Semafor: Most of these videos begin the exact same way: with a vague anecdote about a Democratic politician, followed by a specific date. Multiple videos began with a description of the birth of the political figure they were discussing (the births of Kamala Harris, AOC, and New York grocery magnate John Catsimatidis are recurring features of videos from the Victoria Foster and William Reports News channels). Ten channels, plus Chan’s geopolitics channel, also reused the same b-minor music score, which could be heard in dozens of videos.
Many scripts feature the exact same phrases. Seven accounts shared videos that repeated the phrase “here’s the part that should stop you cold.” Five accounts shared videos with the assertion that something is “not a rounding error.” Five different accounts introduced videos by saying, “Hey, everyone, today we need to talk about,” and the same five ended videos with the line, “I’ll see you in the next one.” Many topics and events were recycled across the channels: Over the course of a few months, five accounts published videos featuring what they all referred to as the “most expensive home ever sold in the United States.”…