Who’s spreading fake right-wing newspapers in Illinois?

Fake newspapers ahead of general election — A photo of the South Cook News, a conservative-funded right-wing campaign mailer. This campaign mailer was made to look and feel like a real newspaper. Illinois residents have been receiving mailers like this also under other names like the Chicago City Wire, Dupage Policy Journal and Sangamon Sun.

Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons

The harm behind recent conservative-funded fake newspapers

A photo of the South Cook News, a conservative-funded right-wing campaign mailer. This campaign mailer was made to look and feel like a real newspaper. Illinois residents have been receiving mailers like this also under other names like the Chicago City Wire, Dupage Policy Journal and Sangamon Sun.

Meha Ahmad

By Micah Yason

How do you determine fact from fiction? Truth from propaganda? That’s something on a lot of our minds when we scroll through social media, but what do we do when we’re sent fake newspapers that look like the real thing?

Reset digs into recent reports of ring-wing campaign mailers disguised as newspapers ahead of the midterms and the importance of media literacy.

GUESTS: David Folkenflik, NPR media correspondent

Dan Mihalopoulos, government and politics reporter with WBEZ

Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, executive director of National Association for Media Literacy Education

Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise at the Poynter Institute