Deep-pocketed left-wing interests have spent millions on a wide range of vectors, but Local “news” sites? They began popping up with an almost “Patch.com” “-like appeal: a few local stories, local sports, and ever-so-slightly slanted political opinions peddled as news.
Our original October 2022 coverage is here and here, and aside from pissing off a local who wasn’t affiliated, we’ve not heard or said much about it. From one of our earlier reports, to re-set the table.
A network of at least 51 locally branded news sites has popped up since last year under names like the Milwaukee Metro Times, the Mecklenburg Herald, and the Tri-City Record. The sites are focused on key swing states with elections in 2021 and 2022: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. …
Each follows a similar template: aggregated local news content and short write-ups about local sports teams and attractions — interspersed with heavily slanted political news aimed at boosting Democratic midterm candidates and attacking Republican opponents.
We shared a list of the known entities nationwide, and not much more was said, but the story is back in the news. As 2024 approaches, they are still at it or at it again.
Courier Newsroom is a progressive digital media company that operates news publications in some crucial swing states, including Arizona, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Nevada, and New Hampshire. The network also plans to open a publication in Texas. …
According to the DCNF, the liberal news network, which has used its “local newsrooms” to back Democratic candidates, received $1.2 million from the New Venture Fund, Hopewell Fund, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund. All three nonprofit funds are managed by Arabella Advisors, a left-wing, for-profit dark money group based in Washington, D.C. ..
The DCNF reported that the Sixteen Thirty Fund gave Courier Newsroom $125,000. New Venture Fund provided the network with $940,000, and Hopewell Fund gave $100,000.
I’ve no new “outlets to add in the Granite State, but the four from 2022 are still online and have updated content.
- https://amoskeagtimes.com/
- https://everetttimes.com/
- https://rockinghamjournal.com/
- https://seacoaststandard.org/
They all share the same look, layout (more or less), and lead stories, and it is safe to say any like that are affiliated. But are they part of Courier Newsroom now, or is that a reflection of the same scheme with different backing – to seed stories for the Majors?
You see, the old scheme was similar. A legitimate news site would speculate or release an opinion piece – maybe staff, perhaps a third party (op-ed pages are an excellent place for a paper to plant narratives). Some other corporate media outlets would cite that and add or expand, and suddenly, it has traction and legitimacy. Everyone cites everyone else along with unnamed sources, and ta-da! (Related: NewsGuard: Surrogate the Feds Pay to Keep Watch on the Internet and Be a Judge of the Truth.)
That still happens, but by creating unaffiliated third-party sites from go, you can start the same internet Rube-Goldbergian game of telephone. So and so said this here and so on. The Blue Boots share it on social media first, or it ends up on CBS, then on to the socials, and millions make sure it spreads so far and wide you can’t miss it, and the collective consciousness makes the lies real. The addition of old Twitter and Facebook squelching or censoring any challenge just helped the arsonist media’s wildfire lie spread.
It is the very thing of which they accuse the Right, and I’m not saying it doesn’t happen on the Right. I have debunked more than my fair share of edited videos or unusually convenient stories that have come our way. It happens, but ideally, you create content and chase stories to their internet roots before you trust them. And while a lot of what we do is more opinion about other stories or events, right, left, or in the squidgy middle, we want to be as accurate about the source as possible so you can chase the white rabbit yourself.
No millionaires are, however, sending us checks for hundreds of thousands annually. Not yet. We could use some of that for good instead of evil, but part of our situation is that it won’t buy you preferable treatment on our pages, so that might be why we don’t see that sort of thing. The Left is creating multiple “news” sites portrayed as nonpartisan local public interest websites to advance favorable narratives or impugn opponents.
There are a lot of “stories” and a lot of landing pages on the naked internet. Just be careful out there. And let us know if you think you’ve found one.
