The publicly traded Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is the largest newspaper publisher in the United States reaching over 173 million people monthly with hundreds of subsidiary outlets. These outlets give readers a sense of diversity, but in reality, they are all part of the same billion dollar media conglomerate. The
USA Today network controls more than 260 daily local newspaper brands, digital marketing service companies ReachLocal, WordStream, and ThriveHive and U.K. media company Newsquest.
This massive media conglomerate has no problem using its multiple news properties to create narratives to shift public opinion. In fact, last March,
TFTP caught the paper in an unscrupulous propaganda tactic — pushing identical content written for different states to stoke fear over guns. At the time, if you Googled, "mass shooting surge," you were returned results with exactly the same headlines, but for different states.
The headline read as follows:
"Mass shootings surge in South Carolina as nation faces record high." As you continued to scroll down the results, you'd see this exact same headline for other states like Florida, North Carolina, New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Colorado, Louisiana, Arkansas, Illinois, Michigan, and others.
In states which didn't see a rise in mass shootings, a different title was used but with the exact same point. For example,
"Mass shootings fall in Georgia, but nation faces record high." This title was applied to states like George, Indiana, California, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Alabama, and others.
Comment: