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Fake "local" news sites propagated by the right

crash_davis

By crash_davis
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crash_davis

crash_davis 23084

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It'll be interesting how the history books will view this period. Maybe they'll call it the Age of Disinformation and Suppression. I cannot believe this is what has become of democracy as championed by the right. There's no fucking integrity.

Guardian article explaining what's going on. Basically a conservative dude has a company which has established 1000 fake local websites championing conservative coverage.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/19/locality-labs-fake-news-local-sites-newspapers

Here's another article.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/the-2020-disinformation-war/605530/

This is one of the biggest assholes leading the misinformation.

https://mobile.twitter.com/btimpone

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Timpone

Brian Timpone is an American conservative businessman and former journalist who operates a network of procedurally generated news websites.[1] In November 2019, Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism identified over 450 websites linked to Timpone, all of which presented themselves as local news outlets.[2] Timpone is involved with a number of interconnected media companies, including Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which he co-founded,[3] as well as Metric Media, Franklin Archer, Locality Labs (formerly known as Journatic and LocalLabs), and Record Inc.[2]

In a June 2012 episode of This American Life, Timpone disclosed that Journatic was outsourcing its writing to over 300 freelancers in several geographic areas outside of the United States, including the Philippines, Eastern Europe, Brazil, and Africa. Timpone described Journatic's content as "a mix of journalism and automatic". Journatic managed TribLocal, a hyperlocal news branch of the Chicago Tribune that targeted suburban neighborhoods around Chicago, in the spring of 2012.[4]

Locality Labs published Hinsdale School News, a newspaper that masqueraded as the student publication of a high school in Hinsdale, Illinois by using the logo of Hinsdale Township High School District 86. In March 2019, the publication released a number of articles opposing a Hinsdale referendum that would increase the school district's budget by $140 million.[1] Officials from District 86 sent a cease and desist letter to Franklin Archer, LGIS, and other related companies, claiming that their publication of the Hinsdale School News was deceptive and violated trademark law.[5]

Here's the other asshole.

Brad Parscale

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Parscale

 

Here's a map of the network.

https://github.com/MassMove/AttackVectors#local-journalism

Summary of what they are doing.

Parscale has indicated that he plans to open up a new front in this war: local news. Last year, he said the campaign intends to train “swarms of surrogates” to undermine negative coverage from local TV stations and newspapers. Polls have long found that Americans across the political spectrum trust local news more than national media. If the campaign has its way, that trust will be eroded by November.

Running parallel to this effort, some conservatives have been experimenting with a scheme to exploit the credibility of local journalism. Over the past few years, hundreds of websites with innocuous-sounding names like the Arizona Monitor and The Kalamazoo Times have begun popping up. At first glance, they look like regular publications, complete with community notices and coverage of schools. But look closer and you’ll find that there are often no mastheads, few if any bylines, and no addresses for local offices. Many of them are organs of Republican lobbying groups; others belong to a mysterious company called Locality Labs, which is run by a conservative activist in Illinois. Readers are given no indication that these sites have political agendas—which is precisely what makes them valuable.

Here's a Reddit thread going into more specifics. I know Reddit is a bitch to read but it contains good information. 

 

level 5

mmeiser
 
36 points·16 hours ago
 

Not a joke. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Timpone

more info https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news_websites_in_the_United_States

They are clearly now up to 600 sites. They "outsource" the writing to other countries and have already been busted in Illinois for pretending to be a student newspaper to among other things oppose a funding proposal for the school.

They are plainly trying to weaponize fake news on a national scale to push a conservative agenda.

 

Example list of "local" website in the MN. Replace the "dotty" with "." All of the sites have the same content and design. 

https://anokatimesdottycom

https://dakotatimesdottycom

https://easttwincitiesdottycom

https://minnesotastatewiredottycom

https://ncminnesotanewsdottycom

https://nwminnesotanewsdottycom

https://nwtwincitiesdottycom

https://northhennepinnewsdottycom

https://northramseynewsdottycom

https://scminnesotanewsdottycom

https://seminnesotanewsdottycom

https://setwincitiesdottycom

https://swminnesotatodaydottycom

https://southhennepinnewsdottycom

https://stcloudsundottycom

https://stpaulreporterdottycom

https://wcminnesotanewsdottycom

https://westtwincitiesdottycom

 

 

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crash_davis

crash_davis 23084

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If it were only the shitheads who are doing the deceit....

Almost half the country is ok with the deceit. I'd argue most fully support the effort to deceive.

This country is a mess. It's because we the citizens allow it to happen.

We get the government that we deserve.

 

I wonder if this is what it was like in mid to late 1930s Germany. Hitler didn't rise to power in a vacuum. Germans either actively supported or allowed him to happen.

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F250

F250 28682

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1 hour ago, crash_davis said:

If it were only the shitheads who are doing the deceit....

Almost half the country is ok with the deceit. I'd argue most fully support the effort to deceive.

This country is a mess. It's because we the citizens allow it to happen.

We get the government that we deserve.

 

I wonder if this is what it was like in mid to late 1930s Germany. Hitler didn't rise to power in a vacuum. Germans either actively supported or allowed him to happen.

I don't think there are a lot of similarities between our situation and the Nazi rise to power. The Weimar Republic was about 15 years old before the establishment of Nazi Germany. We might be more comparable to the decline of the Roman Empire.

The only similarity I see between the rise of MAGA and the Nazis is the manipulation of the class struggle. The Nazis initially sided with the socialist cause in order to weaken the SDP's and KDP's power in Berlin and gain the support of the disenfranchised working class while simultaneously making side deals with the industrialists. In this, I see similarities between the two.

By letting our working class grow angry and fester we have done this to ourselves. A satisfied working class would not be as susceptible to manipulation because comfortable people are not rabble rousers.

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BrickHorn

BrickHorn 18193

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On 4/7/2020 at 9:51 AM, Mrs Whiggins said:

I have nothing to add other than I would like to leave now. We are really too awful to inhabit this planet. The amoeba are free to take over any time. Or maybe that large fungus in Michigan.

Welcome to the Lanai.  Mai tai?

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