Zhixi News, May 15th report, on May 14th local time, the American investigative media "Florida Forum" disclosed that a local news website in South Florida named "South Florida Standard" was actually a pseudo-media system batch-generated by AI.
The website fabricated a local news team: including AI-generated journalist headshots, personal bios, and email addresses, and published articles under the bylines of these fake journalists. Their content was not original reporting but was heavily sourced from real media, rewritten by AI, and republished.
Investigations show that "Florida Forum" is not an isolated case. Related source code traces point to the same operator, whose backer admitted to building a total of 17 similar AI-driven news sites, generating over 3500 URLs and attracting approximately 44,000 visitors.
Even more concerning is that the cost of setting up such websites is extremely low. The report states that with just a $10 domain and a simple prompt, an AI assistant could generate a "local news website" within 15 minutes, including a founding statement, editorial team, fake journalist bios, email addresses, and article content.
After "Florida Forum" reporters began questioning the identity of the relevant individuals, the website first deleted employee profiles and then went offline entirely.
The content of this in-depth investigative report is translated as follows:
A Mother of Two
A Bilingual Editor-in-Chief Producing 21 Articles a Week
Was Actually Forged by AI
Sofia Delgado, a journalist in South Florida, had a great year.
At the news organization "South Florida Standard," which she helped found months ago, reporters regularly published three articles daily, seven days a week. The content covered the state legislature budget, federal healthcare workers refusing mandatory deployment to Guantanamo Bay, and allegations linking deaths at a state psychiatric hospital to systemic neglect.
This bilingual editor-in-chief, claiming to be born and raised in Hialeah and a mother of two, even published four articles with the team on Easter Day.
In an era of shrinking newsroom budgets, such output is astonishing to many local news organizations.
However, there is another story behind this.
Delgado and other "local journalists" identified as staff of "South Florida Standard" are actually products of AI—equipped with fake headshot photos and fabricated bios, filled with South Florida clichés. The articles published under their names were excerpted from real news media, processed by AI, and republished. The website operators claimed they had no intention of plagiarism.
In summary, aside from a few social media accounts created in early 2026 with no posts or followers, these so-called journalists had almost no professional history or digital footprint outside the website.
A notable exception was two "journalists" whose names matched individuals charged with or convicted of fraud and conspiracy in recent years.
After "Florida Forum" began investigating the website and its so-called journalists, the site administrator started modifying content, deleting employee bios, and eventually took the site completely offline.
Older versions of the website can still be viewed on the Internet Archive.
Mainstream Local Media Launches Investigation:
Uncovers 9 AI Fake Journalists and the Mastermind
"Florida Forum" collaborated with the media and tech podcast "Question Everything" to investigate and identify the mastermind behind the website.
"It was clear that the person behind this did not care about the truth at all," said Kelly McBride, Senior Vice President of the Poynter Institute, a global nonprofit dedicated to strengthening democracy through improved journalism. "The only way to solve this problem is to find the person who actually holds the keys to this website."
To investigate the mastermind, reporters invited experts to search for digital traces in the website's source code.
Casey Frechette, a journalism professor at the University of South Florida with 20 years of web development experience, examined the "South Florida Standard" and other related websites.
By analyzing the code, he discovered digital clues linking "South Florida Standard" to similar "local news" sites like "The Charleston Sentinel" in South Carolina and the tech-focused "San Francisco Download" in California. All websites were built on the same source code base and controlled by the same entity.
"There were very clear indicators that these sites belonged to the same network, managed by the same operator," Frechette said, expressing "99% confidence" in the finding.
These three so-called local news media not only shared source code but also overlapped with a list of "journalists"—names identical to individuals charged with or convicted of fraud and conspiracy in recent years. "Florida Forum" identified at least 9 such individuals across these three sites.
Frechette's analysis also confirmed that the websites' code contained hidden links pointing to the Philadelphia-based online reputation management company "The Discoverability Company," founded by tech executive Drew Chapin.
From Fraudster to Professional 'Reputation Laundering' Mentor
Using AI to Control Public Opinion
Chapin, former CEO of a startup, pleaded guilty in 2021 to defrauding investors.
Since then, he has turned his personal experience of clearing embarrassing search results and negative news stories from Google into a profession—helping individual clients and businesses craft their online reputations, masking unwanted search results.
He is also the head of the "White Collar Support Group," an organization of former corporate executives helping each other cope with prison life and life after release.
Chapin claims he finds meaning in helping individuals convicted of non-violent crimes shed online records that don't reflect their true current selves, aiding them in securing housing, employment, and dignity.
"Personal online reputation isn't much different from what I've been doing my entire career, except instead of building new mobile apps or e-commerce stores, it's building a personal image," Chapin explained during a webinar for the White Collar Support Group earlier this year.
He coaches the group on how to create a "brand new online identity," not by deleting all social media accounts and erasing digital footprints entirely, but by disseminating "counter-narratives" through platforms like personal websites and news media, aiming to bury past negative records.
He explained that each podcast, blog post, and news interview presents an opportunity to build authority in search engine algorithms, allowing preferred search results to rank higher on Google's first page.
"Every piece of content you create is a chance to reclaim those spots," he said.
"Your best move now is to completely replace the old stuff. Bury it. Control the narrative."
Decline of Traditional U.S. Journalism
'Pink Slime' Websites Proliferate
AI Exacerbates the Problem
The rise of "South Florida Standard" and its sister sites coincides with a historic collapse facing traditional American journalism. Long-standing community pillar news organizations are shutting down, leaving "news deserts." Many survivors are laying off staff, with some turning to AI-generated content to stay afloat.
Websites masquerading as legitimate news media rapidly fill the vacuum. Many are backed by powerful corporate and political interests aimed at controlling public opinion and shaping public views, but with almost no transparency regarding intent, ownership, or funding sources.
According to data analytics company NewsGuard, these websites, termed "pink slime" by academic researchers—named after the cheap meat byproduct filler used in processed food—now outnumber local daily newspapers in the U.S.
As of June 2024, NewsGuard identified 1,265 "pink slime" outlets, exceeding the 1,213 daily newspapers still operating. The Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University reported that since 2005 alone, the U.S. has lost nearly 2,900 newspapers and nearly two-thirds of its newspaper journalists, totaling 43,000 people.
As the state with the fewest per capita news media outlets in the U.S., Florida's media ecosystem is particularly vulnerable to the risks posed by these fake news websites, a problem exacerbated by advanced AI technology.
17 AI Websites:
Attracted 44,000 Visitors
Building One Costs Just $10
Identifying Chapin as the person behind "South Florida Standard" was not easy.
The website administrator's initial email reply to reporters did not reveal their identity. They stated: "All names on our website were randomly generated by AI," and any apparent connection to real people was "purely coincidental."
The statement also read: "The South Florida Standard has no corporate owner. This is a website we are developing to build search engine authority, then sell to domain investors who might use it to build a news asset, newsletter, or similar digital asset. This is common in the SEO industry."
Later, when responding to reporter questions, Chapin, founder of "The Discoverability Company," admitted responsibility for the site. He described it as a six-month "experiment" to establish "geographic topical authority" and better understand the algorithmic persistence of unwanted search results for clients.
Chapin said he couldn't accept a phone interview until late May but spoke with a "Question Everything" reporter and responded to follow-up email questions.
Archived versions of his news websites show that at least one site operated much longer than Chapin initially claimed, dating back to 2023. At certain points that year, all "journalists" listed on the homepage of "San Francisco Download" shared names with fraud convicts, including Chapin himself.
In some cases, past crimes aligned with the "journalists'" claimed reporting beats: someone convicted of tricking buyers into purchasing non-existent Ferraris was now reporting on the auto industry.
Some "journalists" also had personal websites identifying them as staff of Chapin's fake news outlets. These personal sites bore logos associated with "The Discoverability Company" and have since been taken down along with the news sites.
"The work I do is helping people have a voice for themselves and maintain their position within the discussion about them online," Chapin said. "I won't discuss specific client business, nor will I confirm or deny any personal relationships."
Chapin revealed he had built a total of 17 similar AI-driven news websites across the U.S., generating over 3,500 URLs and attracting more than 44,000 visitors. He declined to provide a full list, but the sites covered topics like state politics in New York and New Jersey, local news in Philadelphia, and even a Hawaii medical journal website.
He demonstrated in real-time: with just a $10 domain and a short prompt, an AI assistant could build a new "local news" website within 15 minutes—complete with a mission statement, masthead, fake journalist team, and numerous articles.
Finally, Chapin said his "experiment" didn't work well—search engines could distinguish between "The New York Times" and fake media, and his sites failed to break through.
"I don't know whose job it is to ensure that people are represented fairly and completely on the web," he said. "And I don't agree with all the ways that algorithm works. But as you say, it's the game you have to play."
Conclusion: AI Abuse Threatens Survival of Original Media
'News Poisoning' Poses Greater Harm
Kevin DeLuca, a professor studying media political economy at Yale University, described "South Florida Standard" as "deceptive" and noted it was "more convincing" than other similar sites he had seen, particularly pointing out the AI-fabricated journalists with professional headshots.
DeLuca said researchers found "pink slime" websites don't actually attract much traffic, but that doesn't mean they have no impact. AI bots pose a clear threat to original content media because they scrape large volumes of content at once, potentially temporarily overwhelming servers and making sites inaccessible to readers.
A greater concern is that if the next generation of bots scrape information from these scam websites to train their large language models, the news answers people receive will be of the poorest quality, turning the internet news landscape into a massive garbage dump.
Source: "Florida Forum"
This article is from the WeChat public account "Zhixi News" (ID: zhidxcom), author: Li Shuiqing
