Screengrab: Free Telegraph / Facebook
"The Republican Governors Association has quietly launched an online publication that looks like a media outlet and is branded as such on social media," AP's Bill Barrow reports.
Why it matters: This is an awesome example of the reason that people rightly distrust so much of what they read online — and should trust even less.
- "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."
- "Only after [AP] inquired about the site last week was a disclosure added to The Free Telegraph's pages identifying the publication's partisan source."
Be smart: We used to make fun of a kid on our street who was so dopey that he didn't know milk came from a cow — he thought it came from the market.
News doesn't come from Facebook, folks. We need to be discerning readers, and do more to help the young people in our lives sort out all the pixels coming at them.