Despite working for Michigan State University outside Lansing, Mich., Matt Grossmann had never heard of The Lansing Sun until he stumbled across the website on his Facebook news feed earlier this month. So when he clicked on an advertised article about Michigan’s roads spending that criticized the state’s Democratic governor, he was curious to know whether The Sun was a new outlet serving the state capital’s 118,000 residents and political leaders.
What he discovered instead was a network of nearly 40 websites that appear to be local news outlets from throughout Michigan but offer largely identical articles about taxes, alleged voter fraud and education costs with a distinctly conservative political tone. …
At a time when social media has become a key gateway for sharing information, the collection of websites underscores how political messaging can be deftly repackaged to look like the fading local journalism that readers were used to trusting. CONT.
Dan Levin, New York Times