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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

FAKE NEWS AWARD--This Just In--ARMY OF POTOMAC RETREATS--

The President's first "Fake News Award" will go to the correspondent at the New York Tribune who reported that General Hooker's Army of the Potomac took a retrograde movement across the Rappahannock and reversed its campaign in pursuit of General Lee's retreating Army of Virginia. Apparently, the "false news" claim slipped passed the military censor as it was encoded in cipher, possibly meant for stock-jobbers to speculate. Commenting on the mysterious fabrication, The Massachusetts Republican noted "We advise Mr. Stanton to set his news censors at work to ferret out these coiners of false information."






" There is something requiring '21)4W:iron in the very positive arid detailed accounts sent forward froth Wash-tugton on 14unday as to another advance of Oen. hooker across the Rappahannock. They seemed incredible at the time. and )et they were gct up in such aplicit and wai-ter-of-fact style as to dereive the most sagacious sifters of Ilf-11(5. Where did they come from? Who was the irge-Mous trainator, andabat was his object t We ads ise Mr. Starton to art bin news ,:eubora at work to ferret out these coiner. of false Information. Of course they will have little difficulty in tracing the despatches to their mourns, since they were allowed to pass when known to be raise, on the principle, we suppose, that fa/se news Pio* not help the enemy if it shodll reach them. The new was most full and particular as sent to the Philadelphia Prew, Mr. Forney'. parr, which often has army news in-dicating close relations with the War Offlee—a fact that may or way not be relevant in this case. ',the correspon-d ut undertook to give the news as brought back from Gen. Hooker's army- by Vie President and Oen. Ili/leek, I, nod Witt as that after sending over several regiments on Wednesday and Thursday, who found that the enemy had disappeared from the other side, Geo. Hooker put over the first ard fifth corps wider Sedgwick, and afterwards cross-ed his •h le army, who deployed in (Efferent directions Hera of the enemy."