{"id":22979,"date":"2025-05-03T09:17:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T09:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/how-misinformation-and-partisan-new-media-changed-a-california-town\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T09:17:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T09:17:47","slug":"how-misinformation-and-partisan-new-media-changed-a-california-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/how-misinformation-and-partisan-new-media-changed-a-california-town\/","title":{"rendered":"How Misinformation and Partisan \u2018New Media\u2019 Changed a California Town"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With its horse-trodden roads, endless fields of almond blossoms and cowboy heritage, the 20,000 person town of Oakdale, Calif., fits the American West of imagination. And for decades, its media diet was classically all-American, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nightly news broadcasts played on living room televisions. Copies of local newspapers lined doorsteps on Sunday mornings. The town even had two media outlets dedicated to rodeo and horse roping news.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But that version of Oakdale is a thing of the past.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">First the nearby newspapers shrank, and hundreds of local reporters in the region became handfuls. Then came the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020, and the pandemic; suddenly cable networks long deemed trustworthy were peddlers of fake news, on the right and the left.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By the 2024 election, when its county, Stanislaus, was among the 10 in California that President Trump flipped red, it wasn\u2019t just trust in traditional media that had vanished from Oakdale \u2014 it was the media itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, in place of longtime TV pundits and radio hosts, residents turn to a new sphere of podcasters and online influencers to get their political news. Facebook groups for local events run by residents have replaced the role of local newspapers, elevating the county\u2019s \u201ckeyboard warriors\u201d to roles akin to editors in chief.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Of the 80 Oakdale residents The New York Times spoke to for this article, not a single one subscribed to a regional news site, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or The Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Oakdale is not alone: Between news deserts <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/24\/business\/media\/media-industry-layoffs-decline.html\" title=\"\">expanding in rural areas<\/a> and a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\/trend\/archive\/fall-2024\/media-mistrust-has-been-growing-for-decades-does-it-matter\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">growing distrust<\/a> of national outlets, the town\u2019s shift toward new sources of information is becoming commonplace in small communities across the country. That trend is almost certain to accelerate, with the Trump administration moving to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/14\/business\/media\/trump-npr-pbs-funding.html\" title=\"\">claw back funding for NPR and PBS<\/a>, which would slash local broadcasting stations\u2019 budgets, and prioritizing hyperpartisan \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/04\/15\/us\/trump-white-house-briefing-room-new-media.html\" title=\"\">new media<\/a>\u201d in the White House press briefings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But seeking truth in a post-journalism world of Facebook groups and online influencers has left some Oakdale residents feeling less informed than before. And efforts to manage misinformation that culminated in an armed militia storming the town in 2020 have changed the very nature of the community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-7026a822\">The Cowboy Capital of the World<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tucked between mountain ranges and rivers in the heart of California\u2019s Central Valley, Oakdale is only 100 miles east of the San Francisco Bay Area, but it has the feel of another world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It\u2019s a place where the highways are dotted with fruit stands and neighbors leave baked goods on one another\u2019s porches, with a large community of Latino immigrants and a proud cowboy history, memorialized in two separate museums. During the pandemic, the town became especially tight-knit, bonded by the uncertainty of the virus, the politics of an election year and the hardship of closing down restaurants and retail stores in a place where small businesses are an economic lifeblood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As local news outlets shrank throughout the Central Valley in the 2010s, Facebook groups dedicated to local events started popping up in their place. And for years, they were harmless. But that changed in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With residents stuck at home during the pandemic, the groups thrived. But as new members joined by the thousands, conspiracy theories and political debates overtook posts about school board meetings and local elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Then, the militia incident happened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Julie Logan, an in-home health care worker in Oakdale, can still remember the scene: It was a weekend morning in June, and the downtown farmers\u2019 market had been replaced by a scene resembling a military operation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gunmen patrolled the sidewalks dressed head to toe in brown camouflage; store windows were boarded up; some of the men perched from the rooftops in tactical gear, brandishing rifles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The militia was prepared to defend against an imminent threat: Black Lives Matter protesters, they believed, were plotting to invade the town and would be arriving on buses from the Bay Area at any moment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They waited and waited. But the protesters never came.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The men were drawn to Oakdale by a false rumor spread in a Facebook group called All Things Oakdale, which over the years had become the town\u2019s primary forum for local news. Started in 2015 by Ms. Logan, the group had amassed more than 17,000 members by 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThat was the moment we knew something had to change,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The militia was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.modbee.com\/news\/local\/oakdale\/article243352451.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">hired by the owner of a downtown bar called the H-B Saloon<\/a>, the police said. The scene confused even the local authorities, and Jeff Dirkse, the sheriff of Stanislaus County, took to Facebook to decry \u201crumors that are running rampant on social media,\u201d but assured residents there was no threat of an attack. (Reached by phone, the owner of H-B declined to comment.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Logan made the Facebook group private and banned political discussions altogether. To help with fact-checking and moderation, she enlisted Kari Conversa, a pet care store owner, and Christopher Smith, an Oakdale City Council member and commercial plumbing distribution manager.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the new focus on moderation had an unintended effect: Frustrated residents whose comments were removed began to create their own groups in protest, with names like Oakdale Incident Feed First Amendment Approved and Oakdale Incident Feed UNFILTERED. Soon enough, the spinoffs were becoming more popular than the original group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Toni Ahrens, a wood carving artist, started Oakdale Incident Feed DOUBLE UNFILTERED after \u201cexperiencing the filtering first hand,\u201d when a moderator removed a political comment of hers. Her new group now has 9,500 members \u2014 three times the number of subscribers of Oakdale\u2019s weekly newspaper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Ms. Ahrens acknowledged that certain administrators have prioritized the kinds of misinformation and political discussions that caused them to be banned in the first place. And, more often than not, these residents lean conservative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Among the largest of these Facebook groups is Stanislaus News, which has 75,000 members and has become the go-to source of information for crime in the area. (The sprawling county has around 500,000 residents.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The group was founded by Mark Davis, a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.modbee.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article3136741.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">former bail bonds salesman<\/a> in the nearby city of Modesto who was himself banned from a different group dedicated to local news in 2019. Along with his wife, Mr. Davis spends hours a day monitoring local police and emergency services scanners, translating the radio codes into updates that are often posted hours ahead of local news reports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The group has also become a repository for Mr. Davis\u2019s personal musings about Mr. Trump and Elon Musk\u2019s so called Department of Government Efficiency, to the frustration of many residents who just want to read about local happenings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cTHIS PAGE WAS NOT INTENDED FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES,\u201d one commenter wrote on a recent post about Mr. Musk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The group is closely aligned with the Modesto Police Department, which uses it to make daily posts of its own. \u201cThis is a PRO law enforcement group,\u201d reads one of Mr. Davis\u2019s rules. \u201cIf you are not, then this is not the group for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some residents say Mr. Davis\u2019s rules have hurt their efforts to spread important news, like in December, when surveillance footage posted to the group of a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.modbee.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article296814079.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">fatal shooting<\/a> at a convenience store appeared to contradict the sheriff\u2019s report of how the altercation began. Members of the group began to post new details about the case \u2014 until Mr. Davis stepped in to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0PGwUBt1hgxCiHN75CQ1xeimscRLZUvnVsoPs3erJNrWNtdvH3PNZrpfgErxex9CNl&amp;id=61564250740599\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">ban them<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Blake Coronado, who runs a nonprofit that helps find missing people and relies on Facebook groups for engagement, was one of the members who posted. After visiting the crime scene in person to share his findings, Mr. Coronado said, comments on his post were disabled within minutes. A day later, he was banned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI was shocked, because to my knowledge we didn\u2019t even break any rules,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cIf we\u2019re not going to hold our police department accountable, how is that helping our community?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Davis and the Modesto Police Department did not respond to requests for comments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Local news around Oakdale hasn\u2019t always been this way. In the early 2000s, the Modesto Bee, the largest regional paper owned by the newspaper chain McClatchy, had over a hundred reporters; it now has around a dozen. Both of its former rodeo and horse roping news outlets are now out of business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The town is still able to support a weekly newspaper called <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oakdaleleader.com\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">The Oakdale Leader<\/a>, which shares a handful of reporters with nine other local newspapers in the Central Valley, all owned by Hank Vander Veen, its publisher and a former circulation director at the Modesto Bee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to compete with it,\u201d Mr. Vander Veen said of the Facebook groups in an interview. \u201cI still feel like some people go to us, whether it\u2019s our website or our newspaper, for a more trusted news.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-12\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-63b4e429\">\u2018Now the News Comes From Everywhere\u2019<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It isn\u2019t just local news habits that are changing in Oakdale. Since the pandemic, a wider skepticism for everything including vaccines and the price of eggs has changed the way people approach information in general: The thinking is, do your own research, and trust neither side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Fred Smith, a gun store owner in Oakdale, grew up watching broadcasts of the CBS anchor Walter Cronkite when he was called \u201cthe most trusted man in America.\u201d Until recently, he was a regular viewer of CNN and Fox News after work and estimates he spent over $100,000 advertising his store in the print pages of the Modesto Bee in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But that trust has waned as traditional cable outlets have started to feel \u201cmore like entertainment than news,\u201d he said. He\u2019s gravitated toward podcasters like Joe Rogan and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5eodRZd3qR9VT1ip1wI7xQ\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Shawn Ryan<\/a>, a fellow veteran. But he doesn\u2019t necessarily trust all the information on those podcasts, either.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt used to be you had one source of news and you trusted it,\u201d Mr. Smith said. \u201cNow the news comes from everywhere, and I take it all with a grain of salt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He now finds himself inundated with \u201cmore news than he\u2019s ever felt in his lifetime\u201d in the first months of Mr. Trump\u2019s second term, and he doesn\u2019t trust any of it. Asked if he ever gets his news from social media, Mr. Smith opened his Instagram feed to show an A.I.-generated image of Mr. Trump riding a bald eagle. \u201cYou can\u2019t trust that either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-13\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Alternative news in Oakdale has even extended into print. In barber shops, clock repair stores and diners across town, copies of a peculiar newspaper appear on tables and bookshelves: <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">The Epoch Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-14\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The media outlet is <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/24\/technology\/epoch-times-influence-falun-gong.html\" title=\"\">affiliated with the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong<\/a>, and it is known to include right-wing misinformation with an anti-China slant. (The outlet did not respond to a request for comment.) A weekly print subscription costs less than $15 a year, but most store owners in Oakdale said they didn\u2019t initially pay for a subscription \u2014 the editions just started showing up in the mail during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Beatriz Ortega, a hairdresser in Oakdale, first came across The Epoch Times in the summer of 2020, when free copies arrived at the door of her barbershop. Her husband, John, enjoyed the reporting, so he purchased a subscription. The outlet\u2019s reporting, Mr. Ortega said, \u201cfeels straightforward enough,\u201d and the paper has in recent years added a California news section.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-15\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Ortegas\u2019 news habits couldn\u2019t be more different. Ms. Ortega keeps up with current events exclusively through La Mesa Caliente, a Spanish-language talk show on Telemundo hosted by four women. Mr. Ortega gets his news from an orbit of right-wing male YouTube personalities like Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk and Dan Bongino, who was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/24\/us\/politics\/dan-bongino-trump-fbi-director-conspiracies.html\" title=\"\">recently named<\/a> deputy director of the F.B.I.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their differing news diets can often become points of contention, Mr. Ortega said, when it feels like they\u2019re getting information about the same events from entirely different worlds. \u201cBut we both just want the facts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Sarah Jones, 35, who works at a retail store downtown, said her attitude toward the media changed along with her beliefs about health and wellness in 2018, when she had her first child and began to distrust conventional medical advice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By 2020, she had gotten rid of her television, replacing cable news programs like CNN and Fox News with mostly female <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/journalism\/2024\/11\/18\/americas-news-influencers\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">news influencers<\/a> on Instagram who aggregate the news into short video clips and graphics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One of the accounts Ms. Jones follows, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/houseinhabit\/?hl=en\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">House Inhabit<\/a>, is run by Jessica Reed-Kraus, a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fan who Mr. Trump recently added to the White House press pool. Others accounts she follows like <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.realnewsnotbs.com\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Real News No Bullshit<\/a> are managed anonymously. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-16\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Working alongside Mr. Smith at his gun store is Jimmy Freeman, 50, who is known around the shop as a news hound. But whatever trust Mr. Freeman had in mainstream media disappeared while watching the last Biden-Trump presidential debate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-17\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Watching President Biden struggle to string together complete sentences, he couldn\u2019t help but think that the press corps in Washington that was supposed to keep the country informed \u2014 including Oakdale \u2014 had let him down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt felt like a failure,\u201d Mr. Freeman said. \u201cHow could the media not tell us what we were seeing?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His solution to what he saw as media bias was a website called <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/ground.news\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Ground News<\/a>, which aggregates reports from different news outlets and gives them each a bias score on the spectrum of left, center and right, along with a \u201cfactuality\u201d rating. Users can even toggle between A.I. generated summaries of news stories written from different political perspectives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYou grab both sides, bring them toward the middle, and that\u2019s usually where the truth is,\u201d Mr. Freeman said. At $8 a month, it is the only news subscription he pays for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-18\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-1f0ae6f8\">Some Old News Diets Remain<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Liberal residents in Oakdale say their news diets haven\u2019t changed as much as their conservative counterparts. Harvey Melgoza, 67, still listens to MSNBC on the radio while working at his shoe repair store downtown, like he has for as long as he can remember. And he will sometimes read The Oakdale Leader on the occasion that his neighbor, Doug, drops off extra copies at his doorstep.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-19\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since the start of the pandemic, he has watched some of his neighbors embrace conspiracy theories, or grow suddenly fearful of Mexican immigrants coming across the border.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">MSNBC \u201cmight sometimes have a bias,\u201d he said, \u201cbut at least it gives me a good sense of what\u2019s happening in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-20\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On April 5, dozens of Oakdale residents prepared to protest Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk in Modesto, among the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/05\/us\/politics\/anti-trump-protests-hands-off.html?searchResultPosition=1\" title=\"\">hundreds of protests happening that day<\/a> around the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Fliers with details of the event were being deleted from Facebook groups, so they turned to email threads to share information instead. Marjorie Sturdy, a therapist in Oakdale and the leader of the town\u2019s progressive club, drove to the protest that day with a pit of anxiety in her stomach, remembering the militia five years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Then came some relief \u2014 the Modesto Police assured her, in private, that it was monitoring Facebook for dangerous threats. Aside from a few angry passers-by, the rally drew hundreds and went on as planned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt gave me some optimism,\u201d Ms. Sturdy said, \u201cthat things could change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Audio produced by <!-- -->Sarah Diamond<!-- -->.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/03\/technology\/news-misinformation-facebook-oakdale.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With its horse-trodden roads, endless fields of almond blossoms and cowboy heritage, the 20,000 person town of Oakdale, Calif., fits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2564,3058,6741,123,2094,6750,119,2356,1770,378,932,118,1418],"class_list":["post-22979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-audio-neutral-informative","tag-bongino","tag-cnn","tag-computers-and-the-internet","tag-daniel","tag-epoch-times","tag-facebook-inc","tag-fox-news-channel","tag-news-and-news-media","tag-newspapers","tag-rumors-and-misinformation","tag-social-media","tag-vis-photo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Misinformation and Partisan \u2018New Media\u2019 Changed a California Town - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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