

Not hard at all. Scientology used to do it with L. Ron Hubbard books all the time. It only takes about 5,000 copies.
https://www.novlr.org/the-reading-room/the-new-york-times-bestseller-lists-explained/
Amazon has Tapper’s book for $27. 5K copies would be $135,000.
I could personally do that and wouldn’t even max out my credit. CNN wouldn’t blink about it.
Or, you know, ACTUAL journalists:
https://www.minnpost.com/media/2015/11/mystery-mintpress-news/
"To date, MintPress’ sole moment in the national/international spotlight was a public relations disaster. It involved a hair-on-fire scoop, namely that it was the anti-Assad rebels who had inflicted chemical weapons on Syrian civilians, not Assad’s military.
Unfortunately for MintPress, the blockbuster imploded almost immediately. The bylined reporter, Dale Gavlak, demanded her name be removed from the story. She asserted that it was actually written by an unnamed Syrian colleague and was never verified, which the Strib’s Jon Tevlin reported in 2013. (Tevlin also contacted Muhawesh’s father-in-law, a local business man/adjunct professor at St. Thomas who denied being the money behind MintPress.)
Though MintPress could be considered another relatively obscure website with its own particular/peculiar agenda, it has gained a profile in the Twin Cities due to Muhawesh’s energetic self-promotion. Campuses like Augsburg have brought her in to speak on the question of balance in coverage of the Middle East. A spokeswoman at Augsburg said they knew little more about Muhawesh than that she is the publisher of MintPress, a site sympathetic to Arab issues."
Failed fact checks, conspiracy theories, “look at meeee!” publicity seeking behavior… They’re a joke of a site, not a news organization.