It was an alarming development that the Washington Post broke over the weekend. The story would have been compelling even without some embellishment, which there unfortunately was.

On Saturday the Post reported that Russian computer hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid by way of a New England utility company, which the Post story did not identify. The Post cited unnamed federal sources for its information.

It was revealed later that’s not exactly what had happened. Here’s what did happen:

The Burlington Electric Department, a municipal utility with about 19,600 customers in Vermont, discovered suspected Russian malware code Friday on one of its laptop computers.

Burlington Electric Spokesman Mike Kanarick told state news outlets that the code definitely appeared to be Russian — a strain known to the federal government as Grizzly Steppe.

But it was determined with certainty that the infected laptop was “not connected to our organization’s grid systems,” Kanarick said in a written statement. The Department of Homeland Security backs up the utility’s claim, saying there was not a shred of evidence that the electric grid had been breached.

Burlington Electric officials said they found the malware after Homeland Security issued an alert to utility companies nationwide. The utility found an Internet protocol (IP) address that was associated with recent malicious cyber activity, and that IP address was communicating with the company laptop. The utility immediately isolated the laptop and notified federal officials to investigate.

It was one of these federal authorities who tipped off the Washington Post. It’s not clear whether an agent or a journalist filled in the blanks.

While the Post’s enhanced version of the story is just that — enhanced — there’s still no denying that the nation’s electrical grid could be vulnerable to malicious attacks, or that a disabling of all or part of the grid could cripple or even collapse large segments of our economy, communications and defenses. The Post reported in good faith and with good intent, and it corrected its error promptly.

Burlington Electric issued a statement criticizing the Post’s premature report. It reads, in part:

“It’s unfortunate that an official or officials improperly shared inaccurate information with one media outlet, leading to multiple inaccurate reports around the country. ... we take great pride in conveying timely and accurate information, we want our community to know that there is no indication that either our electric grid or customer information has been compromised. Media reports stating that Burlington Electric was hacked or that the electric grid was breached are false.”

Frank discussions will continue about what constitutes real news versus fake news. Even the most reputable news gathering organizations will make mistakes, but they will also make quick and thorough measures to correct their errors.

We Americans have a well established tradition in First Amendment law. We have the fourth estate — a free press. People have the right to say and publish just about whatever they please, with certain limits. We can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theater; we can’t disrupt a court of law; and while that congressman got away with saying “you lie!” during the State of the Union address two years ago, nobody defended that outburst.