{"id":1916522,"date":"2023-04-19T02:57:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T06:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/usa-today-affiliate-sends-cease-and-desist-to-desantis-critic-who-cribbed-articles-for-fake-news-site\/"},"modified":"2023-04-19T02:58:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T06:58:29","slug":"usa-today-affiliate-sends-cease-and-desist-to-desantis-critic-who-cribbed-articles-for-fake-news-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/usa-today-affiliate-sends-cease-and-desist-to-desantis-critic-who-cribbed-articles-for-fake-news-site\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Today Affiliate Sends Cease-and-Desist to DeSantis Critic Who Cribbed Articles for Fake News Site"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fusa-today-affiliate-sends-cease-and-desist-to-desantis-critic-who-cribbed-articles-for-fake-news-site%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1916522&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<p><h2>Pensacola News Journal alleges Rebekah Jones stole articles for website attacking DeSantis<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption> \t\t\t\tRebekah Jones \/ Wikimedia Commons, GI Brown \t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A Florida affiliate of <em>USA Today<\/em> has sent a cease-and-desist letter to former Democratic congressional candidate Rebekah Jones for allegedly copying the paper\u2019s articles to her fake news site, which she used to level attacks against Republican governor Ron DeSantis.\t<\/p>\n<p>An editor for the <em>Pensacola News Journal<\/em> told the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> on Monday that the paper&#8217;s articles were stolen by Jones without permission.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From what we were able to determine, that site was created by failed congressional candidate Rebekah Jones,&#8221; said <em>Pensacola News Journal<\/em> executive editor Lisa Nellessen Savage. &#8220;Jones was sent a cease-and-desist letter by our company for taking various <em>PNJ<\/em> stories and reposting them on her site without permission.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The legal warning comes after the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/desantis-critic-embraced-by-progressives-created-fake-news-site-to-promote-herself\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> that Jones\u2014a former Florida health department data worker who gained national fame in 2020 after claiming to be a COVID &#8220;whistleblower&#8221;\u2014founded &#8220;My Northwest Florida,&#8221; a local news outlet that hailed Jones as an &#8220;international hero&#8221; and accused DeSantis\u2019s administration of committing various crimes. Jones, who lost her congressional race against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) last year, is back in the news this month after claiming her 13-year-old son was &#8220;kidnapped on the governor\u2019s orders.&#8221; The middle-schooler was arrested by the Santa Rosa Sheriff\u2019s Office after allegedly posting threats that he wanted to &#8220;shoot up the school.&#8221; There is no indication DeSantis had anything to do with the arrest.<\/p>\n<p>Jones told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> last week that she wasn\u2019t behind My Northwest Florida. However, corporate records state she founded it on Nov. 15, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to flattering articles about Jones, My Northwest Florida also published legitimate local news and crime stories, which appeared to be copy-and-pasted from established media outlets like the <em>Pensacola News Journal<\/em> and the <em>South Santa Rosa News<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Pensacola News Journal<\/em> isn\u2019t the first outlet to accuse My Northwest Florida of poaching its work. Romi White, the publisher of <em>South Santa Rosa News<\/em>, told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> last week she was shocked to see two of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mynwfl.com\/post\/navarre-veteran-dad-wrongfully-arrested-in-stand-your-ground-case\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">her<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mynwfl.com\/post\/state-of-florida-reverses-course-on-brock-hamilton-prosecution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">articles<\/a> reposted on the website without permission.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That\u2019s my hard work that I\u2019ve done, and she\u2019s using it on her website apparently,&#8221; said White. &#8220;I\u2019m beside myself right now. I\u2019m just furious.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>White told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> that Jones reached out to her late last year after losing the election and asked if they could partner to launch a national news website. White said she declined because she didn\u2019t believe Jones was credible.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She said it would stretch from Texas to Tallahassee, Florida,&#8221; said White. &#8220;I was not interested in doing it because she and I just have very core value differences.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My Northwest Florida has published just a handful of articles since it launched last year, and many of them were reprinted from other outlets. One of the few original pieces was a lengthy investigative story, which accused the Florida State Attorney\u2019s office of forging Jones\u2019s signature on a plea agreement while prosecuting her in a hacking case last year. Jones admitted guilt as part of the plea deal.<\/p>\n<p>Jones, who has repeatedly promoted the article to her 418,000 Twitter followers, hasn\u2019t disclosed her role in the news outlet. She denied it was her website in a phone call with the <em>Free Beacon <\/em>last week.\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No, my website is MissInformational.com,&#8221; she told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>, referring to another group she runs that seeks to combat &#8220;disinformation.&#8221; When asked about the corporate records, Jones hung up. She did not call back and didn\u2019t respond to a subsequent call and written request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Twitter users have questioned Jones\u2019s connection to My Northwest Florida for months, noting that the contact phone number for MyNWFL.com is the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CharlesFLehman\/status\/1612555572146229248?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">same<\/a> as Jones\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rebekahjonescampaign.com\/get-involved\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">campaign number<\/a>, and an <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20221117213330\/https:\/www.mynwfl.com\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">archived<\/a> version of the website\u2019s &#8220;About&#8221; section said it &#8220;continues the Campaign for Good led by congressional candidate Rebekah Jones.&#8221; Jones\u2019s name also <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/webster\/status\/1644719555904954374\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appears<\/a> to be listed at the top of the outlet\u2019s email account.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pensacola News Journal alleges Rebekah Jones stole articles for website attacking DeSantis Rebekah Jones \/ Wikimedia Commons, GI Brown A Florida affiliate of USA Today has sent a cease-and-desist letter to former Democratic congressional candidate Rebekah Jones for allegedly copying the paper\u2019s articles to her fake news site, which she used to level attacks against<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":1916523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[13378,14249,11790,24649,4887,4980,7487,4133,5774,14541],"class_list":["post-1916522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon","tag-affiliate","tag-articles","tag-cease-and-desist","tag-cribbed","tag-critic","tag-desantis","tag-fake","tag-news","tag-sends","tag-usa"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1916523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}