We don't talk enough about what a problem this is. The proliferation of actual micro-news sites has basically stopped and collapsed. But ideologically-driven hatchetjob sites which exist just to spread anti-vaccine hokum and right-wing conspiracy theories are popping up daily.

I've recently learned these sites are called "pink slime."

Billionaires need to do something with their money

"ChatGPT: Rewrite this AP News article to explain how it's the fault of Biden and the Democrats and relate it to problems of the bad economy and crime in $swing_state_metro_region". Rinse and repeat. Local news is back, baby.

I remember some serious discussion of this in the mid-2010s. It seemed to die out with Trump's ascent. Maybe because he so thoroughly co-opted the term of art "fake news," or because media watchdogs started focusing more on 4chan or mainstream media normalization of Trumpism?

this is a huge problem in the balkans, where these outlets feed into ethno-nationalist narratives and serve as an entry point for malign foreign influence campaigns. my collegaues here are trying to mitigate the effects, in part through us embassy funded projects. but meanwhile, back at home... :-/

I got to see this in action a few days ago when someone I follow - and who I respect a great deal - shared an essay on Palestine from an "independent news site" that upon closer examination contained links to a notorious white supremacist site. The essay itself seemed reasonable with no obvious...

I think Jesse Brown of #Canadaland once pointed out once that if the business model for actual journalism doesn't make enough money to satisfy owners, they just pivot to propaganda. It's seen as a worthy investment.

Elmo invited "citizen news" to offer Man on the street "honest" perspective... Of course, Elmo is also a jackass