Ever heard of the Peach State Post? No? What about the Alaska Navigator? Not even The Ohio Pulse, Ohio’s “number one news source”?
You’d be forgiven, because all these outlets are as phony as a three-dollar bill. Why do they exist? To sway votes in key swing states, of course!
Despite Tr*mp’s constant categorization of anything he doesn’t like as “fake news,” Republicans sure are committed to pumping out the stuff if it can help stop the inevitable midterm bloodletting. Thankfully, an explosive report from Judd Legum may have just dashed those hopes for good.
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Looking into a network of seemingly independent news sources in key battleground states, Legum uncovered a common thread: sites like Iowa Voice and Maine Policy Updates might seem like places you can turn to for, you know, actual policy updates. But when you start reading some of the (almost certainly AI-generated) articles, something doesn’t quite add up. Especially when you scroll to the bottom of the Peach State Post and read the fine print: “a sample publication for demonstration purposes.”
That’s because they’re all funded by the same dark money group One Nation. And that money leads straight to a Senate GOP Super PAC.
The sites feature articles tailored to foster a favorable opinion of Republican lawmakers in states like Ohio, Alaska, and Georgia, where Tr*mp-aligned figures predict a tougher-than-usual midterm battle. The endgame? Getting Meta clicks and views, and ideally converting them into outrage votes. “Collectively, One Nation has spent between $198,900 and $274,640 promoting these sites on Meta platforms,” Legum reports.
It’s not a simple case of touting the accomplishments of Republicans and putting down their Democratic opponents. According to Legum, these sites peddle in straight-up falsehoods, giving GOP candidates credit for changes they had nothing to do with, and falsely accusing Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff of wanting to “gut” a child tax credit initiative in Georgia.
It’s a desperate move, but as we know too well, Republicans following Tr*mp’s lead have no problem playing dirty. The bigger question is: is it legal?
In the sense that anyone can technically create a blog and claim that they’re a news source, sure. But at least one outlet, the Peach State Post, seems to be borrowing articles from an actual Atlanta news outlet, possibly without permission.
In an increasingly confusing media landscape, you could forgive gullible voters for taking what these strangely sleek-looking blogs have to say seriously, which is exactly what makes the move so dangerous. “Although social media has been the least trusted news source globally since 2016,” wrote one statistician in 2025, “a study revealed that over 50 percent of responding internet users in 23 different countries use social networks as a way to keep up to date.”
AI has made the problem even worse, and it doesn’t help to learn that 40% of Republicans or Republican-leaning voters get their news from Meta, where AI slop is regularly integrated with actual news articles. For Americans without a high school degree, the number rises to 45%.
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