dean chambers

<div style="font-size: small;">=</div><div style="font-size: small;">
</div><div style="font-size: small;">see below for local news relevance :</div><div style="font-size: small;">
</div><div style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/automated-donors-to-gop-campaigns-are-smashing-fec-limits-and-making-headlines-on-fake-news-websites/?rs=182" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/automated-donors-to-gop-campaigns-are-smashing-fec-limits-and-making-headlines-on-fake-news-websites/</a></div><div style="font-size: small;">
</div><div style="font-size: small;">in recent weeks, a number of political campaigns and committees have received letters from the <a href="https://www.salon.com/topic/fec" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Federal Election Commission</a> notifying them that they may have <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/13/trump-campaign-appears-to-be-hiding-massive-facebook-spending--but-why/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">violated federal rules and regulations</a> governing campaign finance, such as <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/21/trump-campaign-still-appears-to-be-hiding-large-dollar-payments-to-kimberly-guilfoyle-and-lara-trump/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">inaccurately reporting expenditures</a> or accepting campaign donations in excess of the legal limit from dozens of people.</div>These letters are not uncommon, and not necessarily indicative of wrongdoing — the assumption is that campaigns <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/28/this-scheme-is-illegal-trump-campaign-masked-170-million-in-payments-watchdog-alleges/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">want to follow the rules</a> but may have made mistakes in the heat of the contest. When the FEC <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/03/after-months-of-inquiry-trump-campaign-still-appears-to-have-not-returned-illegal-foreign-donation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">notifies a campaign</a> that it has taken too much money from donors, for instance, the letter lists the names and donation histories of the supporters who gave too much, so the campaign can isolate the over-limit amounts and refund, reattribute or redesignate that money. They have 60 days to do this before they must report back to the FEC.Some of those lists this year, however, have been exceptionally long — a phenomenon that election experts attribute to automated recurring donations over a long and particularly intense campaign season.For instance, Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., received two separate notices last week, one of them 38 pages long and the other 41 pages. Each flagged excessive contributions from around 60 donors, for adjacent reporting periods. Her colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, received a nine-page list that alone flags a total well above $150,000 in excessive donations that the campaign must explain to the FEC.In a similar letter to President Trump's re-election campaign last month, the FEC <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-the-trump-campaign-is-returning-donations-to-these-superfans" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">flagged</a> more than 35,000 contributions from 1,045 donors, totaling more than $4.5 million in donations that the campaign needs to explain and reconcile. That list was 855 pages long. On Oct. 1, the FEC sent the campaign another letter flagging excessive donations, this one 814 pages long.Some of those lists this year, however, have been exceptionally long — a phenomenon that election experts attribute to automated recurring donations over a long and particularly intense campaign season.For instance, Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., received two separate notices last week, one of them 38 pages long and the other 41 pages. Each flagged excessive contributions from around 60 donors, for adjacent reporting periods. Her colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, received a nine-page list that alone flags a total well above $150,000 in excessive donations that the campaign must explain to the FEC.In a similar letter to President Trump's re-election campaign last month, the FEC <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-the-trump-campaign-is-returning-donations-to-these-superfans" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">flagged</a> more than 35,000 contributions from 1,045 donors, totaling more than $4.5 million in donations that the campaign needs to explain and reconcile. That list was 855 pages long. On Oct. 1, the FEC sent the campaign another letter flagging excessive donations, this one 814 pages long."You have to consider the possibility that some of these serial donors may not have fully appreciated what they were doing when they signed up for recurring contributions," Kappel said.The McSally notices illustrate this point. The contribution history of one single recurring donor, Bruce P. Bengtson, accounts for more than 10 full pages, or 25% of the list. Other donors take up multiple pages, such as Bill Deaton, whose name appears on 215 line items in one letter.Deaton, founder of a Kentucky-based data-processing company, was <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/business/article44064621.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">fined $1 million</a> and sentenced to a year of home detention in a federal fraud case in 2010. FEC <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&committee_id=C00666040&contributor_name=deaton&two_year_transaction_period=2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">records</a> show he has contributed $6,706 to McSally this year. The individual limit for a full election cycle is $5,600.The Graham campaign also appears to have erred in some of its bookkeeping, according to the FEC, and the Harrison campaign needs to explain several donors with foreign addresses and three sources identified as "possible prohibited entities." (While the letter does not elaborate on the latter, one of the names — PCCC, LLC — appears to have been identified as a difficult-to-trace entity in a Center for Public Integrity <a href="https://publicintegrity.org/politics/how-citizens-united-is-helping-hillary-clinton-win-the-white-house/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">analysis</a> of 2016 donations to Hillary Clinton.)One of the over-limit donors to Graham, who has taken to begging for campaign cash in recent Fox News appearances, was Washington attorney Ty Cobb, formerly a lawyer for Trump during the Russia investigations. Cobb has given Graham $1,000 above the $2,800 general election maximum.A handful of names, however, are on the lists for both Graham and McSally. All those people, according to FEC searches, appear to be retirees. A closed-quote Google search of these donors brings up something unusual: Their names also appear in the headlines of what look like online news articles announcing their donations.For instance, a man named Henry L. Collins III gave $4,350 to Graham's campaign between April 30 and June 30, in a series of dozens of donations between $50 and $500. During that same period, he gave $4,425 to McSally. FEC records show that as of July 15, Collins had contributed a total $14,745 to McSally, nearly $10,000 above the individual limit, and as of June 30 had given about $8,400 <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&committee_id=C00458828&contributor_name=henry+collins+&two_year_transaction_period=2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">to Graham</a>, an excess of $2,800.On July 1, Collins' name was featured in a headline for an <a href="https://phxreporter.com/stories/548171781-martha-mcsally-s-campaign-committee-receives-2-705-from-henry-l-collins-iii" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102); opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">article</a> in something calling itself PHX Reporter that read: "Martha McSally's campaign committee receives $2,705 from Henry L. Collins III."But PHX Reporter is identical to another site called Western South Dakota News, which on July 14 <a href="https://westernsdnews.com/stories/542406795-henry-l-collins-iii-donates-500-to-elizabeth-marty-may-s-campaign-committee-in-april" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">announced</a> Collins' $500 contribution to Liz Marty May, a Republican congressional candidate. (Collins did not reply to Salon's request for comment.)For that matter, Western South Dakota News looks exactly like <a href="https://treasurecoastsun.com/stories/550340159-linda-levy-donates-455-to-brian-mast-s-campaign-committee-from-january-to-june" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the Treasure Coast Sun</a>, which looks like the Columbia Standard — a site that published stories about individual contributions to both <a href="https://columbiastandard.com/stories/545483311-bruce-bengtson-donates-325-to-lindsey-olin-graham-s-campaign-committee-in-may" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Graham</a> and <a href="https://columbiastandard.com/stories/546670410-michael-feller-donates-100-to-jaime-harrison-s-campaign-committee-in-march" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Harrison</a>. Collins' name appears in <a href="https://columbiastandard.com/stories/545484928-wayne-pruitt-donates-500-to-lindsey-olin-graham-s-campaign-committee-in-may" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">a list</a> of top donors for the month of May on a Columbia Standard article — and three other donors on the list appear to have exceeded the legal limit with contributions from that month alone.These sites are part of a larger network of what could fairly be described as fake news sites — webpages that publish algorithm-driven content, much of it anonymous and automated, targeted at hyper-local audiences. Those networks of sites — <a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/as-election-looms-a-network-of-mysterious-pink-slime-local-news-outlets-nearly-triples-in-size.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">dubbed "pink slime,"</a> a play on "yellow journalism" — have tripled in size as Election Day approaches. And they're part of an even larger network, connected <a href="https://mainebeacon.com/anonymous-maine-news-site-tied-to-conservative-pac-funded-network/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">to a conservative PAC</a>.That network, however, also appears to publish <a href="https://azbusinessdaily.com/stories/537537524-martha-mcsally-s-campaign-committee-refunds-25-to-bruce-p-bengtson" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">campaign refunds</a> at times. One repeat McSally donor who spoke with Salon said that he had been refunded money multiple times over the last year, most recently last week, after the McSally campaign's most recent FEC letter. Earlier refunds made it into the pink slime headlines. The latest news apparently has yet to break.The McSally, Graham and Harrison campaigns declined to comment for this article.---ref1 <a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/as-election-looms-a-network-of-mysterious-pink-slime-local-news-outlets-nearly-triples-in-size.php" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.cjr.org/analysis/as-election-looms-a-network-of-mysterious-pink-slime-local-news-outlets-nearly-triples-in-size.php</a>
t<span stag="Stag" web="Web" american="American" typewriter="Typewriter" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" text-transform="text-transform" uppercase="uppercase" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; font-weight: 600;">HE RUN-UP TO THE 2020 November elections in the US has produced new networks of shadowy, politically backed “local news websites” designed to promote partisan talking points and collect user data. In December 2019, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism<a href="https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/hundreds-of-pink-slime-local-news-outlets-are-distributing-algorithmic-stories-conservative-talking-points.php" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" margin="margin" padding="padding" list-style="list-style" none="none" background-color="background-color" transparent="transparent" color="color" rgb="rgb" transition="transition" all="all" s="s" ease-out="ease-out" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" important="important" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"> reported on an intricately linked network of 450 sites</a> purporting to be local or business news publications. New research from the Tow Center shows the size of that network has increased almost threefold over the course of 2020, to over 1,200 sites.  <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Identifying these new sites is a result of further analysis of the closely linked entities with conservative ties illustrated in Figure 1 (below). The Tow Center focused predominantly on Metric Media, Franklin Archer, Local Government Information Services (LGIS), and Locality Labs. Both Metric Media and Franklin Archer claim to be the largest local news provider in the US, though many of their sites have low visibility in both search and social media. Over 90 percent of their stories are algorithmically generated using publicly available data sets or by repurposing stories from legitimate sources.<p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"> In the remaining stories that have an authentic byline there is often a conservative bent. As reported by the <a href="https://greatlakeswire.com/stories/514045578-15-cases-of-michigan-voter-fraud-documented-by-heritage-foundation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">Lansing State Journal</a> and The Guardian, [guk]  this includes articles about voter fraud using data from the Heritage Foundation, negative pieces about elected Democratic representatives, and stories supporting conservative candidates. This low-cost automated story generation has come to be known as <a href="https://dankennedy.net/2012/07/05/exposing-pink-slime-journalism/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0); text-decoration-line: none !important;">pink slime journalism</a>. In addition to the hundreds of titles that ape the look and feel of local news, our research has detected new sites in this network that address single subjects, appeal to religious orientation, and focus on business news. <div id="attachment_84357" class="wp-caption alignnone" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" height="height" auto="auto" important="important" style="font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; width: 810px; max-width: 100%;">no pix ]Figure 1: The organizational structure of the network]</div><p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">The recent increase in activity is in line with the election cycle. It is becoming an increasingly common campaign strategy for pacs and single-interest lobbyists to fund websites that borrow credibility from news design to help advance particular agendas. The proliferation of politically funded local news sites across the political spectrum raises questions about how these entities represent themselves to the public, and how they are categorized by search engines and social platforms. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">The number of news media properties funded by often obscure political interests has been growing for a number of years and will reach a new peak in the 2020 election cycle. A recent <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/05/dark-money-networks-fake-news-sites/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">report from Open Secrets</a> highlighted “dark money” networks funded by liberal-leaning donors. Academics Jessica Mahone and Phil Napoli recently plotted some of these known entities<a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/07/hundreds-of-hyperpartisan-sites-are-masquerading-as-local-news-this-map-shows-if-theres-one-near-you/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> on a map </a>to show the geographic concentration of the networks. But the definitions of what constitutes a politically funded network are hard to establish, particularly if the financial and ownership structures are not clear. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">A <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/14/newsroom-pac-liberal-info-wars-356800" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">recent report from Politico</a> outlined how Courier Newsroom, a group of politically affiliated local news sites, was spending large amounts of advertising money on Facebook on articles promoting Democratic candidates. Establishing how politically funded networks are intrinsically different from news organizations with strong political affiliations such as Breitbart or Fox News is often difficult. Politically funded networks can appear on Facebook pages classified as “Media/News company,” and articles from partisan sites are indexed by Google News. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Today, along with further analysis of this network, we are publishing the <a href="https://bit.ly/33k3BBb" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">full list of websites</a>, the geographic focus of each publication where one exists, and the corresponding organizational entity each site belongs to. However, due to the convoluted connections between these organizations, precise ownership is difficult to establish. Often a site will carry different information about its provenance on its “About” page, its Facebook page, and in the terms and conditions it publishes on its own site. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">The overlapping networks seem designed to confuse casual observers as to their provenance and ownership, and delineations between them are fuzzy. The publishers involved are incorporated in different states, have different business models, and provide different services. However, they all share certain distinguishing traits that suggest close overlapping relationships, such as the same authors, story templates, analytics identifiers, and other technological resources.<p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">to identify these new sites and the evolution of the networks, we adopted the same techniques we used for our investigation in December, relying heavily on third-party tools like RiskIQ and Farsight DNSDB.<p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">In our latest research, we found the vast majority of the domains were under the umbrella of Metric Media, a Delaware limited-liability company that is a division of Situation Management Group. Metric Media properties now account for over 960 sites, or 80 percent of all the domains we’ve identified that belong to this network. All publishing is done “under a licensing agreement with the Metric Media Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit news content provider.” <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Over seven hundred of these local sites have been activated in 2020, pointing to a sharp acceleration in activity in the lead-up to the November elections. The new activity has seen a host of titles such as the Philly Leader and San Francisco Sun added to the network, with the number of states expanding from ten to all but one. (While Metric Media doesn’t have any titles for Illinois, LGIS does.)  <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Beyond Metric Media’s rapid expansion, our research showed that Franklin Archer had also expanded the number of networks under its umbrella. The organization boasts that it is “the largest producer of local news in the United States,” with 200-plus active websites and two networks: Metro Business Network and Local News Network. A third network, American Catholic Tribune Media Network, was created in March 2020. There are currently six sites in the network, including the American Catholic Tribune. Further, Franklin Archer products now also include a handful of stand-alone titles that are either single-subject (e.g., Current Science Daily) or geographically focused on specific towns or neighborhoods (e.g., West Loop Today), as well as two podcasts hosted by the Freedom Media Network. Franklin Archer also lists public relations activities on its website, where user testimonials boast about the effectiveness of sponsored content as a marketing tool. [pix]<p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Evolution and Sprawl of the Network in 2020 <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">The bulk of sites that went live in 2020 are under the Metric Media banner. In 2019, when we were first looking at Metric Media, its<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191219135522/https://lansingsun.com/about_us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> stated goal</a> was to launch “hundreds [of sites] nationwide to inform citizens about news in their local communities.” Today, the language on the same page indicates it has reached the goal of creating “hundreds” of sites. A<a href="http://metricmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> website</a> lists its publications by state, along with a one-line explanation of what the company is: “a digital firm managing the online presence of the portfolio of local news sites known as Metric Media.” Based on passive DNS data (RiskIQ and DNSDB Scout), by the end of January 2020, Metric Media had publications devoted to all but one of the forty states that weren’t already covered in 2019; the domains for these were registered in the second half of 2019. The one exception was Illinois, which we cover in more detail further down. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Some sites cover entire states, whereas others are devoted to specific cities and metropolitan areas. The nomenclature is often formulaic, combining compass directions with the names of the states or cities and then generic terms for news publications. Site names include SW Oklahoma News, NE Ohio Times, and West SFV Today (in California’s San Fernando Valley). Many major cities get their own “wire” publication: Detroit City Wire, Dallas City Wire, Seattle City Wire. <div id="attachment_84359" class="wp-caption alignnone" lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" height="height" auto="auto" important="important" style="font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; width: 810px; max-width: 100%;"><a href="https://cdn.cjr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Graphic2-scaled.jpg" data-slb-active="1" data-slb-asset="1977073277" data-slb-internal="0" data-slb-group="84355" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-84359" class="wp-image-84359 size-medium" src="https://cdn.cjr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Graphic2-800x444.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="444" srcset="https://cdn.cjr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Graphic2-800x444.jpg 800w, https://cdn.cjr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Graphic2-1600x888.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.cjr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Graphic2-1536x852.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.cjr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Graphic2-2048x1136.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%; width: auto !important; height: auto !important;" /></a>Figure 3: Metric Media and LGIS # sites per state</div><p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Figure 3 illustrates the number of publications present in each state. Rhode Island has the fewest devoted to it (four), California the most (seventy-four). We didn’t find any publications for either of these two states in 2019; in fact, we only found Metric Media properties in ten states then. Now there are sites covering forty-nine states; only Illinois and Washington, DC, are absent from the Metric Media network.  <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">The absence of Illinois publications may have a relatively simple explanation: LGIS, a stand-alone corporation devoted to covering Illinois since 2015, is part of the extended network, with connections to Metric Media. LGIS has<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-illinois-conservative-news-20180327-story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> ties to conservative figures in the state</a>, including Dan Proft and Brian Timpone. Proft, who through his pacs<a href="https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/lgis-proft-news-illinois.php" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> has raised millions to back conservative candidates</a> in Illinois,<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-dan-proft-shuts-down-pacs-20200117-7h4poqbpofcopmqgy6bspae6ke-story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> shut down two pacs earlier this year</a>. Timpone has a long history creating businesses focusing on automated low-cost journalism (or “pink slime” journalism), including the<a href="https://archives.cjr.org/behind_the_news/media_start-up_journatic_buste.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> controversial Journatic</a> and its successor<a href="https://www.michigandaily.com/section/community-affairs/pseudo-local-news-sites-michigan-reveal-nationally-expanding-network" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> Locality Labs</a>. Locality Labs appears to be the organization creating the technology that allows for the automation of news stories using publicly available data sets across this entire ecosystem of 1,200 websites. One of Proft’s now-shuttered pacs has paid one of Timpone’s other companies, Newsinator, for “Advertising – newspaper,” according to <a href="https://www.elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/ExpenditureSearchByCommittees.aspx?txtCmteName=zvTAZwP2tyeJ%2bg6onAkxgUFbu1JtjIVtl9xPEg6V80cQAtAdF5kBKg%3d%3d&ddlCmteNameSearchType=5gI26j4kJ%2fficFFMvqfDroDwh59F3jVb&radSupportingOpposing=iKUdlYhYUS0%3d&ddlCmteExpenditureType=t%2fnWOPOZshQgmaYYbgx1P7U1NDBTLX9F&ddlState=iKUdlYhYUS0%3d&ddlReceivedDateTime=iKUdlYhYUS0%3d&ddlReceivedDateTimeThru=iKUdlYhYUS0%3d" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">campaign finance records</a>. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Until December, the<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191215050102/https://dupagepolicyjournal.com/about_us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> About Us</a> page of the Illinois sites stated they were a “product of LGIS—Local Government Information Services,” while the<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191212030515/https://dupagepolicyjournal.com/terms" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> Terms of Service</a> and<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191212140941/https://dupagepolicyjournal.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> Privacy</a> pages indicated they were properties of Locality Labs LLC. As of March, however, the<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200329071049/https://dupagepolicyjournal.com/terms" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> Terms of Service</a> and<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200329071153/https://dupagepolicyjournal.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> Privacy</a> pages are blank. The language on their<a href="https://dupagepolicyjournal.com/about_us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> About Us</a> pages hasn’t changed, maintaining that the sites are part of LGIS and funded in part “by advocacy groups who share our beliefs in limited government.” (Most of the Illinois websites have similar language in their About Us pages, where they mention details specific to the publication, and then details about the objectives of LGIS and its funding. However, for some sites, like the<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190929114135/https://grundyreporter.com/about-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> Grundy Reporter</a> and<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190226105230/https://silnews.com/about-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> Southern Illinois News</a>, the About Us pages have been blank since at least last year, based on snapshots in the Internet Archive.)<p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">In March, these Illinois sites adopted the same website theme (and thus the same look and feel) as the sites that Metric Media explicitly states it runs. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Additionally, Metric Media has at least two single-subject sites: Insurance Rate Reporter and Education Daily Wire. The About Us page for the former is blank, but its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service pages say the site is operated by Metric Media LLC. Education Daily Wire’s Privacy and Terms of Service pages are blank, but its <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200725203936/https://educationdailywire.com/about-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">About Us</a> page says it’s funded by the Metric Media Foundation. These publications are not mentioned on either Metric Media website: the LLC or the foundation. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Also absent from any Metric Media website are the fifty-one Metro Business Network publications operated by Metric Media LLC, per their privacy policies and terms of service. According to the<a href="https://metrobusinessnetwork.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> Metro Business Network site</a>, these publications “aim to cover news from Fortune 500’s to SMB’s on Main Street [sic].” While the site does not mention anything about the ownership or funding of these publications, the Privacy Policy and Terms pages state that the network is operated by Locality Labs. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Tracing the ownership of sites within the network is made more complicated by how the sites label themselves on Facebook. The Facebook pages for the business news sites include information about the page owner, which is where information about news and media properties on the platform can be found. However, sites within the same subnetwork (Metro Business Network, in this case) have different confirmed page owners, and in a handful of cases, no confirmed owner at all. Those with confirmed page ownership are split between Franklin Archer and Metric Media, and while the addresses for the two owners are different, their phone number is the same. The social presence of the network is very small, with negligible interactions (followers, likes, and shares) on each page.<p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Franklin Archer, a fictitious name for Iowa-incorporated DirecTech LLC, “brings coverage to underreported areas of American life,” according to its website. It has two networks: the “Metro Business Daily Network” and the “Local News Network.” As reported by<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/19/locality-labs-fake-news-local-sites-newspapers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> The Guardian</a>, the CEO of Franklin Archer is Timpone’s brother, Michael Timpone. On the corporate front, the relationship between Metric Media LLC and Franklin Archer remains unclear, but they appear to share not only technology resources and authors, but also the publications themselves. To wit, as can be seen below in Figure 4: at the time of writing, the Arizona Business Daily is owned by Franklin Archer, according to Facebook, and the Michigan Business Daily by Metric Media LLC. The New Jersey Business Daily has no confirmed page owner.<p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">[pix]<p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"> 2020, a third network was added to the Franklin Archer portfolio, although it is not mentioned on its website: the American Catholic Tribune Media Network, which includes five state-specific publications (in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Florida, and Arizona) and one national one (the American Catholic Tribune). These sites relay information about parishes and churches, including updates on how various churches intend to conduct Mass every week. Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.thecompassnews.org/2020/06/website-uses-compass-content-in-violation-of-copyright-law/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">the sites mentioned</a> they are “a product of Franklin Archer,” but that disclaimer no longer exists. Their Facebook pages, however, state they are owned by Franklin Archer. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">These sites follow the exact same model as all the other sites in the extended network: rewrite original reporting from existing sources, including diocesan newspapers, repurpose announcements (including Mass timings and homilies) published by various churches under the guise of “press release submissions,” and sprinkle on some original reporting. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">Yet another new product of Franklin Archer is the Freedom Media Network, which hosts podcasts and a YouTube channel with just under a thousand subscribers. The channel is described as “your source for positive news and content aimed at helping you become more purposeful, productive, and prosperous.” One of the podcasts, Freedom Mindset Radio, is rife with anti-science positions,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDa3U1qmbc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;"> including</a> the suggestion that getting a diagnosis is dangerous, as “they’re labeling a bag of symptoms.” The YouTube videos started being uploaded in January, and the website went live in March. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">One-off sites continue to be created alongside these dedicated networks and channels. Sites created since our last investigation include the Neighbourhood Guardian, West Loop Today, the Midland Times, and Current Science Daily. <p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><p lyon="Lyon" text="Text" web="Web" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 14.4px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; list-style: none;">If you have examples of similar networks operating in your area or would like access to more granular data, please get in touch with us <a href="mailto:pb2616+local@columbia.edu" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">here</a>. <div style="font-size: small;">=</div><div style="font-size: small;">ref 2</div><div style="font-size: small;">
</div><div style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://mainebeacon.com/anonymous-maine-news-site-tied-to-conservative-pac-funded-network/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://mainebeacon.com/anonymous-maine-news-site-tied-to-conservative-pac-funded-network/</a></div><div style="font-size: small;">
</div><div style="font-size: small;">at  first glance, <a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Maine Business Daily</a> seems like some kind of local corporate newsletter, combining <a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/513008204-wood-products-industry-s-q1-retained-earnings-down-0-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">niche industry reports</a>, <a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/512330705-analysis-zip-code-04538-in-boothbay-harbor-has-865th-highest-home-vacancy-rate-among-u-s-zip-codes" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">localized data summaries</a>, and press releases from regional Maine Chambers of Commerce. The earliest articles on the site date back to spring 2018 and the vast majority of the articles are attributed to anonymous bylines “Maine Business Daily reports” or “Local Labs News Service.”</div><div style="font-size: small;">
</div>However, nestled amid the banal business reporting are <a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/tag/3-public-policy" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">two recent stories</a> on the allegations that Democratic Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, who is mounting a challenge to U.S. Senator Susan Collins, violated campaign finance rules. Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine GOP, is quoted heavily in the posts, which are attributed to West Virginia-based freelance journalist Kyla Asbury (and are the only stories on Maine Business Daily that have an actual name as a byline).The publication and promotion of these pieces raised some flags for Maine readers, with one Reddit user <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Maine/comments/coxv7l/calls_to_investigate_sara_gideon_over_illegal/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">writing</a> “I’ve never heard of Maine Business Daily, but two of the top three articles in their ‘public policy’ section right now are political articles about Sara Gideon that have nothing to do with policy.”<div id="attachment_16924" class="wp-caption alignright" style="font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 20px 20px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); padding: 10px; max-width: 100%; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; width: 502px;">Screenshot of a portion of the Maine Business Daily website featuring stories on House Speaker Sara Gideon.</div>Maine Business Daily’s “About” section also provides scant information about who is operating the site, though it does note that part of its mission is to “inspire productive discussion among policy makers, business leaders and the public.”The Maine State Chamber of Commerce told Beacon that, despite the reposting of local chamber releases, it is not affiliated with the website.The homepage of Maine Business Daily includes a link to the <a href="https://metrobusinessnetwork.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Metro Business Network</a>, which lists 30 other state-based sites as part of its organization. According to its website, the Metro Business Network “provides a fresh take on business news. Launching in all 50 states plus DC, we aim to cover news from Fortune 500’s to SMB’s on Main Steet [sic].”Matt Gertz, a senior fellow with Media Matters for America who specializes in conservative media infrastructure, says that these kinds of networks have flourished amid the decline of local news.“As local newspapers get wiped out or bought out by big chains and reporters get laid off and chains try to seek efficiencies, you see a void around local news and these news networks try to fill that void,” Gertz said. “A lot of sites are providing information about local events that previously you would get from local newspaper, so you come for information about a local event and if you end up with some sort of ideological screed about the terrors of government, it’s a win for them.”The Metro Business webThe Metro Business Network sites are uniform in appearance and content. The same stories appear across the entire network, with each “Education” page filled with versions of this story: “<a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/512868444-graduates-earn-91-degrees-certificates-from-the-university-of-maine-at-machias" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Graduates earn 91 degrees, certificates from the University of Maine at Machias</a>” and each “Public Policy” section has a regional version of this one: “<a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/512834294-maine-ranks-3rd-for-rental-car-tax-rates-study-finds" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Maine ranks 3rd for rental car tax rates, study finds</a>.”Gertz said the content is likely being generated by an algorithm, which provides “a way to mass produce seemingly local content almost with no overhead, because you are paying no reporters to write stories but you can pump out a huge amount of stuff.”Buried amid the posts, however, are partisan landmines such as this <a href="https://palmettobusinessdaily.com/stories/511321581-opinion-next-step-in-dismantling-obamacare-ipab" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">op-ed</a> that appeared on numerous publications in the network, “Next Step in Dismantling Obamacare: Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB),” that concludes: “This is America. Rationing is for commies. Repeal IPAB now!” The column is written by notorious <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2012/11/unskewed-polls-founder-dean-chambers-on-polling-bias.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">fake pollster</a> and <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rubycramer/dean-chambers-original-unskewer-returns-to-tackl" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">right wing conspiracy theorist</a> Dean Chambers.Other articles are more subtle, such as this <a href="https://ilbusinessdaily.com/stories/511456622-community-group-argues-proposed-wilmette-wage-hike-would-be-a-burden-to-small-businesses" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Illinois news story</a> arguing against the local minimum wage increase.Anonymous news with a worldviewThe website’s privacy policy states that Maine Business Daily and these other business news sites are operated by the Delaware-based Locality Labs, LLC, which, according to an <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-illinois-conservative-news-20180327-story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">April 2018 investigation</a> by the Chicago Tribune, is owned by the conservative Chicago-based media entrepreneur Brian Timpone.“A firm of Timpone’s called Journatic once used database mining and low-cost freelance writers to create hyperlocal news stories for the Tribune until complaints <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-13/news/ct-chicago-tribune-suspends-use-of-journatic-07132012_1_weekly-print-editions-town-websites-editorial-ethics-policy" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">emerged </a>of plagiarism and faked bylines,” the Tribune reported. That firm is “now known as Locality Labs.”An <a href="https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/illinois_pac_newspapers.php" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">earlier piece</a> published in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2016 revealed that Locality Labs, or Local Labs as it is often called, is part of a web of content creators, online and print publications run by Timpone and his cohorts that were accused of electioneering due to their coverage of and connection to candidates and political action committees. Some of Timpone’s news ventures received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from the Liberty Principles PAC, whose objective is to “support candidates for state and local offices who are committed to the economic liberty policy agenda.”Ashbury, who authored the two stories on Gideon, has bylines published on other Locality Labs-owned sites, including the Cook County Record, West Virginia Record, and Legal Newsline — the website of which <a href="https://legalnewsline.com/about_us#" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">explains</a> that its coverage is focused on how state court rulings impact the “legal landscape for corporate executives.”Asbury’s LinkedIn profile says that for the past year she has worked as a freelance writer for a company called Interactive Content Services. The 2018 Tribune article said that another Trimpone-owned firm Newsinator “has a history of doing paid political work and offers marketing services to companies under the name Interactive Content Services.”It’s not clear if the Liberty Principles PAC has a stake in Maine’s U.S. Senate race, or if it or another entity are funding the specific, anti-Gideon coverage. The articles feature no campaign finance disclosures.This is not the first time an anonymous, conservative news site has been launched in Maine. In January 2018, evidence was <a href="https://mainebeacon.com/mountain-of-evidence-now-shows-maine-gop-staff-lied-about-creating-fake-news-site/" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">released</a> connecting <a href="https://mainebeacon.com/maine-gop-has-clear-ties-to-fake-news-attack-site/" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Savage</a> and the Maine Republican Party to the Maine Examiner, a then-anonymous publication which often published false and misleading attacks against Democratic candidates.<div style="font-size: small;">
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