A former Florida sheriff who moved to Russia amid an FBI investigation is a Kremlin-backed propagandist responsible for viral deepfake videos and misinformation targeting Kamala Harris’s campaign, according to European intelligence documents reviewed by the Washington Post.
The GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, gave funding to John Mark Dougan, the operator of several fake news websites. According to documents reviewed by the Post, Dugan was responsible for several websites that seemingly published fake local news, including DC Weekly, Chicago Chronicle, and Atlanta Observer.
I’d be shocked that this strategy could work, except that I am aware that a Republican politician can say and do pretty much what they want with minor repercussions, and a Dem politician could be deepfaked as a talking meatloaf that shoot eyeball lasers and Jesus and be summarily executed in the Supreme Court. When people choose to be ridiculous, you get a ridiculous society.
well I mean they also likely do propaganda that supports third party candidates which is much more likely to work
Wtf he wrote a book about himself.
Guess Russia didn’t pay him enough to thrive over there.
The reviews for this are hilarious. Several of them honestly read like they were written by the same doofus who wrote the blurb. There’s a very distinct sort of lumbering to the way he writes.
Also, thanks Sharon. BKAAHHH! 🦅
I love his response at the end of the article.
Dougan told the Post he wasn’t behind DC Weekly and other sites and said he didn’t know Korovin or Khoroshenky. He said he worked as an IT consultant for an American company.
“I will tell you hypothetically, if they were my sites,” he said, “then I am merely fighting fire with fire because the West is fucking lying about everything that’s happening,” Dougan said. “They are lying about everything.”
Those aren’t my websites… but if they were, "I AM FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE BATTLING THE CAPITALIST MENACE IN THE WEST AND WILL SEE YOUR NATION FALL, HA HA HA HA HA HA HA… ahem… hypothetically.
… in Minecraft!
What always catches me off guard about these types of reports is that someone had time to work a normal job and then also manage a completely separate job. Did they do nothing but work? Was the money worth it?
Whenever I read about this stuff it seems to be such a paltry sum, like $10k. I don’t understand why someone would do it for so little.
If I’m betraying my country, I want at least my own fully staffed super yacht.
That’s not a lot to Americans, but it’s good living for Russians.
Remember when Fucker Carlson went to Russia and was bragging about how cheap his staged grocery bill was? Turns out that would have been about a month’s pay for an average Russian.
Do they… negotiate these things? Is there like, contract bidding?
I suspect the reality is they find people who are already doing this kind of shit on their own and offer to pay them to keep doing it.
What makes you think he has two jobs? He’s a former Florida sheriff who, according the the article, “moved to Russia amid an FBI investigation” and is now a Kremlin-backed propagandist.
I didn’t catch that the “former” part of the article headline.
I’m not sure whether I hope they don’t have kids or I hope they’re neglecting them.
Another occurrence of the actual meaning behind the term “fake news.”
