Hiding in Plain Sight: PAC-Connected Activists Set Up 'Local News' Outlets

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Snopes

Hiding in Plain Sight: PAC-Connected Activists Set Up 'Local News' Outlets
ALEX KASPRAK , BETHANIA PALMA
PUBLISHED 4 MARCH 2019

On 6 February 2017, a website of uncertain origin named "The Tennessee Star" was born. At the time, it was unclear who funded or operated this "local newspaper," which was largely filled with freely licensed content from organizations tied to conservative mega-donors. After some prodding by Politico in early 2018, the Tennessee Star revealed its primary architects to be three Tea Party-connected conservative activists: Michael Patrick Leahy, Steve Gill, and Christina Botteri.

Now, a Snopes investigation reveals in detail how these activists used the appearance of local newspapers to promote messages paid for or supported by outside or undisclosed interests. Gill, for example, is the political editor of the Tennessee Star, but he also owns a media consulting company that at least one candidate and one Political Action Committee (PAC) paid before receiving positive coverage in the Tennessee Star. Several Star writers have in the past or currently work for PACs or political campaigns that they write about, without disclosing that fact. Though its owners claim that the Tennessee Star is funded by advertising revenue, it appears to be supported by wealthy benefactors. Whatever the Tennessee Star is, it is not a local newspaper producing transparent journalism.

But this story is about more than just the Tennessee Star. Leahy, Botteri, and Gill have been expanding their version of journalism to other battleground states in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. They are, they say, co-founders of a new, Delaware-registered company, Star News Digital Media, Inc., whose explicit strategy is to target battleground states with conservative news. So far, Leahy, Gill, and Botteri have added The Ohio Star and The Minnesota Sun to their network of purportedly local newspapers. These papers are effective carbon copies of the Tennessee Star.

If you were to search for these three "newspapers" in Google, they would each show up described identically as the "most reliable" newspapers in their respective locales, providing "unbiased updates on Investigative Reports, Thoughtful Opinion, Sports, Lifestyle":
....

Read more: https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/03/04/activists-setup-local-news-sites/

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This is Donny Ferguson's old trick: the fake newspaper. Read all about the "Montana Statesman," which I am not italicizing, because it was imaginary:

Virginia link to Frontline story about outside money in Montana

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1081548

[Mr.Bill]

1. All part of the projection platform.

While they yell "Fake News", they proliferate it.

[Dustlawyer]

8. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has owned and run (secretly) several newspapers

they started where they had what they called, “Judicial Hellholes.” The West Virgina Record; Southeast Texas Record; Louisiana Record and a few others.

They were at first without ads and offered free outside of courthouses where the juries are assembled. Now they look more legitimate and are online. See setexasrecord.com.

They have created and paid for these papers to influence jurors. After being sued they have toned it down to just the opinions portion for the most part. They are run b6 the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform.

Rich corporations manipulating public opinion!

[DonaldsRump]

2. This was going on BIG TIME prior to the 2016 general election for POTUS

My first stop for online news is Google News, where I ostensibly see a wide variety of stories and viewpoints so I can figure out for myself what's really going on.

I noticed that Google News, which is apparently composed of top online news portals with widespread readership, often carried stories from totally ridiculous papers from small towns or with names mentioned in the OP. As far as I can remembers, these stories would always result in something negative for HRC or at least inflame people against her indirectly. I often wondered how these clearly insubstantial (and likely non-existent) news sites were getting on the front page of Google News. I suspect this gives a reason, and I would be pretty sure who was behind it.

I don't have screen shots, but I'm sure someone can check this out by accessing internet page archiving sites. If I can figure it out myself, I'll post some, but all help would be welcome.

I've written on DU several time about this, but someone needs to figure out how critical news aggregators like Google News are getting manipulated so easily. This is how fiction becomes fact, and clearly, IMHO, part of psyops that was the critical piece of the 2016 POTUS campaign.

[PeeJ52]

7. I just visited that Tennessee Star star site and noticed how many times...

the headline and story lead-in were at different places on the page. Some stories were on the front page 3 separate places. Maybe that's how they get Google to grab them by putting them multiple times on a page.

[PeeJ52]

9. Back in the old days they used to put white text on white pages to get more hits...

It doesn't work any more, but maybe multiple events of the same story slants the crawler. It's a stupid looking site with the same stories all over the place.

[diva77]

3. K&R for exposure

[blondebanshee]

4. K & R

[alwaysinasnit]

5. K&R

[chia]

6. k & r

[c-rational]

10. K&R. Google and all internet providers need to be held accountable for their complicity in

psychops and misinformation campaigns.

[PeeJ52]

11. What a bunch of crap those sites are...

The Tennessee Star, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun are all the same thing. They have the same stories repeating themselves over and over on their front pages. You dive into the other pages of the "newspaper" and they aren't even being maintained. They are dated from November and August 2018. They are clearly for search engine manipulation and they are lazy at that. Orwell couldn't even come up with this crap...