  What if misinformation is not an information problem at all? To understand
the role of news publishers in potentially unintentionally propagating
misinformation, we examine how far-right and fringe online groups share and
leverage established legacy news media articles to advance their narratives.
Our findings suggest that online fringe ideologies spread through the use of
content that is consensus-based and "factually correct". We found that
Australian news publishers with both moderate and far-right political leanings
contain comparable levels of information completeness and quality; and
furthermore, that far-right Twitter users often share from moderate sources.
However, a stark difference emerges when we consider two additional factors: 1)
the narrow topic selection of articles by far-right users, suggesting that they
cherry pick only news articles that engage with their preexisting worldviews
and specific topics of concern, and 2) the difference between moderate and
far-right publishers when we examine the writing style of their articles.
Furthermore, we can identify users prone to sharing misinformation based on
their communication style. These findings have important implications for
countering online misinformation, as they highlight the powerful role that
personal biases towards specific topics and publishers' writing styles have in
amplifying fringe ideologies online.
