Politicians on both sides are employing fake news websites as an extension of their campaigns, using content manipulation as a tactic to bolster their election chances, Axios reports.
The latest: Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez set up a website called HealthNewsNJ.com as a vehicle to attack his opponent in November’s midterms, ex-pharma CEO Bob Hugin. The website passes itself off as a journalistic website dedicated to health news, save for a small print disclosure on the site, STAT reports.
Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kelli Ward touted an endorsement from a fake news website set up by Republicans to bolster Republican candidates.
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., created a website that passed itself off as a media outlet though it, too, like Menendez’s, was financed by his campaign, a fact noted only by small print at the bottom of the site.
The staff of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan last year manipulated a headline on Facebook to bolster the Democrat’s bonafides, a feature that the social media giant has since disabled.
If the Russians can do it, why not Americans politicians?
"The major new challenge in reporting news is the new shape of truth," Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired magazine, wrote in a Pew report last fall. “Truth is no longer dictated by authorities, but is networked by peers. For every fact there is a counterfact and all these counterfacts and facts look identical online, which is confusing to most people."
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