Another government fake news publication has bitten the dust joining Today and The New Paper, due to falling readership. The Middle Ground (TMG.sg) editors Daniel Yap and former Straits Times reporter Bertha Henson threw in the towel saying they have no money to continue operating the website:
“I want to let you know today that we’ve decided to start the process of winding down our publication. We have just over 200 patrons on the platform, contributing about S$3,000 each month, and the choices we made meant that we were not as attractive as other platforms when it came to sheer traffic and viral content – the lifeblood of ad campaigns.”
TMG.sg is a for-profit government-backed fake news passing off as “neutral and middle” while publishing pro-government articles to provide support for propaganda fake news. The two pro-government editors did not reveal how much revenue they made in their 2-year-long operation but complained that S$3,000 a month in contribution is insufficient.
Like the state media, TMG was never once investigated for fake news due to it’s pro-government content.
TMG.sg’s demise leave only the other two government-backed fake news media, Independent.sg and Mothership.sg, running. The three websites started in 2015, following the shut down of The Real Singapore (TRS) and the arrest of their editors. States Times Review editor Alex Tan is TRS’s third editor but he managed to escape the government’s persecution to Sydney Australia, where he imposed a self-exile.