A story titled “The Ghost Paper That Ate Alabama” spread quickly on social media, claiming a right-wing media company had bought and shut down 47 weekly newspapers, replacing journalists with AI-generated content. Joshua Benton reports for Nieman Journalism Lab that the story, published by a site called The Editorial, was entirely invented.
Benton found that none of the named newspapers had closed, the company behind the alleged buyout does not exist, and quoted sources such as “Dr. Thomasina Reed” could not be traced anywhere. After local editors confirmed to Benton that their papers were still running, The Editorial quietly deleted the article, citing “fact-verification concerns.”
A pattern of fabricated obituaries
The Alabama piece was not an isolated case. The Editorial had published similar fake obituaries for newspapers in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Wisconsin and Illinois, all under the byline “Elena Marchetti,” whose credentials, like those of the site’s other listed reporters, could not be verified.
Benton’s investigation also uncovered a second pattern: dozens of geopolitical stories that undermine Taiwan’s position while highlighting Chinese strength, all built on nearly identical, cinematic AI-style opening scenes. The site’s ownership remains obscured, with the only traceable link pointing to a Finnish technology company. Benton could not determine whether the site is a monetization scheme or a coordinated influence operation, though he suspects a possible connection to Chinese interests.
The case illustrates how easily generative AI can produce convincing fake journalism, even in a niche as detail-heavy as local newspaper reporting.
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