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The website which has been in operation since the summer is running propaganda about Republican governors, while not disclosing or making no mention of the fact that it is a political communication that is being paid for by the Republican Governors Association.

The AP reported, “The Republican Governors Association has quietly launched an online publication that looks like a media outlet and is branded as such on social media. The Free Telegraph blares headlines about the virtues of GOP governors, while framing Democrats negatively. It asks readers to sign up for breaking news alerts. It launched in the summer bearing no acknowledgement that it was a product of an official party committee whose sole purpose is to get more Republicans elected. Only after The Associated Press inquired about the site last week was a disclosure added to The Free Telegraph’s pages identifying the publication’s partisan source.”

The idea for the website didn’t materialize out of thin air. What the RGA did was take the Fox News model and put it on the Internet. The concept of taking clearly partisan information and disguising it as news has gained popularity within the Republican Party since the rise of Trump. Republicans have taken lessons from Putin and decided to muddy the waters of America’s information stream by injecting undisclosed opposition research into stories.

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Republicans are engaging in a practice that is intended to undermine the free press. If news consumers can’t separate information from political communications, real stories lose value, and fake stories gain traction. There is a difference between having a viewpoint and a political organization disguising itself as news in a bid to fool the public.

The Republican Party is trying to discredit the news by pushing a relentless propaganda campaign that must be stopped.