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| A "local" news site - Photo from the NY Times website |
You know what's scary?
Finding out that your local online news source--the one giving you convenient and interesting local stories--is actually part of a propaganda network:
A nationwide operation of 1,300 local sites publishes coverage that is ordered up by Republican groups and corporate P.R. firms.
I heard about this phenomenon by listening to The Daily, a nightly 20-minute feature produced by the New York Times and aired on National Public Radio. In its Oct. 28 edition, Davey Alba and Jack Nicas reported on their Oct. 18 news article about these "local news" sites that are actually Republican propaganda:
Yet the network, now in all 50 states, is built not on traditional journalism but on propaganda ordered up by dozens of conservative think tanks, political operatives, corporate executives and public-relations professionals, a Times investigation found.
The sites appear as ordinary local-news outlets, with names like Des Moines Sun, Ann Arbor Times and Empire State Today. They employ simple layouts and articles about local politics, community happenings and sometimes national issues, much like any local newspaper.
This network of websites is managed by Brian Timpone, who for 20 years has been making money on the decline of trusted, traditional local newspapers.
But there are other chains of "local" newspapers that are actually part of various international chains.
For example, my cousin sent me her father's obituary published in Newsbreak. I know the local papers in Montrose, Telluride, Cortez, and Durango--and Newsbreak is not one of them. So I checked to see whether it's legitimate.
It's not. Newsbreak is described by Enigma Software as a website that "spams users with a constant flow of advertisements" and even porn. It's owned by a corporation in China.
At first glance, the Newsbreak.com website appears to be a useful tool that would provide its visitors with the latest news. However, this is one of the countless bogus websites online that do not provide any content of value, and instead, seek to benefit from their visitors using various shady tricks.
Spams Users with a Constant Flow of Advertisements
Upon visiting the Newsbreak.com page, users will be asked to permit the site to display Web browser notifications. Keeping in mind that this fake page poses as a legitimate news website, many users may be tricked to allow browser notifications thinking that they will be alerted for the latest breaking news. However, this is not the case, certainly. As soon as a visitor allows this dodgy page to display Web browser notifications, they will be flooded with irrelevant and unwanted advertisements promoting all dubious content – from pornographic videos to fake dating websites and illicit streaming platforms. Some users may receive news updates, too, among all the advertisement notifications, but it is likely that the information provided by the Newsbreak.com site will not be relevant to their interests or their area.
Of course, Newsbreak wanted me to download its software in order to read the obituary. But after hearing the report on The Daily, I searched for info on Newsbreak before downloading. I'm glad I didn't let this malware into my computer.
Wikipedia has an entry on Newsbreak, but it's flagged at the top as written by Newsbreak itself--clearly biased. I submitted an edit for the Wikipedia entry, a warning, but no doubt it will be deleted as soon as Newsbreak notices it.
The South China Morning Post had this to say about Particle Inc., the Chinese corporation that owns Newsbreak.
Yep, the amount of pseudo news floating around is scary. I can't even read this obit of my cousin's dad without hours of checking the website of this odd "local" news source I had never heard of before in my 70 years of connection to southwest Colorado. It turns out to be Chinese-owned and spews a bunch of junk into your computer.
Welcome to the 21st century, still in its infancy.
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Here's what one person reports on Quora:
I tried Newsbreak by accident, I must have accidently clicked a link. But since it somehow got installed on my phone I decided to see what it was like.
So for the past couple of weeks I have been bombarded with notifications presenting one story after another on my phone.
It contains mostly news stories that I have already seen on my local news sources. So much of what they offer is like watching reruns of old news.
It is loaded with misleading sucker ads that are designed to look like real news stories, so you have to look carefully for that fine print that says, “ad” or “sponsored” to avoid getting sucked in.
Those kinds of ads are mostly pay per click so every click makes them money. Many of the ads are trying to lure you into clicking tons of pages filled with a couple sentences of text but mostly ads. You can't see what the end of the story is until you have clicked “NEXT” 50 times.
I refuse to waste my time that way. If a story seems interesting, as soon as I see the first “NEXT” button I get out of there and just Google the story headline which usually easily found and read it from the original source which is likely where they got it in the first place.
But what finally made me uninstall Newsbreak was after I checked out some of the reader comments about a few stories.
Unlike Quora, Newsbreak readers seem to be the most ignorant and uneducated in the country.
Most of Newsbreak readers seem to be people with mouths larger than their brains offering baseless opinions, while calling other readers with equally baseless opposing opinions, patently offensive names using crude language consisting of mostly four letter words instead of presenting rational educated arguments supporting such opinions.
The last time I ever was exposed to comments on the level of Newsbreak readers was when I was on the elementary school playground at recess when no teacher was near.
It's target readership seems to be on the same level as a National Enquirer reader, so if you happen to love the Enquirer you will probably love Newsbreak.
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