Local outlets may lack audience size, but they can can provide a veneer of legitimacy to fringe groups, experts say
![How anti-vaxxers and ivermectin advocates have co-opted US local news](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/480b749a8dd38826932ecca8bba074afb2b9743a/0_281_8142_4883/master/8142.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=c6c338a93e60d9a658e59792410635a6)
Last November, the WEAR-TV news station in northern
Florida aired a segment on Dr Benjamin Marble, a local doctor who created a free telehealth website offering consultations for Covid-19. Marble, the reporter said, had made it so “patients don’t have to pay a cent” for
Coronavirus treatment and believed his site could replace Obamacare.
To the average viewer, the segment on the ABC affiliate, which is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, was a local news report touting a local service. What the report didn’t mention, however, is that Marble is a member of America’s Frontline Doctors, a rightwing political group that gained notoriety in summer 2020 after some of its members appeared in a viral video touting unproven Covid-19 treatments as miracle cures.