Republicans launch propaganda sites designed to look like local news outlets

[Borealis]

https://www.salon.com/2019/03/05/republicans-launch-propaganda-sites-designed-to-look-like-local-news-outlets/

An investigation by the fact-checking outlet Snopes found that several new local news websites are actually being launched by Republican consultants whose company is funded in
part by the candidates the sites cover.

Politico first reported last year that Tea Party-linked conservative activists Michael Patrick Leahy, Steve Gill and Christina Botteri were behind the "Tennessee Star,” a website that
purported to be a local news website but mostly posted content licensed from groups linked to big Republican donors. Snopes discovered that the trio has since launched similar sites
in other battleground states ahead of the 2020 elections: the Ohio Star and the Minnesota Sun.

All three claim to be the “most reliable” local newspapers in their states and provide “unbiased updates on Investigative Reports, Thoughtful Opinion, Sports, Lifestyle.” But the
coverage is hardly by “unbiased journalists.” Gill, who is listed as the Tennessee Star’s political editor, owns a media consulting firm that at least one candidate and one political action
committee paid before they received positive coverage on the website.

Leahy, Gill and Botteri are only a few of the players in the growing space. Politico reported last year that a campaign committee for Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was funding a local news
site called the California Republican, which claimed to feature “the best of US, California, and Central Valley news, sports, and analysis.”

[Karmah]

Literal fake news
the hypocrisy lmao

[VinLAURiA]

This can't be legal.

[Grenadiac]

Scum of the fucking Earth. How is there not a law against bullshit like this? They couldn't even get away with claiming this is satire, it's literal propaganda. FUCK.

[QuantumTV]

Holy fucking shit man. Please tell me this shit is getting nipped in the bud.

[Jaguar]

Everything Republicans accuse others of doing, they either do themselves or wish they did.

[_maverick_]

Getting pretty fucking close to North Korea levels over there.

[FZE]

This is just Breitbart or Fox News, why would it be different legally? Is putting a state in the name the incensing part?

[Grenadiac]

It's the posing as something you aren't to proliferate actual false information under the guise of facts. FOX/Breitbart don't impersonate local outlets and don't make any claims as to the veracity of their content (which keeps them legally in the clear).

[Hail Satan]

https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo

[Sableye]

seems like it might not be given how much fury they had for a social science group doing the same thing on a much much smaller scale in 2018

[Zero-Point]

Or:
Republican: "The Democrats are doing *illegal thing*"
Democrats: "WTF no we're not"
Other Republican: "Well fuck it if the Dems are doing it then I will, too!"
Democrats: "WTF is wrong with you people?"
Republicans: "OMG STOP BEING SO DIVISIVE"

[phyton92]

Holy shit, that video gives me the fucking creeps.