How Fake Journalists Got Iranian Articles Into Real Outlets

### Executive summary OpenAI's report exposes two state-linked covert influence campaigns—Russia's "Dark Clark" targeting Latin America and Iran's "Bogus Bylines" targeting Western outlets—using AI-assisted fabrication and false-front personas to place long-form content in mainstream media. The operations achieved notable reach (Category 5 and 4 on the IO Breakout Scale), exploited unwitting local staff and editors, and leveraged AI for scale and linguistic polish while retaining traditional influence tradecraft.