Ever wonder who is behind the creation of fake news? Laura Sydell at NPR was wondering just that after she came across a fake article titled “FBI Agent Suspected In Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide.” The false story was shared over half a million times on Facebook. With the help of John Jensen (head of engineering at Master-McNeil Inc., a tech company in Berkeley, Calif.) she was able to track the story to a man named Jestin Coler living in Los Angeles. Coler agreed to an interview with Sydell and it turns out he is the owner of one of the biggest fake news companies out there called Disinfomedia. “At any given time,” Coler says, “[I have] between 20 and 25 writers creating false stories,” claiming that people want to read this fake news. Readers are pulled in by exaggerated or shocking titles which is an example of the rhetorical device pathos as it appeals to their emotions. Coler is making somewhere between $10,000 and $30,000 a month from the ads on his websites. Yet, he insists that this is not about the money, but his aim is to show how easily fake news spreads.
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