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The simulated news items, posted on Facebook, have been viewed as many as 732,000 times each, and generated hundreds of shares.

“I think this is a first, or at least a first in Canada,” said Brett James, partner with the Sussex Strategy Group and a veteran Conservative consultant. “Part of me thinks, ‘Wow, what took people so long?’ … I think it’s an effective format.”

Behind it all is a Ford campaign manager with both partisan and television experience. Kory Teneyke was a press secretary to ex-Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and head of the now-defunct conservative Sun TV network.

But the FordNation Live pieces also underline Ford’s fractious relationship with journalists, who he has repeatedly accused of bias against him, Liberal favouritism — and outright lying.

“The media isn’t going to give us a fair shake,” he told supporters earlier this year as he vied for the PC leadership. The party needs a chief who can “stand up to the media,” he declared at one leadership debate.

Photo by Facebook

The imitation news pieces allow Ford to reach voters without his message being filtered by reporters, while using a recognizable journalistic format, says Josh Greenberg, director of the Carleton University journalism school.

“It’s a form of message control. All parties do this,” he said. “It’s the way in which they’re choosing to do it that is unique … The use of a legacy-media aesthetic — the look and feel of a traditional news broadcast.”

Ford’s enmity toward the media seems to date from his 2010-to-2014 stint as a Toronto city councilor. He spent much of that time defending his late brother Rob against accusations — eventually proven true — that the mayor drank heavily and smoked crack cocaine while in office.