Hyperpartisan Sites Masquerading as Local News
July 13, 2020 2:40 PM Subscribe
Across the United States, sites with dramatic partisan slants purport to be local and state news media as seen here. Left-leaning sites focus on state news, while hard-right sites are filling the gap created by the collapse of local newspapers. Many of the 450 sites on this list are operated by just 5 business entities. Is there a site like this near you? Check the map to find out.
Mod note: Fixed link on the original post
posted by loup (staff) at 2:47 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by loup (staff) at 2:47 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Th one closest to me appears to have no real local news. Top 3 stories were Trump traveling to talk about how great his response to covid has been, Sen. McSally (R AZ, about to get tossed on her ass in the next election) taking personal responsibility for the PPP, and an article about how a city mminimum wage increase in Flagstaff was bad. I was hoping for slanderous muckraking and all I got was this shitty Fox News clone.
posted by nestor_makhno at 2:58 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by nestor_makhno at 2:58 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
The one closest to me purports to be based in Ada, Minnesota, with a population of under 2,000 -- but I'm not sure how they came up with Ada as the location of nwminnesotanews.com, their "contact" page says Dover, DE. I guess their "Organization Directory" consists of all of the local webpages in that area, with Ada at the top for alphabetical reasons?
posted by AzraelBrown at 3:18 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by AzraelBrown at 3:18 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
There's a group of about 14 "papers" in the Chicago suburbs that are run by a conservative talk radio guy, and from what I can tell exist only to get Jeanne Ives elected to Congress in IL-06. It's impossible to have any sort of reasoned discussion with anyone, because actual facts will be refuted with hyperpartisan garbage in the guise of a legit news organization.
posted by little king trashmouth at 3:20 PM on July 13, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by little king trashmouth at 3:20 PM on July 13, 2020 [2 favorites]
Just looked at the one closest to me and no one would mistake it's obvious and legitimate bias towards business interests. But I'd never noticed it before, seems pretty generic and only a couple years old as far as a few clicks can tell.
So a bit unimpressed with the topic, but clearly local news is in danger to be conscripted by google scraping consolidators with easily tuned partiality. From the lightest observance of the topic, it seems like literally no one at any level knows what to do about "local news" long term.
posted by sammyo at 3:24 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
So a bit unimpressed with the topic, but clearly local news is in danger to be conscripted by google scraping consolidators with easily tuned partiality. From the lightest observance of the topic, it seems like literally no one at any level knows what to do about "local news" long term.
posted by sammyo at 3:24 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
This useful to know, but it leans a little bit too hard into the "must present both sides as equally bad to maintain an appearance of neutrality" framing that plagues American news and information sources outside of Fox and OANN: you have to read fairly far into the piece to note that only 24 of the 445 sites (about 5.4%) cold be identified as left-leaning.
To me, that's not "Both sides are equally bad and should be equally condemned" that's "Jebus, the rightwing is going all in on this fake local news thing, wtf!" especially since you have to read fairly closely to see that 5 organizations control the majority of the conservative sites, while it's a bit more varied on the left side, with some unspecified number being operated by independent orgs and people.
posted by lord_wolf at 3:51 PM on July 13, 2020 [27 favorites]
To me, that's not "Both sides are equally bad and should be equally condemned" that's "Jebus, the rightwing is going all in on this fake local news thing, wtf!" especially since you have to read fairly closely to see that 5 organizations control the majority of the conservative sites, while it's a bit more varied on the left side, with some unspecified number being operated by independent orgs and people.
posted by lord_wolf at 3:51 PM on July 13, 2020 [27 favorites]
All the "conservative" ones in Maine seem to just be empty SEO-ing directories. Or I assume they are in the SEO business.
posted by selfnoise at 4:10 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by selfnoise at 4:10 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Since the collapse of local journalism angle got brought up: does anyone know of any projects to revive/provide local journalism? I'm familiar with the name of The Knight Foundation but not exactly what they do. I'd love to know who else is talking about this and maybe has identified some of the dynamics and potential solutions. I suspect this has huge implications not only for disinfo/propaganda but also for questions like police violence and local office.
Also: if anyone has ideas of how to find people who lean progressive but live in red/states counties other than voter registration info or party participation, I'd love to hear about it.
posted by wildblueyonder at 4:17 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Also: if anyone has ideas of how to find people who lean progressive but live in red/states counties other than voter registration info or party participation, I'd love to hear about it.
posted by wildblueyonder at 4:17 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Sinclair Broadcasting has moved local news to right-wing propaganda at nearly 300 TV stations.
http:\wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_stations_owned _or_operated_by_ Sinclair_Broadcast_Group
posted by ahimsakid at 4:43 PM on July 13, 2020 [6 favorites]
http:\wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_stations_owned _or_operated_by_ Sinclair_Broadcast_Group
posted by ahimsakid at 4:43 PM on July 13, 2020 [6 favorites]
Came here to see if Seattle’s KOMO TV, which is Sinclair-owned, was on the list. I guess this doesn’t really cover mainstream media which have been dragged, kicking and screaming, to the right over the past decade?
posted by lhauser at 4:52 PM on July 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by lhauser at 4:52 PM on July 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
wildblueyonder: does anyone know of any projects to revive/provide local journalism?
ProPublica - a nonprofit news organization - is doing great work setting up partnerships with existing, long-standing local news organizations to bolster their work through its Local Reporting Network. You can see from their list of partner newsrooms that they have partners everywhere from Honolulu to Anchorage - where they just did an extraordinary series on sexual violence in Alaska.
They aim to actually change things, and some of their reporting - like their appalling feature on the use of isolation as punishment in Illinois schools - has made a real difference in policy and actions.
If anyone in the thread is looking for an outstanding news organization to support, I highly recommend ProPublica.
posted by kristi at 5:15 PM on July 13, 2020 [18 favorites]
ProPublica - a nonprofit news organization - is doing great work setting up partnerships with existing, long-standing local news organizations to bolster their work through its Local Reporting Network. You can see from their list of partner newsrooms that they have partners everywhere from Honolulu to Anchorage - where they just did an extraordinary series on sexual violence in Alaska.
They aim to actually change things, and some of their reporting - like their appalling feature on the use of isolation as punishment in Illinois schools - has made a real difference in policy and actions.
If anyone in the thread is looking for an outstanding news organization to support, I highly recommend ProPublica.
posted by kristi at 5:15 PM on July 13, 2020 [18 favorites]
Since the collapse of local journalism angle got brought up: does anyone know of any projects to revive/provide local journalism?
As a little side note, my hometown newspaper (a daily with a circulation of ~100,000) is feeling the pinch, like all newspapers. A year ago they started printing offsite and sold their building, with plans to move the editorial offices to a smaller facility. This plans were made well before anyone became ill in Wuhan.
Friday was their final day in the old offices that had been their home for 44 years. Because it of course is not entirely safe to move into the new digs, right now everyone on the editorial staff is working from home, and the paper still comes out every day. I dunno that that would even have been imaginable twenty years ago.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:30 PM on July 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
As a little side note, my hometown newspaper (a daily with a circulation of ~100,000) is feeling the pinch, like all newspapers. A year ago they started printing offsite and sold their building, with plans to move the editorial offices to a smaller facility. This plans were made well before anyone became ill in Wuhan.
Friday was their final day in the old offices that had been their home for 44 years. Because it of course is not entirely safe to move into the new digs, right now everyone on the editorial staff is working from home, and the paper still comes out every day. I dunno that that would even have been imaginable twenty years ago.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:30 PM on July 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
The Colorado Sun is a good example of recently founded, investigative journalism with a local focus.
posted by GPF at 8:07 PM on July 13, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by GPF at 8:07 PM on July 13, 2020 [5 favorites]
Cripes, this headline from “Oregon Business Daily”? WTF. The white population in Kings Valley increases by 29 people between 2017 and 2018
posted by mumkin at 10:39 PM on July 13, 2020
posted by mumkin at 10:39 PM on July 13, 2020
The only one is Vermont just looks sketch. And many of the “articles” are simply calling out people for donating small amounts of money to “Bernard Sanders” campaign.
You know you aren’t from Vermont when you say Bernard. He is Bernie to everyone here.
posted by terrapin at 5:43 AM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
You know you aren’t from Vermont when you say Bernard. He is Bernie to everyone here.
posted by terrapin at 5:43 AM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
Huh. I've actually been enjoying the reporting from The Virginia Mercury. Their About page indicates the staff is local, mostly former print journalists.
posted by emelenjr at 6:27 AM on July 14, 2020
posted by emelenjr at 6:27 AM on July 14, 2020
I looked into my area of Central Florida, and there are 13 sites. I didn't look at them all, but the ones I did seemed to all be the same site with a different name, and for some reason a couple of local content articles about Delaware. And none of then are particularly up to date.
posted by Badgermann at 6:31 AM on July 14, 2020
posted by Badgermann at 6:31 AM on July 14, 2020
Further to the local news aspect, I live in a small community in a country that is not the US.. Where we once boasted two local papers (and I am a friend of one of said paper's publishers, now retired) we now have a single weekly release that amalgamates 3 communities, head office in the closest city. Individual reporters do a fantastic job but head office pushes an emphatically conservative bias.
The situation just does not make sense. The pay is so poor, we went a series of years where young graduates from some great journalism schools would come through, cut their teeth and work the grind for a few years (or part of a year, in a number of cases), then move on as soon as something better came up. And I don't blame them. To a person they side-hustled their asses off to pay the bills, they were all driven people. And usually their politics were slightly to markedly left of head office. A couple of years ago I found out they send most of their ad layout work to a contractor in India.
There have been many articles on the demise of "local" news and the details of that demise, played out all over, are unsettling. For me it's a "slipping away" of more than one thing, obviously. As so many of us click away on the juicy "stories" and images, moving or otherwise, online it feels more and more like we are all in a dream/nightmare world and we can't see our own surroundings, we are forgetting the faces of our neighbours, and how can this possibly end well?
posted by elkevelvet at 8:14 AM on July 14, 2020
The situation just does not make sense. The pay is so poor, we went a series of years where young graduates from some great journalism schools would come through, cut their teeth and work the grind for a few years (or part of a year, in a number of cases), then move on as soon as something better came up. And I don't blame them. To a person they side-hustled their asses off to pay the bills, they were all driven people. And usually their politics were slightly to markedly left of head office. A couple of years ago I found out they send most of their ad layout work to a contractor in India.
There have been many articles on the demise of "local" news and the details of that demise, played out all over, are unsettling. For me it's a "slipping away" of more than one thing, obviously. As so many of us click away on the juicy "stories" and images, moving or otherwise, online it feels more and more like we are all in a dream/nightmare world and we can't see our own surroundings, we are forgetting the faces of our neighbours, and how can this possibly end well?
posted by elkevelvet at 8:14 AM on July 14, 2020
Some reporting from Politico on Courier, the most widespread of the liberal organizations mentioned.
Courier’s operations differ from the NRCC in that it is a for-profit newsroom, and election law doesn’t regulate the press due to its First Amendment protections. As a result, Courier raises new digital-age questions about what is and is not a news organization — questions that political ad regulators are unlikely to answer, according to election experts, leaving this murky space open for “abuse,” said Brendan Fischer, the federal reform director at the Campaign Legal Center.posted by whir at 9:10 AM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
The MA one I looked at is mostly just scraped FEC donation data randomly made into "articles", they're not even ideologically biased (it doesn't appear) just stuff like "James Realperson donates $50 to Joni Ernst campaign" - so weird.
posted by youthenrage at 10:36 AM on July 14, 2020
posted by youthenrage at 10:36 AM on July 14, 2020
Similar to youthenrage, I couldn't really find any bias in the central jersey one it's just donation data, demographics data ("the number of white people in Kendal park dropped by 110 from 2018 to 2019") and in the education section, a million identical articles about what percentage of basketball/baseball/football players at X college went on to play professionally.
The articles on the homepage have more signs of being written by people not robots, but they're just Phil Murphy quotes and unrelated other things strung together in paragraphs until they reach the bottom of the page.
I don't know what political aim there could be here, it just seems like SEO bait written by robots for other robots to read. Unless this is like a Russian sleeper agent thing and as we get closer to November all these sites will work in concert to push some articles to the top of search results or something.
posted by subdee at 5:04 AM on July 15, 2020
The articles on the homepage have more signs of being written by people not robots, but they're just Phil Murphy quotes and unrelated other things strung together in paragraphs until they reach the bottom of the page.
I don't know what political aim there could be here, it just seems like SEO bait written by robots for other robots to read. Unless this is like a Russian sleeper agent thing and as we get closer to November all these sites will work in concert to push some articles to the top of search results or something.
posted by subdee at 5:04 AM on July 15, 2020
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posted by rednikki at 2:42 PM on July 13, 2020 [6 favorites]