When Florida reporter Kate Payne stumbled across a local news site called The South Florida Standard, something about it felt off. She’d never heard of the outlet before and didn’t know any of the journalists who were listed on its staff, even though their bios touted long careers in Florida journalism. The articles the site was publishing seemed like very normal local news stories, but they were often plagiarizing the reporting of other Florida news outlets. The coverage didn’t have any obvious political agenda or bias. And Kate couldn’t see a way the site was making any money; there were no ads or ways to subscribe. 

What was going on here?

After Kate told Question Everything producer Zach St. Louis about this, he got sucked into the mystery  – and ended up solving it. A bizarre whodunnit for our AI age. 

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And subscribe to our newsletter please!

Kate Payne reported a version of this story for The Florida Trib, which you can read here.

Jeremy Carrasco is director of Riddance and the creator of JeremyFindsAI.

Guests:
Kate Payne, State Government Reporter at The Florida Trib
Jeremy Carrasco, Director of Riddance and Creator of JeremyFindsAI
Joe Alouf, Turnaround Executive

Please support the companies that support this show:
Quince
OneSkin

When Florida reporter Kate Payne stumbled across a local news site called The South Florida Standard, something about it felt off. She&rsquo;d never heard of the outlet before and didn&rsquo;t know any of the journalists who were listed on its staff, even though their bios touted long careers in Florida journalism. The articles the site was publishing seemed like very normal local news stories, but they were often plagiarizing the reporting of other Florida news outlets. The coverage didn&rsquo;t have any obvious political agenda or bias. And Kate couldn&rsquo;t see a way the site was making any money; there were no ads or ways to subscribe.&nbsp;
What was going on here?
After Kate told Question Everything producer Zach St. Louis about this, he got sucked into the mystery&nbsp; &ndash; and ended up solving it. A bizarre whodunnit for our AI age.&nbsp;
Question Everything is a production of <a href="http://www.kcrw.org">KCRW</a> and <a href="http://www.placementtheory.com">Placement Theory</a>. Follow us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/questioneverything.podcast">Instagram</a>: @questionverything.podcast. And subscribe to our <a href="http://questioneverything.substack.com">newsletter</a> please!
Kate Payne reported a version of this story for The Florida Trib, which you can read <a href="https://floridatrib.org/2026/05/14/the-rise-and-fall-of-an-ai-driven-local-news-outlet-in-south-florida/">here</a>.
Jeremy Carrasco is director of <a href="http://riddance.ai">Riddance</a> and the creator of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyFindsAI/shorts">JeremyFindsAI.</a>
Guests:
<ul>
<li>Kate Payne, State Government Reporter at <a href="https://floridatrib.org/">The Florida Trib</a></li>
<li>Jeremy Carrasco, Director of <a href="http://riddance.ai">Riddance</a> and Creator of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyFindsAI/shorts">JeremyFindsAI</a></li>
<li>Joe Alouf, Turnaround Executive</li>
</ul>
Please support the companies that support this show:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.quince.com/shop/our-core-collection?utm_source=veritone&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=question">Quince</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.oneskin.co/?utm_source=podscale&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=question">OneSkin</a></li>
</ul>

Question Everything is a weekly investigation into how the truth gets buried, distorted, and denied -- and the ways people are fighting to make it matter again.

Hosted by Brian Reed, of S-Town and This American Life.

Winner of the Webby Award, Ambie Award, and a Signal Special Achievement Award for pushing "the boundaries of the medium."

Question Everything is a weekly investigation into how the truth gets buried, distorted, and denied -- and the ways people are fighting to make it matter again.
Hosted by Brian Reed, of S-Town and This American Life.
Winner of the Webby Award, Ambie Award, and a Signal Special Achievement Award for pushing "the boundaries of the medium."

Question Everything

An investigation into a local news site that appears to be staffed by reporters that aren’t real people.

The Curious Case of the Fake Florida Newsroom

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/69e30edb-9185-4386-9abd-b4cf0144a75c/transcript