programming briefly replaced C-SPAN's online feed, Fortune's headline and tweets said C-SPAN had confirmed it was hacked, and New York Magazine promoted the hack framing on Twitter.

First reported Jan 12, 2017 · Fortune, New York Magazine

Screenshot of the original report as published — Screenshot of the report as published: fortune.com. Tap to open the source.

Who it helped: Democrats

The error fed the narrative of aggressive Russian hacking that dominated coverage after the 2016 election.

What was reported

After RT programming briefly replaced C-SPAN's online feed, Fortune's headline and tweets said C-SPAN had confirmed it was hacked, and New York Magazine promoted the hack framing on Twitter.

What actually happened

The RT feed ran for roughly ten minutes during House coverage on January 12, 2017, at the height of coverage of Russian election hacking. C-SPAN had confirmed only that an interruption happened and was still troubleshooting. Fortune corrected its headline, and on January 13 C-SPAN attributed the incident to an internal routing problem, an explanation RT also accepted.

The proof

Fortune's appended correction saying C-SPAN had not confirmed a hack, and C-SPAN's January 13, 2017 statement blaming internal routing.

The receipt. Copy this and paste it anywhere:

Fortune: C-SPAN 'confirms' it was hacked by Russian TV — Retracted. Fortune's appended correction saying C-SPAN had not confirmed a hack, and C-SPAN's January 13, 2017 statement blaming internal routing. Full file: https://www.thepropagandafiles.com/case/fortune-cspan-rt-hack-headline/

Original reporting

Fortune: C-SPAN Was Briefly Interrupted by a Russian News Network (corrected article)https://www.fortune.com/2017/01/12/cspan-rt-interruption/
Fortune tweet (as archived in The Intercept's list)https://twitter.com/FortuneTech/status/819673386230149122
New York Magazine tweet (as archived in The Intercept's list)https://twitter.com/NYMag/status/819672842673541122

Corrections, findings & records

iMediaEthics: C-SPAN blames internal routing for RT interruptionhttps://www.imediaethics.org/?p=16070
CNN Money: C-SPAN online feed briefly shows Russia Todayhttps://money.cnn.com/2017/01/12/media/c-span-russia-today/index.html
The Intercept (2019): The 10 worst U.S. media failures on the Trump-Russia story (#10)https://www.theintercept.com/2019/01/20/beyond-buzzfeed-the-10-worst-most-embarrassing-u-s-media-failures-on-the-trumprussia-story/

Archived copies

Stories get edited after publication. These open the Internet Archive's earliest saved copy of each original.

Archived copy: Fortune: C-SPAN Was Briefly Interrupted by a Russian News Network (corrected article)https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.fortune.com/2017/01/12/cspan-rt-interruption/
Archived copy: Fortune tweet (as archived in The Intercept's list)https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://twitter.com/FortuneTech/status/819673386230149122
Archived copy: New York Magazine tweet (as archived in The Intercept's list)https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://twitter.com/NYMag/status/819672842673541122