TowCenter/partisan-local-news

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Hundreds of hyperpartisan sites are masquerading as local news. This map shows if there’s one near you.

We found that while the (few) left-leaning sites prioritize statewide reporting, right-leaning sites are more focused on local reporting, indicating the potential for these sites to exacerbate polarization in local communities.

Conservative PACs have paid at least $1.6 million to the extended Metric Media network this election cycle, a Tow Center investigation reveals.

Nonprofits and political action committees (pacs) are using Metric Media’s extended network of local news sites to provide a range of campaign services to conservative candidates in the run-up to the November midterm elections, new research by the Tow Center shows.    The tactic of using partisan newspapers to launder advocacy is being taken up […]

Someone Is Manipulating Your AI to Swing Your Vote | VisionHeight

A network of 37 anonymous “local news” sites, set up in a single evening, is feeding ready-made midterm answers to the AI chatbots voters increasingly consult.

Websites pretending to be local news are boosting Democratic candidates

The websites of unknown origin are targeting key U.S. House races. They are getting picked up by ChatGPT's responses but Google's products avoid promoting them.

Advocacy groups and Metric Media collaborate on local ‘community news’

<p>This is the second part of a two-part investigation. The first piece can be found here. Metric Media launched “Community Newsmaker” in 2020 using the language of citizen journalism. However, what appeared to be  grassroots news is part of a sprawling network that promotes political agendas and corporate interests, without disclosing those ties to the […]</p>

The Metric Media network runs more than 1,200 local news sites. Here are some of the non-profits funding them.

<p>This is the first part of a two-part investigation. The second piece can be found here. As local news outlets across the US struggle to stay afloat, pop-up newsrooms are filling the void. Organizations with ties to political parties, special-interest groups, and lobbyists have emerged under the guise of news. One of the biggest such […]</p>

As election looms, a network of mysterious ‘pink slime’ local news outlets nearly triples in size

Editor’s Note: This is the second of our four pieces on this network. In December 2019, we first established the scope of the “pink slime” network distributing algorithmic stories and conservative talking points. In October 2021, we found that the network had received funding from multiple dark money groups as well as collaborated with advocacy […]

Hundreds of ‘pink slime’ local news outlets are distributing algorithmic stories and conservative talking points

<p>Editor’s Note: This is the first of our four pieces on this network. In August 2020, we found that the size of the network had nearly tripled to over 1200 sites. In October 2021, we found that the network had received funding from multiple dark money groups as well as collaborated with advocacy groups on topics to […]</p>

‘Pink Slime’: Partisan journalism and the future of local news

As we hurtle towards 2024 elections, interest in pink slime journalism and the continued growth of partisan local outlets with deep, often opaque, ties to dark money, advocacy groups and other special interests has only grown.

ピンクスライム・ジャーナリズム

共和党や民主党の政治家や政策を支持するために利用されていることが研究者やメディアの信頼性評価者によって、確認されている。また、ピンクスライム手法で制作されたニュース・サイトが読者データを収集するために使用されていることも報告されている。記事はコンピュータによって生成されるか、あるいは筆名を使用した低賃金で業務委託されたライターによって執筆されている。

Pink-slime journalism

Pink-slime journalism is a practice in which news outlets, or fake partisan operations masquerading as such, publish (often but not always) lower-quality news reports that appear to be independent local news outlets.[1] The use of these websites to gather user data has also been observed.[2][3][4] The reports are either computer-generated or written by poorly-paid outsourced writers, sometimes using pen names.[3][5][6]