Fmr Fox News Exec Steals Kremlin's Playbook, runs propaganda websites for Clicks and Profit
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/technology/LaCorte-edition-news.html
An investigation found that a former Fox News executive hired Macedonians to write culturally and politically divisive content for his websites.
By Nicole Perlroth
Nov. 21, 2019, 11:34 a.m. ET
SAN FRANCISCO At first glance, the websites Conservative Edition News and Liberal Edition News have only one thing in common: Both have been carefully curated to inflame Americas culture wars.
Conservative Edition News is a repository of stories guaranteed to infuriate the American right. Its recent headlines include Austin sex-ed curriculum teaches kids how to obtain an abortion and HuffPost writer considers Christianity dangerous.
On Liberal Edition News, readers are fed a steady diet of content guaranteed to drive liberal voters further left or to wring a visceral response from moderates. One recent story singled out an Italian youth soccer coach who called Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist, a whore.
The sites are the work of Ken LaCorte, the former Fox News executive who was accused of killing a story about President Trumps affair with Stormy Daniels, the pornographic film actress, before the 2016 election.
Their content is written by a network of young Macedonians in Veles, a sleepy riverside town that was home to a collection of writers who churned out disinformation during the 2016 presidential election in the United States. Among Mr. LaCortes network was one writer who helped peddle a conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton had ties to a pedophile ring.
Until now, it was unclear who was behind the sites. But an investigation by The New York Times and researchers at Nisos, a security firm in Virginia, found that they are among several sites owned by Mr. LaCorte that push inflammatory items stories, petitions and the occasional conspiracy theory to the American public.
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