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The Media

Mock 'News' Sites With Russian Ties Pop Up in U.S. (rawstory.com) 199

An anonymous reader shared this story from the New York Times: Into the depleted field of journalism in America, a handful of websites have appeared in recent weeks with names suggesting a focus on news close to home: D.C. Weekly, the New York News Daily, the Chicago Chronicle and a newer sister publication, the Miami Chronicle. In fact, they are not local news organizations at all. They are Russian creations, researchers and government officials say, meant to mimic actual news organizations to push Kremlin propaganda by interspersing it among an at-times odd mix of stories about crime, politics and culture.

While Russia has long sought ways to influence public discourse in the United States, the fake news organizations — at least five, so far — represent a technological leap in its efforts to find new platforms to dupe unsuspecting American readers. The sites, the researchers and officials said, could well be the foundations of an online network primed to surface disinformation ahead of the American presidential election in November...

The Miami Chronicle's website first appeared on Feb. 26. Its tagline falsely claims to have delivered "the Florida News since 1937."

Amid some true reports, the site published a story last week about a "leaked audio recording" of Victoria Nuland, the U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, discussing a shift in American support for Russia's beleaguered opposition after the death of the Russian dissident Aleksei A. Navalny. The recording is a crude fake, according to administration officials who would speak only anonymously to discuss intelligence matters.

From the Raw Story: The network was discovered by Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub by researchers Patrick Warren and Darren Linvill, who tell the Times that its websites are designed to lend journalistic credibility to slickly produced propaganda. "The page is just there to look realistic enough to fool a casual reader into thinking they're reading a genuine, U.S.-branded article," Linvill told the Times.
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Mock 'News' Sites With Russian Ties Pop Up in U.S.

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  • by olsmeister ( 1488789 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @07:43PM (#64305389)
    I'm too busy shopping on Temu and looking at TikTok.
  • But waddabout... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by XXongo ( 3986865 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @07:45PM (#64305393) Homepage
    Cue whattaboutism to start in 3... 2... 1...
    • by snowshovelboy ( 242280 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @08:06PM (#64305439)

      Sure, I'll bite. The real problem here isn't that Russian propaganda sites are posing as real news sites. The problem is that the quality of real news sites is so low that most people can't tell the difference. Whose fault is this? Who created the perverse incentives that led the news industry to destroy itself. Not Russia, surely. My guess is wall street did it.

      • by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @09:17PM (#64305549)

        Sure, I'll bite. The real problem here isn't that Russian propaganda sites are posing as real news sites. The problem is that the quality of real news sites is so low that most people can't tell the difference. Whose fault is this? Who created the perverse incentives that led the news industry to destroy itself. Not Russia, surely. My guess is wall street did it.

        The problem is that the quality of real news sites is so low that most people can't tell the difference. Whose fault is this?

        Technology. With the internet and the rise of "anyone can be a journalist" on Youtube and TikTok, actual professional reporting which used to have a valuable market is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. That which remains is often paywalled to try and preserve what little audience they still have with people who appreciate it enough to contribute back.

        The world has 5.3 billion internet users. With them all being potential "journalists" it's not surprising quality suffers badly. Everyone gets free "news" now. And it is worth every penny.

        • by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @10:13PM (#64305605)
          I get my news from real journalists, doing real work to write real, high quality analysis of world events and trends. And for some incomprehensible reason, they expect to make a decent salary, which means that my annual subscription is NOT cheap. And its worth every single penny I pay. The only free news sources of any real quality at all are BBC and NPR and they dont even come close to being as good as what I use.
          • Re: But waddabout... (Score:5, Informative)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday March 11, 2024 @10:00AM (#64306485) Homepage Journal

            I mostly like what the BBC does, but lately with the Israel-Gaza conflict they have really dropped the ball. Uncritical reporting of what the IDF and Israeli government reports, while everything from the Palestinian Authority has several caveats, and rarely any effort to get to the truth.

            It's a shame because when BBC Verify does make the effort, they often do a very good job of dismantling claims from Israel. Their debunking of the first hospital raid and non-existent Hamas command centre that was supposed to be under it was excellent, for example.

          • I'm not sure how the "I have a better news source than anyone else, but won't name it." got a +5 insightful. It really is a demonstation of the downfall of not only news, but the entire Slashdot moderation system.

            I'm struggling to understand the difference between your post and the whole "doing your own vaccine research on your phone while on the shitter" comments. In both cases you expect us to entirely take your word on something without providing any ability for us to challenge you. Shame on Slashdot mod

            • The Economist. I was paying the subscription back when my salary was barely in the upper 50th percentile and the info was still delivered on dead tree directly to my door. Haven’t found anything better. I’ve looked.
        • The world has 5.3 billion internet users. With them all being potential "journalists" it's not surprising quality suffers badly. Everyone gets free "news" now. And it is worth every penny.

          That was a very low effort post to try and explain why people don't trust the news outlets. Nothing I do affects the quality of BBC News or CNN news... and yet here you are, saying that because I own my own news outlet, the quality of CNN is reduced.

          The real problem is that the news is not allowed to be The News. It is all about Social Manipulation and has nothing to do with actual News.

          Could you imagine a news caster that was actually honest? If not, look at a few of the incidents where the mask has slippe

          • Much of the problem is that most Americans don't read/watch the news, they get snippets from social media instead. Or they read something their browser's home page (set it to be blank peeples). Now combine this with an attitude that everything online is true, a society that will start fist fights over the blue/gold dress, and a rah-rah sports team like attitude towards politics, and it means that influencing American political staces will actually work. Conspiracy theories abound; flat earth posts pop up

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by marcobat ( 1178909 )

        troll != disagree

        Perhaps /. should add a moderation category of "Disagree" so that things are actually marked correctly.

      • No. There's no problem with the quality of real news. There's a problem with the people who think low quality news is real. To be fair that isn't entirely their fault. There's an orchestrated campaign to convince people that real news isn't real and direct people to low quality alternatives.

    • You posted this literally one minute before someone did just that.

  • Putin needs trump (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Morromist ( 1207276 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @07:45PM (#64305395)

    Nobody will benefit more than Putin if Trump wins. Aid to Ukraine will stop, he'll try to get out of NATO, he'll alienate the US from its allies and generally be corrupt, incompetent and polarizing.

    Russia is going to throw a lot at this election, fake news sites are only a drop in the bucket.

    • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @07:53PM (#64305415)

      Putin got a bargain. Buy off one Republican, get the entire party for free!

      • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @08:03PM (#64305431) Homepage Journal

        I don't think Putin had to buy him. I think he genuinely looks up to Putin. He was certainly eager to do Russia favors without as far as we know getting a quid pro quo in return.

        That said, the Trump organization has longstanding ties to Russian oligarchs. That in itself is not corrupt on the Trump Org's side. The oligarchs have lots of money they want safely stashed in New York real estate. That money is surely looted from the Russian people, but arguably that's not Trump's problem.

        • Re:Putin needs trump (Score:5, Interesting)

          by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @08:11PM (#64305451)

          Possibly. But all that Russian money needing laundered didn't hurt. How do you think he was able to buy [wired.com] his failing [newyorker.com] golf courses in Scotland [vanityfair.com] with cash?

          Unfortunately, and possibly the only time, the Scots lacked backbone [bbc.com] to investigate.

        • by t.reagan ( 7420066 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @09:04PM (#64305529)
          He genuinely looks up to any authoritarian because he wants to create total American dependence on him and him alone.

          Please see this quick introduction video from an expert:

          https://twitter.com/ruthbenghi... [twitter.com]

          • Re:Putin needs trump (Score:5, Interesting)

            by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday March 11, 2024 @06:53AM (#64306111)

            He genuinely looks up to any authoritarian

            This. There's a reason Victor Orban was at Mar a Lago last week.

          • Re:Putin needs trump (Score:4, Informative)

            by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Monday March 11, 2024 @09:25AM (#64306387)

            Well, what do you expect. Trump is a academic failure and unsophisticated to a degree that is staggering. Without his rather large inheritance ("self-made-millionaire", my ass) he would never have amounted to anything. And he likely would be in prison as a sex-offender as well. And deep down, he knows all that. Hence he tries to compensate by styling himself as the messiah. And a massive number of dumb fucks falls for it.

        • Putin is something like 5'4". Almost no one looks up to him, unless one of his goons has beaten them to the ground first.

        • by LazLong ( 757 )

          Agree. Trump just loves "strong men." He loves the idea of Putin and Putin's Russia, imagining himself in that position of a similarly transformed America. I wonder if Fred Trump had pro-Nazi leanings?

        • Given how careless and, let's just say it, outright naive and negligent Trump is, while at the same time being not exactly the most decent person, and given Putin's KGB background, I'd have to assume it's less admiration and more that Putin got some dirt on him that he could easily spill and cause Trump to fall very, very deeply.

          • I'd have to assume it's less admiration and more that Putin got some dirt on him that he could easily spill and cause Trump to fall very, very deeply.

            To quote the man himself: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters"

            I question whether there's anything Putin could leak that would impact Trump's standing amongst the True Believers.

            • He would still be arrested and charged for murder.

              Not to mention that just because they'd let him get away with murder doesn't mean that his dupes wouldn't want to turn away from him if they found out that he's not "one of us" but rather the same kind of rich asshole who dumps all over them they tried to "stick it to" by voting for him.

              Remember that a lot of his voters are the conservative type that go "USA! USA!" at every possible occasion. If they found out that he pretty much craps on the USA and would g

              • by Merk42 ( 1906718 )

                If they found out that he pretty much craps on the USA and would gladly sell the country down the river if there's a dime in it for him, I ain't so sure that they'd easily forgive that. Murder, ok, who gives a fuck about that, but the country?

                But that'd mean they'd have to believe their god king is flawed and that's just not possible in their worldview.

                • For the longest time we thought that this was true for Jesus, too, but just see how he fell from grace now that he's considered "too woke".

              • He would still be arrested and charged for murder.

                Not to mention that just because they'd let him get away with murder doesn't mean that his dupes wouldn't want to turn away from him if they found out that he's not "one of us" but rather the same kind of rich asshole who dumps all over them they tried to "stick it to" by voting for him.

                Remember that a lot of his voters are the conservative type that go "USA! USA!" at every possible occasion. If they found out that he pretty much craps on the USA and would gladly sell the country down the river if there's a dime in it for him, I ain't so sure that they'd easily forgive that. Murder, ok, who gives a fuck about that, but the country?

                Fake news, obviously. /s

        • At first I thought it was simply blackmail - you know, the alleged video from a Moscow hotel. But now I too believe that Trump looks up to Putin, in the same way that any draft-dodging bully looks up an even bigger bully. Trump probably thinks any guy who would track an enemy down across the world and poison him with a nerve agent is 'pretty neat'
        • I don't think Putin had to buy him. I think he genuinely looks up to Putin. He was certainly eager to do Russia favors without as far as we know getting a quid pro quo in return.

          Like Trump's kids said, they do all their banking with Russia... since after it came out that Trump had defrauded Deutsche Bank they didn't want to do business with him any more. The only reason they were still "loaning" him money was that they were afraid their incompetence and stupidity would become publicly known, and once it was, they had no reason to keep doing it.

          So is there a literal quid pro quo? Unknowable. But it wouldn't be smart to bite the only hand that still pays him.

        • Trump genuinely looks up to many dictators. He sees them as "strong" and he says so. He admires how they cut through red tape and bypass democracy, and it makes him jealous. He was buddy-buddy with Kim Jong Un them they pissed each other off when a deal was rejected (Trump's "art" of making a deal is to present his first draft then have a tantrum if the other side wants to negotiate). He was pal-ing with Xi until his deal was rejected. Trump loves the bloody Putin. Trump loves the bloody Duterte. Trump

      • by linuxguy ( 98493 ) on Monday March 11, 2024 @01:31AM (#64305801) Homepage

        We may never find out what Putin has on Trump. However, I think it is safe to assume that Trump wants what Putin has. Lifetime presidency and the power that goes with it. Anybody who objects goes straight to prison. What is not to like?

        And looking at the Republican party of today, I think these people are eager to give it to him. Many in the Republican party have been trained to admire Russia. And that training continues with the likes of Tucker Carlson signing praises of Kremlin leadership, their grocery stores, their whiteness...

        If Reagan were to show up today, the Republican party would immediately reject him as a libtard. And Trump would come up with some choice nicknames for him.

        • by sg_oneill ( 159032 ) on Monday March 11, 2024 @01:38AM (#64305805)

          I don't think he actually has anything on Trump , as tantalizing but likely untrue the notorious "piss tape" was. Rather, theres a long standing set of ties and patronage with the Russian oligarch scene and Trumps empire. Those guys came to him for access to NYC property, and in return they gave him access to Russian property. Mutual patronage really. Its in his *business* interest to see the Russian relationship be stable.

          And unfortunately that also involves a lot of envelopes being passed under desks. I scratch my back, you scratch mine.

          And yeah the republican party in 2024 looks nothing like Reagans party of small govt and govts keeping their noses out of peoples business. Though I'd argue Reagans party went away the day George Bush Jr ignore the party brass warnings to keep the Cheyney/Wolfowitz neocon-crazies faction the hell away from defence.

      • Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán revealed details about his Mar-a-Lago meeting with Donald Trump, saying that if the former president is re-elected he would not provide Ukraine with financial assistance for its war with Russia.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      • Easy to buy off someone with so much debt, so many legal bills and judgements, and at a time when there's donor fatigue after eight years of "I'm so rich, please send me more campaign donations!"

    • Aid to Ukraine will stop, he'll try to get out of NATO, he'll alienate the US from its allies ...

      Mitch McConnell, a Republican-party right-wing hard-liner, wouldn't save his own mother for free but there is one thing he does (or did, now that he is leaving): Maintain the USA's international presence. It doesn't matter who wins the election, that will stop once McConnell leaves. Plus, another McConnell back-stop, avoiding debt-default and medium-term government shutdown, will change to the Republican party forcing default and shutdown.

      Several years of the Republican party promising to end the Affor

      • by Rujiel ( 1632063 )
        Let me paraphrase that for you: "Even Mitch McConnell believes in maintaining empire!" Is he supposed to stand for the veracity of maintaining empire? He's not a very appealing representative for anything, let alone the ruling class.
    • Trump is unpredictable. Very few people expected his foreign policy during his 2016-2020 term to turn out the way it did. Much of it was guided by hands other than his. You don't really know what you're going to get with him.

      Remember that while people claim Trump is some Russian asset, it was his administration that maintained an embargo on Nordstream 2. He directly warned NATO that continuing to buy natgas from the Russians would have dire consequences:

      https://www.pbs.org/newshour/w... [pbs.org]

      Of course he was

      • The only thing going for Trump when it comes to Putin is that he is much like Putin when it comes to keeping contracts and his word: Any signature and word of either of them is worth fuck all.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. And the usual morons will eat it up.

    • All they need is a scandal concerning Hunter Biden near election time to bring every Trumper out of the woodwork and slant enough popular opinion.

      • Not difficult given they just made up the last one and then refused to admit it. I'm honestly surprised someone finally ended up in court over that.

  • We already have this (Score:5, Informative)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @07:51PM (#64305409)

    It's called Fox "News".

    • It turns out that broadcasting lies comes with a price, $787 million to be precise. https://apnews.com/article/fox... [apnews.com]

    • Fox have decided that signing up for whatever being on their list means, is the new price for reading most of their articles. They occasionally had decent science reporting. Now they have very little unless you like pasted-up images of Biden handing out bundles of cash.
  • Links, please (Score:4, Insightful)

    by spaceyhackerlady ( 462530 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @08:44PM (#64305499)

    All these sites have been shadow-banned by the usual search engines. I'd love to see one so I know what to watch for.

    ...laura

    • Re:Links, please (Score:5, Interesting)

      by takochan ( 470955 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @09:44PM (#64305581)

      Use Yandex search engine. It has lots of stuff that the 'western' engines block.
      I searched the sites in TFA above, and it found and listed them.

      Baidu (China) is also good as an alternative and doesn't censor stuff that the 'western' engines block either.

      Both are good when trying to get past the "Great Firewall of the West" ;-)

      • Can confirm, yandex will find stuff that google refuses to tell you, including apolitical stuff like "that web serial has been published buy it plebe". Just keep in mind those search engines merely have different masters. For example, top result from baidu for "1989 Tiananmen" is "Tiananmen massacre a myth".

      • So, essentially, if you want to know whether a site you visit is a Russian shill, compare Yandex results to Google results.

        Thanks, that's useful information.

  • by The Cat ( 19816 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @08:57PM (#64305523)

    I thought journalism was a worthless major? What difference does it make which news sites are where?

    STEM is all that matters.

    Right?

  • LLMs (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @09:13PM (#64305537) Journal

    LLMs will make this sort of thing much, much easier. Use something like Google Translate to translate from Russian to English. Then run that output through ChatGPT asking it to format it like a well written major news outlet story, and there you go. That will clean up all the typical translation and grammatical errors that make it easy to spot these kinds of fake sites.

  • by alantus ( 882150 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @09:17PM (#64305547)
    Russian intelligence is at it again, they never stop.
    Thankfully, not all Russians are deceivers, my beautiful and totally Russian girlfriend is a very sweet and trustworthy soul that is far removed from all this.
    She's extremely beautiful, and for some reason is interested in me, even though she's way out of my league. I was so lucky to have met her online, can't wait to meet her in person someday.
    • by kackle ( 910159 )
      I wonder what his name is.
  • by ls671 ( 1122017 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @10:33PM (#64305633) Homepage

    The network was discovered by Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub by researchers Patrick Warren and Darren Linvill, who tell the Times that its websites are designed to lend journalistic credibility to slickly produced propaganda. "The page is just there to look realistic enough to fool a casual reader into thinking they're reading a genuine, U.S.-branded article," Linvill told the Times.

    Here is an easy way to find those sites; run legit sites with web contact forms and you'll automatically get links to those sites straight from Russia. I had already "discovered" those sites quite a while ago. By the way, I filter out web form spam with keywords + spam assassin. I still have to review what spam assassin flags as spam to find false positive so I use keywords in mod_security to reject the obvious submissions and have less spam to review.

  • All news sites in the US are propaganda or sensationalism . . . . or both.
    They are the unofficial fourth branch of government, the one that shapes / manipulates public opinion.

    They're so blatant about it these days ( they're all government mouthpieces, leaning Team Red or Team Blue depending on site ), it's comical.

    The days of what used to be known as " The News " actually reporting non-biased, factual ( read that, useful ) information are long gone.

    You literally could not pay me to watch any of it in this

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