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The United States has become more divided on political and social issues, with a study by the University of Cambridge showing an increase of 68 percent in that division since 1988. Most of that increase has come since 2008, the beginning of Donald Trump's second term as president. And as the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding, further evidence of the division comes from a Marist poll that shows almost half of Americans think the nation is likely or very likely to experience another Civil War.
The divide has increased as access to local news has decreased in the United States. That decline in access to the "fourth estate", traditionally seen as a way to help citizens hold the three branches of government accountable, is documented in a 2025 study by Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism that shows almost 50 million Americans have little or no access to local news.
The number of so-called "news deserts", defined as counties with very little or no access to local news, has increased to the point where it includes 1,500 of America's 3,143 counties, up from 150 counties 20 years ago. Counties are subdivisions of states that manage law enforcement and elections and provide essential public services such as education and public health. Their residents also elect members of state legislatures, whose impact has grown more powerful as states divide over one another and the federal government on issues like abortion, gay rights, legalization of marijuana, enforcement of immigration laws, rights to unionize, and access to affordable health services.
The growth of the news deserts has opened room for exploitation by political and foreign interests, particularly during election cycles. In recent years, more than 1,400 new newspapers and online news sites have emerged. The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, the Chicago Tribune, and The New York Times have reported that most of them are part of networks operated by entities like Franklin Archer, Local Government Information Services (LGIS), LocalLabs, Metric Media, The Record Inc., and Star News Digital Media, with connections to and funding from conservative organizations and individuals.
Star News Digital Media, for example, is owned and operated by Michael Patrick Leahy, a founder of the conservative Nationwide Tea Party Coalition. It publishes news sites focused on 15 states, several of which Star News describes as political “battleground states," with politically oriented advertising.
All of these sites receive low ratings from NewsGuard Technologies, an organization that ranks news and information websites according to their trustworthiness, for failing to adhere to basic journalistic standards, warning readers to proceed with caution.
There are similar publishers on the left, such as Courier Newsroom, a company created by Acronym, an organization with funding from left-of-center donors such as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, billionaire investor George Soros, and Laurene Powell Jobs, the majority owner of The Atlantic. Now owned by the non-profit Good Information Inc., Courier publishes news websites in 11 states. OpenSecrets, a group that tracks money in U.S. politics, has said that "websites affiliated with Courier Newsroom that appear to be free-standing local news outlets are actually part of a coordinated effort with deep ties to Democratic political operatives." Bloomberg News describes Courier Newsroom's focus as using social media, particularly Facebook, to direct certain stories to readers in "swing states" during election campaigns.
And there is The American Independent, which, since 2021, has been operating more than 50 local news sites. Axios has reported that its focus was on key election swing states in 2021 and 2022, such as Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. They include aggregated local news content and "heavily slanted political news aimed at boosting Democratic midterm candidates and attacking Republican opponents." NewsGuard has given Independent a low ranking, saying that "The American Independent does not disclose it is funded by a politically active, liberal nonprofit."
There are also many sites funded by foreign governments and organizations that claim to offer local news in American cities and states. “Into the depleted field of journalism in America, a handful of websites have appeared in recent weeks with names suggesting a focus on news close to home: D.C. Weekly, the New York News Daily, the Chicago Chronicle and a newer sister publication, the Miami Chronicle," the New York Times reported in 2024. "In fact, they are not local news organizations at all. They are Russian creations ... meant to mimic actual news organizations to push Kremlin propaganda ....”
An investigation by NewsGuard revealed 167 Russian fake news websites that claimed to be independent publishers in the United States. All of them were part of a network created by John Mark Dougan, a former deputy sheriff in Palm Beach County, Florida, who fled to Moscow after he was accused of computer hacking and extortion in the United States. An investigation by NewsGuard disclosed many other efforts by Dougan to create fake news sites (NYNewsDaily.org, ClearStory.news, DC Weekly, ChicagoChron, etc.) to promote Russian conspiracy theories against the United States.
Owners of many other news websites funded by right-wing organizations and companies are based in Bahrain, Dubai, and Sydney, Australia. An example is Big News Network, headquartered in Dubai, which describes itself as the “largest online news service on the Web.” It owns 175 sites focused on U.S. cities and states. Those sites are managed by Midwestern Radio Network in Sydney, Australia.
The proliferation of fake news sites and fake print publications comes as the public's confidence in media has hit new lows. A 2025 Gallup report says that "Americans’ confidence in the mass media has edged down to a new low, with just 28% expressing a 'great deal' or 'fair amount' of trust in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. This is down from 31% last year and 40% five years ago.
As real journalists and the citizens who need them struggle with how to deal with this issue, Maja Sever, president of the European Federation of Journalists, has an answer.
“Equal responsibility lies with those who increasingly control access to information: the major technology platforms, social media companies and AI systems that determine what information people see, what they do not see and how news reaches audiences," Sever says. "Without greater accountability from these actors, rebuilding trust in both journalism and the wider information ecosystem will remain an impossible task.”
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