Thread by @McDutchoven

🧵 Just choosing randomly, let's look at a questionable source; "Bristol Reporter" and also Metric Media LLC:

"A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies-
mediabiasfactcheck.com/bristol-report…

Bristol Reporter is categorized by MBFC as a questionable source

-poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency"

(Parent company) "Metric Media LLC lacks transparency as they do not have an about page that describes their conservative agenda, nor discloses funding and ownership."

"The Bristol Reporter is a conservative news and opinion website published by Metric Media LLC that is designed to look like a local news source. Metric Media publishes over 1000 websites with the same design and about page that reads":

“Metric Media was established to fill the void in community news after years of decline in local reporting by legacy media."

(Over 1000 websites !?!? Maybe it's not so random)

"the Bristol Reporter is an imposter site, lacks transparency, and publishes false information. As a result, we rate them right-center, biased, and Questionable."

The Metric Media LLC website does not disclose ownership. The Metric Media Foundation owns each local website. The CEO of Metric Media is conservative political consultant Bradley Cameron. .

Metric Media LLC does not have an about page that describes their conservative agenda, nor discloses funding and ownership.

The Metric Media Foundation owns each local website.

The CEO of Metric Media is conservative political consultant Bradley Cameron.

"In review, the Bristol Reporter is one of over 1000 conservative-leaning news websites published by the Metric Media LLC Network. Each of the websites in the network has the same design and generally relies on algorithmically produced content."
mediabiasfactcheck.com/metric-media/

Here is more on Metric Media 😐:

From courthouse news...
courthousenews.com/partisan-news-…

"Open the website of the Kalamazoo Times of Michigan and you will see a smattering of articles such as might be found on the sites of any number of news organizations.

But a closer look reveals there are no ads or subscription offers, and many of the articles are weeks

old or simply press releases for various organizations. - The site is nearly identical to more than a dozen others in Michigan such as the Lansing Sun, Battle Creek Times, Grand Rapids Reporter, all part of a group linked to conservative(airquotes) political activists(airquotes)"

"The Michigan websites are among hundreds launched by political organizations across the United States, in many cases mimicking the appearance of established news organizations without disclosing their ownership or funding."

"Some 40 sites in Michigan are part of a network operated by the Metric Media Foundation, a group headed by conservative political consultant Bradley Cameron.

The group, which did not respond to an AFP request for comment, said on its website it funds hundreds of local news-

sites using a "database of public information" and "free-lance reporters around the country who adhere to strict journalistic standards."

🤔

"Dartmouth University professor Brendan Nyhan says these "impostor sites" pretend to be news organizations without the varied and balanced coverage most people expect."

"The proliferation of these sites creates "a tremendously difficult time for citizens to figure out -

what to believe," said Kathleen Culver, head of the University of Wisconsin's Center for Journalism Ethics."

(I tend to agree that 1000s of fake news sites pumping bulls*** into the politisphere is bad)

The trend of politically driven news sites from both the left and right appears to be spreading.

Snopes found the Tennessee Star and similar sites had been created by "three Tea Party-connected conservative activists."

(*Elephant meet room*)

"From the political (regressively far) left, a newly formed Courier Newsroom is in the process of launching sites in Virginia, Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan, funded in part by the activist group Acronym, according to editor-in-chief Lindsay Schrupp - a former Vice Media

writer and editor, "we are trying to be 100 percent transparent"  while offering "a progressive lens on issues.""

Courier is in the process of hiring journalists in the localities

and pledged to offer "original reporting" on local issues without being afraid to take on Democrats as well as Republicans."

🙄

From the snopes article:

"Star News Digital Media, Inc. may look like a media company that produces local news, but a Snopes investigation reveals deep, undisclosed connections to political activism."
snopes.com/news/2019/03/0…

Editor- "Even if you're jaded by the torrent of daily headlines, including Russian meddling in U.S. election processes, you will want to spend some time with this story."

"On 6 February 2017, a website of uncertain origin named "The Tennessee Star" was born. At the time, it was unclear who funded or operated this "local newspaper," which was largely filled with freely licensed content from organizations tied to conservative mega-donors(RWNJ). "

"After some prodding by Politico in early 2018, the Tennessee Star revealed its primary architects to be three Tea Party-connected conservative activists: Michael Patrick Leahy, Steve Gill, and Christina Botteri."
politico.com/story/2018/04/…

"Snopes investigation reveals in detail how these activists used the appearance of local newspapers to promote messages paid for or supported by outside or undisclosed interests. (Like Desantis, for example)-

Gill, for example, is the political editor of the Tennessee Star, but he also owns a media consulting company that at least one candidate and one Political Action Committee (PAC) paid before receiving positive coverage in the Tennessee Star."

"Several Star writers have in the past or currently work for PACs or political campaigns that they write about, without disclosing that fact. Though its owners claim that the Tennessee Star is funded by advertising revenue, it appears to be supported by wealthy benefactors."

"But this story is about more than just the Tennessee Star"-
Leahy, Botteri, and Gill are "co-founders of a new, Delaware-registered company, Star News Digital Media, Inc., whose explicit strategy is to target battleground states with conservative news. "

🤨
"Across the political spectrum, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center study, local news is considered more trustworthy than other more national sources"

"It is perhaps for that reason that an estimated 30% of all links pushed by the Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency during the 2016 presidential election were to stories on local news websites"
nyu.edu/about/news-pub…

"While Star News Digital Media does have actual ties to Tennessee politics, that company's incursion into Ohio and Minnesota may be more about the appearance of being local."

"The issue is not the creation of conservative content. according to Kathleen Bartzen Culver, the director for the Center of Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is disguising conservative activism as journalism"

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