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Alternative news media with a right-wing populist leaning are flourishing. They pitch themselves as opposition to a hegemonically interpreted mainstream news media system. Yet, at the same time, they rely on the so criticized others to justify their own existence. Using a co-orientation framework, the current study asked in how far right-wing populist alternative news media orient themselves towards the mainstream. Using a qualitative content analysis of all 658 websites referenced by a popular right-wing conspiracy-theoretical YouTuber in Germany, we demonstrate that distinct source types were quoted. References ranged from mainstream news media up to ultra-right wing truther blogs. A quantitative examination of the content-analytical categories confirmed significant differences between mainstream news media and right-wing populist blogs, with special interest and alternative news media ranging in …