paid-for deception and manipulation

[darkoshi]

mickeym found a Craigslist want-ad showing just how easy it is to pay people to produce misinformation these days. In this case, it is being done by a "news" site called "Conservative Daily Post".

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Also, mickeym has a GoFundMe if anyone wants to help her out. (I feel I should post that, as it is the reason I came across her journal today, as it was linked to by someone else spreading the word).

Comments

[nozomi604]

What a strangely worded ad. "Fan fiction?" It almost sounds like some liberal master troll, laying bait in order to coax conservatives into lying.

The reality is probably more banal than that, though. :P

[darkoshi]

After reading some of the "news" stories posted on the site, I don't think the authors are necessarily conservative themselves. I think they have a very good grasp on what kinds of things are likely to get the attention (and ire) of conservative readers, and are willing to compose creative fiction in that vein, in order to make money. Some of the stories are based on actual events, but with a "conservative" spin.

As to the motives of the website owners, that's the real question. I couldn't tell if the site itself has ads - my NoScript may have blocked any and I don't trust the site enough to unblock javascript. So I don't know if they are making money from website traffic in any way. It seems quite likely that the site really is intended to increase support for Trump or conservative politicians and/or to decrease support for liberal politicians and/or to increase the divide.

There's another very similar website: conservativedailyreview.com
which is probably owned by the same people. That one also has a Facebook page.

The WhoIs records for both sites have the same registrar and name servers, etc., and both have the owner's identity hidden.

[marahmarie]

It's safe to visit with just ABP turned on, at least from what I can tell. But WOT flags it "orange" for "misleading claims", oh, surprise surprise.

It's not well-indexed in Google: there were 982 results on a natural language query, 312 on an exact (with quotes) query of the canonical URL, so I'm thinking the site is either relatively new or is getting its ass kicked by Google for being misleading (human editors would likely be left to determine that, at any rate).

The Disclaimer is, for a quote/unquote journalism site, particularly dodgy, as it's just standard mumbo-jumbo legelese: All the information on this website is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. ConservativeDailyPost.com does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information.

Really? Because a big part of good journalism is being complete, reliable, and accurate. I'd love to know what the state of media would be now if all reporters made this disclaimer, publicly acknowledging that whatever you're reading might just be made-up trash.

But hey, the pay scale looks good, so I was thinking of doing the very thing you suggested. I know *exactly* what they like to hear (everyone I've seriously dated thinks he's a Republican, so this is a no-brainer, just mimicry with some editing to polish up all the normal grunting about Trump and Hillary), so I could, like, do it, then post an expose when I finally quit making $200 a day x 52 weeks from now, or whatever.

I wonder if I can wear sunglasses for their Skype convo? "Oh, I, uh...I have no pigmentation in my eyes, so they have to stay on, so sorry." I mean, I can always fake a photograph, too, right? This is for fanfaction, after all.

This really stretches the definition of fanfiction way past its natural breaking point.

[darkoshi]

I saw that disclaimer too. Yet their "About Us" page claims nearly the opposite: "We are a Conservative News Company that strives to bring all of our viewers, listeners, and readers the most up-to-date and accurate information possible." I fully expect that the 2 people described on the About Us page, including their photos, are fake or stolen. If I hadn't seen the want ad and reply, I might think the site was satire.

I have to admit, the story titles are very catchy. And those darn UPPER CASE words in the titles really work IN SPITE of how ANNOYING THEY ARE. Whenever I open the site up, I keep clicking on things out of morbid curiosity and amusement.

And at least it does serve to remind me to question stuff I read on other websites.

[marahmarie]

What it reminds me is what hypocrites the Republicans and conservatives are. On the one hand they say the MSM are all liars, that even snopes.com is made-up - but on the other, apparently because they don't trust any factual reporting to actually contain facts, they run fiction as the real thing and know everyone interested will swallow it whole because after all, the target audience is self-professed to be against fact-checking because everyone reporting the facts is a liar.

Whoo-hoo.

Also, the woman listed on that page does seem to be real. The man, maybe not so much. This is her Facebook and I can't see how she has a reporting job since she often can't string two words together without grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. I mean, she doesn't even try. I guess that makes her more "authentic", which would obviously get nods of conservative approval because she's so REAL! YES ALLCAPS FTW

Also, my apologies if you're conservative or Republican, as I've obviously been thoughtless enough to not ask (or not nosy enough to find out). While I can and have had friends and SOs of that political persuasion, that flavor in general is not my cup of tea.

[darkoshi]

That Facebook page basically contains reposts of the articles from the conservativedailypost website. Yet it also links to the conservativedailyreview website - more confirmation that both sites are run by the same people. I'm still not convinced this Laura Hunter is real, or really affiliated with the sites, because the Facebook page says nothing about her personally.

Yet, the photo is actually of someone named Laura Hunter... the photo was posted to this page in 2008:
http://ricmerry.deviantart.com/art/Laura-Hunter-headshot-86576564
From what it mentions on the deviantart page, I found these:
http://mrspageant.blogspot.com/
http://www.beyondphotography.net/#!about/ck02

Based on the above pages, she is married and lives in Washington. Whereas the CDP page says she is single and lives in Tennessee. I'll contact her and let her know her photo is being used on that CDP site and that Facebook page, in case she isn't aware of it.

[marahmarie]

Oh wow, you are awesome, with Google-fu to beat my own. It's rare that I see that from anyone. *gives mad props*

And it's great that you're contacting her. If you hear back from her I'd love to hear what she has to say. How awful is it if she's actually having her image and likeness and very identity used without her permission? I think you're doing a good thing. :)

[darkoshi]

Thanks. I feel all private-eye like now. Though all I did was to use Google's reverse image search, and go from there.

[darkoshi]

The "Alex Turner" person is fake. The photo is actually of a Duncan Hooper in the U.K.:
https://www.plotr.co.uk/advice/articles/10-minutes-with-a-top-sports-journalist/

[marahmarie]

Oh, wow * mouth drops open*

This is amazing. Though I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. The more you know™...

[darkoshi]

And I'm definitely not a Republican, nor a conservative.

[marahmarie]

That's good to know...actually great, since I was worried (albeit it occurred to me a bit late) about offending you. Thanks. :)

[marahmarie]

I just added the CDP URL to archive.org so if this ever blows up in their faces and they shut the website down, at least there's a record of what happened.

Fake photos are of me!

[(Anonymous)]

I was sent a note letting me know that someone is using my name and photo on facebook and a news site. I'm the real Laura Hunter and that's my photo but I'm not a conservative. I'm actually the reigning Ms. World and I do TV commercials and own a photography company.
I'll have to get it all copied down before I complain to facebook and get the fake articles removed, just incase they give me any trouble.
What a crazy thing!