Conservative Edition News

Controversial Websites

Conservative Edition News (along with its sister website Liberal Edition News) is one of a pair of controversial websites controlled by Ken LaCorte, a former Fox News executive.[1]

The new websites are written, according to the New York Times investigation, by a network of authors in Macedonia, previous known for publishing disinformation during the 2016 US presidential election.[1]

The Times reports that Conservative Edition News contains content "guaranteed to infuriate the American right," while Liberal Edition News contains stories "guaranteed to drive liberal voters further left or to wring a visceral response from moderates."[1] LaCorte said that the purpose of the sites was to drive traffic to his principal venture LaCorte News, a “centrist-right” website that he brands as a “digital news start-up with the stated goal of restoring faith in the media.”[1]

LaCorte admitted that he had been secretly operating the partisan websites and had hired Macedonian teenagers to write the content.[2] In November 2019, Facebook shut down the pages for Conservative Edition News and Liberal Edition News for terms of service violations that included manipulation of site privileges and engagement with well-known Macedonian “troll farms”.[3]

## References

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1. ^ a b c d Perlroth, Nicole (21 November 2019). "A Former Fox News Executive Divides Americans Using Russian Tactics". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
2. ^ Katz, A. J. (November 22, 2019). "Former Fox News Exec Ken LaCorte Admits to Hiring Writers to Create Inflammatory Content for Partisan Websites". Adweek. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
3. ^ Zakrzewski, Cat (November 22, 2019). "The Technology 202: Bits, Nibbles and Bytes". The Washington Post.