Tag: fake news

Iranian operatives used AI to plant fake stories in multiple US media outlets

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Iranian flag displayed behind a computer monitor on a desk

Operatives in Iran used OpenAI models and fake personas to help plant news articles critical of the US war against Iran in multiple US media outlets, OpenAI said on Thursday. About a dozen outlets around the world ran roughly 100 articles by seven fake journalists, OpenAI said in a blog post. The firm said it banned ChatGPT accounts that were prompting the AI tool in Farsi to tweak articles and editorial pitches, and generate social media comments. Some of the AI-assisted articles had provocative titles, including, “Is America’s Iran Policy Being Privatized? The Jared Kushner Question,” and “The Iran War and the Collapse of Western Moral Credibility.”

It’s the latest example of AI agents playing a key role in the propaganda battles that coincide with the US and Israel’s war with Iran. Young Iranians have also used AI to make viral Lego-themed videos mocking US leaders, while President Donald Trump has posted AI-generated videos depicting US strikes on Iran. None of the publications that ran the articles appear to be a major, mainstream news outlet, but some of them have sizable online followings.

One of the outlets, Middle East Monitor, which is based in London, has almost two million followers on Facebook. Getting the anti-war narratives in front of a US audience could count as a successful information operation for whoever was behind it. Who that is, and whether they’re affiliated with the Iranian government, is unclear, OpenAI said. “The overall activity appeared consistent with a commercial actor running a for-hire influence campaign, but we are unable to identify the particular actor involved,” the AI firm wrote in its blog.

The article about Kushner and US foreign policy was published by the LA Progressive, which describes itself as an “independent, justice-driven publication” based in Los Angeles. CNN has requested comment from LA Progressive. Daud Abdullah, Director of the Middle East Monitor, told CNN he will look into the articles OpenAI flagged and “take the appropriate action.” Another representative for the Middle East Monitor later told CNN that the articles had been taken down and that the publication was reviewing its submissions process. After the articles published, the Iranian operatives asked ChatGPT to generate comments they could post on social media purporting to be people reacting to the articles, according to OpenAI.

“The users asked for comments on topics such as missile strikes, ceasefires, and diplomatic maneuvering, specifying outputs that portrayed the US as the aggressor, Israel as an unreliable ally of the US, and Iran as a defiant but resilient victim,” the blog says. “It’s remarkable that the Iranians managed to land their content in real media outlets, expanding the potential reach of their campaign,” said Jessica Brandt, who ran the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s now-shuttered Foreign Malign Influence Center from 2023 to 2025.

“We’re witnessing AI enable foreign adversaries to better hide their hand, building more sophisticated false fronts than they might otherwise be able to in order to launder their content through authentic channels, leveraging those channels for reach,” Brandt told CNN. OpenAI’s findings show how AI is increasingly being used to shape perceptions of war. This spring, a false AI-assisted US intelligence report about a purported Chinese ship transporting nuclear components almost led the US military to board the ship, CNN previously reported.

Source: Iranian operatives used AI to plant fake stories in multiple US media outlets | CNN Politics

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:17

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Associated Press Dislikes Trump Remarks on Communism at Mount Rushmore

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Donald Trump speaking at a podium with Mount Rushmore and a crowd holding American flags behind him

Communism is an evil philosophy. Communist regimes have killed hundreds of millions of people, and made millions more live in a police state. But somehow, speaking ill of communism alarms the same journalists that constantly suggest democracy is in peril under Donald Trump. Authoritarianism is bad – unless it’s communist. Trump denounced communism in a July 3 speech underneath Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. A three-person team at Associated Press — Steven Stone, Steve Peoples, and Michelle Price — penned a story headlined: “Trump hails US exceptionalism before veering into darkly political speech to usher in America 250.”

AP began by claiming Trump offered “soaring rhetoric about American exceptionalism before veering into a darkly political speech with warnings about a sinister threat of communism that evoked one of the country’s ugliest chapters.” Trump said communism was a “mortal threat to American liberty.” That’s considered “darkly political,” even if it’s factual. American liberty and Soviet communism were polar opposites in the Cold War, democracy and tyranny. Somehow, reporters don’t like “dark” words about Stalin and Mao and Castro and Pol Pot. They were somehow never a “sinister threat” to anyone. As for the ugliest chapter? The AP trio lectured: “Indeed, Trump’s language evoked the Red Scare of the 1950s, when alleged communists were persecuted and blacklisted from jobs across America, from Washington to Hollywood.” This is a mind-boggling sentence.

They’re still saying “alleged communists”? Every journalist should have taken the time to learn that there were communist spies in the federal government and there were communists in powerful positions in Hollywood. Leftist journalists spent decades claiming Alger Hiss wasn’t a Soviet spy, but post-Soviet records clearly established he was. There are a shelf of books underlining the evidence, including Blacklisted by History by M. Stanton Evans. As for the entertainment world, Allan Ryskind, whose father was a Hollywood screenwriter, wrote an engrossing book that came out in 2015 called Hollywood Traitors about the communists that infiltrated the movie business. Sen. Joseph McCarthy might have gotten the number of Soviet spies wrong, but journalists have spent decades ridiculously pretending the number was zero.

It’s a little humorous that this anti-anti-communist story was picked up online by both NPR and PBS. NPR’s headline was “In Mount Rushmore speech, Trump veers from U.S. exceptionalism to warnings about communism.” The PBS headline put communist “threat” in quote marks, like it was crazy talk. Right after their “Red Scare” laments, the AP scribes uncritically added “Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, delivered his own address that cast America as a nation of contradictions ‘working each day towards the perfection in which it was conceived.’” That’s their only Mamdani speech quote in this piece. Mamdani has openly spoken of seizing the “means of production,” but that would only make him an “alleged communist.”

Graham Platner identified himself as a communist on Reddit, and Darializa Avila Chevalier spoke warmly of Marx and communist dictators on her X account “Darializabonet,” until she took it down. But an AP Fact Check genius wrote an article objecting to anyone claiming there are communists in the Democratic Party, because none of them were actually members of the Communist Party. They missed the obvious point: They’re pro-communist members of the Democratic Party. Journalists who constantly smear President Trump and his supporters as “fascists” (with no fuss from the “fact checkers”) find it “darkly political” when someone does a version of what they do – except conservatives have the actual facts on their side. 

Source: Associated Press Dislikes Trump Remarks on Communism at Mount Rushmore

You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Leviticus 19:17-18

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US Media Focus on British Royals While Overlooking Child Sex Abuse Scandal

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There’s no longer much foreign reporting on television with the exception of natural disasters, or countries where Americans are engaged in military action. That’s certainly true of Europe – except for Britain. The networks, surely focused on ratings, display a fascination with the Royal Family. On Monday, NBC’s Today featured a four-minute report from London-based Molly Hunter obsessing over Prince Harry’s planned visit to his home country to promote the Invictus Games for veterans that he founded. ABC and CBS also offered full reports speculating on Prince Harry’s visit and whether Meghan Markle and their children will also attend.

On June 17, NBC’s Hunter performed a four-minute Today report (complete with “In Depth” graphic) on the Earth-shaking story that 12-year-old Prince George will attend the Eton College private boys’ school in the fall, just as his father and Prince Harry did. To pad the report, she also touted how Princess Kate did a 24-hour mountain climb for charity after her recovery from cancer. ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, CNN, and MS NOW cannot be bothered for much more substantive British matters, like a recent report on the rape of young girls that came from Member of Parliament Rupert Lowe. The report estimates rape gangs victimized at least 250,000 girls across 149 local British authorities since the 1990s. It says many victims were young teenagers. Some were as young as four years old. The story erupted in America with Elon Musk, as Fox News reported he “reignited international attention on Britain’s grooming gangs scandal this week, amplifying a citizen-funded report that accuses the U.K. government of failing to protect children and teenagers from organized sexual exploitation.”

Musk tweeted on June 16: “The politicians who turned a blind eye to the Rape of Britain must go to prison.” The American networks have been completely obsessed with the Jeffrey Epstein files over the last year, constantly exploring how much guilt Donald Trump bears for his long-ended friendship with Epstein. So why can they not spare two or three minutes for this story? You can guess. The report found nearly 90 percent of the men convicted of rape gang offenses from 1997 to 2018 had “distinctly Muslim names.” Of these offenders, the overwhelming majority were Pakistani Muslim. The report states the obvious: “Political correctness, fear of racism and fear of losing electoral support from certain demographics have taken precedence over the protection of British children.” Child sexual abuse is considered newsworthy when the allegations are against white men, or against Catholic priests, and the allegations alone are enough to damage reputations of entire groups.

The Left will exploit allegations to defeat the conservative Christians who fight against their cultural agenda. But Muslim immigrants are apparently a protected class. Rupert Lowe can be dismissed as a “far right” leader with the Restore Britain party. One might argue its estimates are overblown – but to do that, you’d have to actually engage with the accusations instead of hiding from them. It’s not the first report on this scandalous matter. The Jay Report was a 2014 inquiry commissioned by Rotherham – a city of 110,000 – that found “at least 1,400 children were being systematically sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013,” predominantly by Pakistani men. That was also largely ignored by the American media due to its racial and religious overtones.  The abuse investigations continue. In April, the British government launched a new national inquiry into grooming gangs across England and Wales. But our networks think the most newsworthy happenings in England are infotainment, like which school Prince George is attending next year.

Source: US Media Focus on British Royals While Overlooking Child Sex Abuse Scandal

Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.
Romans 12:12

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