John Stanton

John J. Stanton (1956–2023) was an independent journalist, author, and a former teacher in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. His work focused largely on national security and cultural topics, including writings on these matters and others over a 35 year time period. He covered everything from cyberterrorism to orphan nukes and American education and healthcare. His work has been cited in academia and military studies extensively. He designed and led a graduate level seminar titled National Security in the 21st Century at a private school in Northern Virginia. He was suspended from the Arlington Public School System as a school-based substitute for supporting "Putin's logic", based on Putin's perception of the threat to Russia's security posed by NATO expansion and U.S. military and economic support for the Ukrainian government. He also encouraged students to read as many sources as possible on the ongoing conflict, to include "Russian propaganda," plus the New York Times, Washington Post, and dozens of other news outlets pro and con on the war. A video of his remarks was taken by a student in the class. He did not appeal his termination. Subjects covered Inside Sputnik News Agency In April 2018, Stanton, who had been Sputnik News Agency's Pentagon Correspondent for roughly two years, published a report highly critical of Sputnik News, Sputnik Radio, and RIA Novosti, declaring that the organizations were part of a larger Russian Information Warfare Operation. His public findings were part of an insider research effort while at Sputnik on behalf of the US government. In May 2018 PBS NewsHour published an article in which Stanton said that Sputnik mixes "real with unreal" and uses "dubious sources." He also said that to pin down what he really found problematic was difficult because proving disinformation can be impossibly slippery.