As a long time reader of small town newspapers, we had read accounts of the rise of sketchy news sites with great interest.
That reading helped process a "news" report, Gruenhagen votes 'yes' on bond bill, about the Gaylord Republican state representative's recent official Facebook post on the October 15 passage of the bonding bill in the Minnesota Senate.
The online publication? SC Minnesota News, part of the Metric Media LLC network of 18 venues in the state.
We recognized the brand from our earlier reading about a Tow Center for Digital Journalism report by Senior Research Fellow Priyanjana Bengani in the Columbia Journalism Review, Hundreds of ‘pink slime’ local news outlets are distributing algorithmic stories and conservative talking points. Bengani reported last December:
In increasingly popular tactic challenges conventional wisdom on the spread of electoral disinformation: the creation of partisan outlets masquerading as local news organizations. An investigation by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School has discovered at least 450 websites in a network of local and business news organizations, each distributing thousands of algorithmically generated articles and a smaller number of reported stories. Of the 450 sites we discovered, at least 189 were set up as local news networks across ten states within the last twelve months by an organization called Metric Media. . . .
In mid-July, we read Hannah Jones' piece in the City Pages, 'Hyperpartisan' right-wing news sites are thriving in Minnesota:
The Nieman Journalism Lab has some bad news.
In a study tracking hundreds of "hyperpartisan" news websites across the country, the Harvard-based organization has exposed many that are “masquerading” as state and local reporting. In reality, they’re often funded and operated by “government officials, political candidates, PACS, and political party operatives.”
Based on previous research by Columbia University’s Priyanjana Bengani, Neiman sifted through these hundreds of urls and pinpointed them on a map of the U.S., all to study how these left or right-leaning news sources are being deployed and where. Minnesota has at least 15 of these little pins studded across the metro and in the greater regions of the state – all with a conservative tilt.
In fact, the vast majority of the sites listed in our state belong to the same network: Metric Media, which claims to have over 1,000 different news sites. Titles include SW Minnesota Today, SC Minnesota News, and South Hennepin News.
You’ll find a lot of the same headlines shared between each, along with an astonishing variety of stock photos depicting stacks of cash money changing hands.
In short, it looks like news. Local news, even. But on second glance, it seems both weird and a little bit padded -- other than the more detailed, quote-heavy stories about Republican lawmakers and talking points. (Reopening Minnesota, for example, is a common theme.)
According to Metric Media’s mission statement, its goal is to “restore community-based reporting through modern platforms that make local news possible again.” The network, it says, works with “hundreds of freelance reporters around the country who adhere to strict journalistic standards,” and there’s “no political bias or favoritism.”
You won’t find many ads on any of the sites. That may be because, as Metric’s website claims, their funding comes from “donation and grants” from “contributors who care about restoring local news in their communities.”
According to Bengani’s research, Metric shares privacy policies, servers, and analytics identifiers with four other gargantuan, politically connected pseudo-news networks, including the Record network (founded by conservative businessman Brian Timpone) and Franklin Archer (the CEO of which is Timpone’s brother, Michael). . . .
Read the rest at the City Pages. The notion that Gruenhagen's district is some sort of news desert struck us as odd, since it's served by a variety of bi-weekly and weekly small town newspapers like the McLeod County Chronicle, the Hutchinson Leader, the Arlington News, and others.
At the New York Times, Davey Alba and Jack Nicas reported on October 18 in As Local News Dies, a Pay-for-Play Network Rises in Its Place:
. . . Maine Business Daily is part of a fast-growing network of nearly 1,300 websites that aim to fill a void left by vanishing local newspapers across the country. Yet the network, now in all 50 states, is built not on traditional journalism but on propaganda ordered up by dozens of conservative think tanks, political operatives, corporate executives and public-relations professionals, a Times investigation found.
The sites appear as ordinary local-news outlets, with names like Des Moines Sun, Ann Arbor Times and Empire State Today. They employ simple layouts and articles about local politics, community happenings and sometimes national issues, much like any local newspaper.
But behind the scenes, many of the stories are directed by political groups and corporate P.R. firms to promote a Republican candidate or a company, or to smear their rivals. . . .
The network is largely overseen by Brian Timpone, a TV reporter turned internet entrepreneur who has sought to capitalize on the decline of local news organizations for nearly two decades. He has built the network with the help of several others, including a Texas brand-management consultant and a conservative Chicago radio personality. . . .
The network is one of a proliferation of partisan local-news sites funded by political groups associated with both parties. Liberal donors have poured millions of dollars into operations like Courier, a network of eight sites that began covering local news in swing states last year. Conservative activists are running similar sites, like the Star News group in Tennessee, Virginia and Minnesota.
But those operations run just several sites each, while Mr. Timpone’s network has more than twice as many sites as the nation’s largest newspaper chain, Gannett. And while political groups have helped finance networks like Courier, investors in news operations typically don’t weigh in on specific articles.
While Mr. Timpone’s sites generally do not post information that is outright false, the operation is rooted in deception, eschewing hallmarks of news reporting like fairness and transparency. Only a few dozen of the sites disclose funding from advocacy groups. Traditional news organizations do not accept payment for articles; the Federal Trade Commission requires that advertising that looks like articles be clearly labeled as ads.
Most of the sites declare in their “About” pages that they to aim “to provide objective, data-driven information without political bias.” But in April, an editor for the network reminded freelancers that “clients want a politically conservative focus on their stories, so avoid writing stories that only focus on a Democrat lawmaker, bill, etc.,” according to an email viewed by The Times.
Read the rest at the Times.
So what's the focus of the article about Glenn Gruenhagen's Facebook post? In Gruenhagen votes 'yes' on bond bill, Kyla Asbury (whose LinkedIn profile describes the writer as a "A Result-Driven Written Communications Professional Delivering Quality Communications Solutions" based in Wayne County, West Virginia, which may explain why she calls it "a bond bill") reports:
House Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe) said a recent bond bill does not include money to rebuild the City of Minneapolis, according to a Facebook post.
Gruenhagen said that while there was spending in the bill he didn't agree with, he voted yes to the bill to represent the people in his district.
"These bonding bills are difficult, especially when you have divided government as we do with Democrats controlling the House and the Governorship," Gruenhagen said in the post. "Bonding bills must be originated in the House, not the Senate. The House is controlled by Democrats, hence the Democrats stick things in the bill to force Republicans to take difficult votes that will anger their constituents either way they vote. It’s a no-win situation because no matter how you vote, someone will be disappointed."
He said he voted for the bill because it contains help for Section 179, which includes farms and small businesses, as well as money to raise a road for flood mitigation for Henderson, which is something he has been trying to get done for eight years.
Nothing for rebuilding the evil metro. Here's the beginning paragraph of what Gruenhagen wrote on Facebook (originally posted on his campaign Facebook page):
As you may have heard, the bonding bill passed in the House (100-34)last night. It passed in the Senate today (64-3). There are false rumors that the bonding bill had money to rebuild the city of Minneapolis. This is not accurate. There was about $5 million in the bill for "Civil Unrest" to fund overtime pay for law officers, firefighters, EMTs, etc., NOT to rebuild the city. The amount of destruction caused by the protesting and rioting is estimated to be between $300 to $500 million. There was no funding in the bill to rebuild the city. ...
This struck a chord with us, as we had seen a Facebook post by the conservative group Action4Liberty. On October 15, this turned up:
We posted earlier about a Minneapolis bailout, which is how many of us read the language in the multi-subject,...
Posted by Action 4 Liberty on Thursday, October 15, 2020
We're curious that someone thought Gruenhagen's Facebook post that started with talk of rumors--source unknown--was thought to be worthy of siccing a freelance reporter in West Virginia on the trail. Is there fear of the Action4Liberty take on the bonding bill?
There's coverage of the vote in the Belle Plaine Herald (owned by the same company that publishes the Henderson paper online) in State to Fund Flood Mitigation for Henderson:
Henderson’s prayer for flood mitigation has finally been answered. After months of political turmoil and multiple failed bonding bills, the Minnesota House and Senate last week successfully passed a $1.9 billion bonding bill that includes funding to fix Highway 93 and County Road 6 in Henderson. . . .
Walz, Sen. Scott Newman, and House Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen were among the state representatives that came to Henderson in July in a push to pass a bonding bill that includes flood mitigation.
At that time, Gov. Walz told the Independent that he would sign a bonding bill that includes flood mitigation for Henderson. . . .
And this from KARE 11, House passes $1.9 billion construction bonding bill, which starts out mentioning the flood prone highway near Henderson.
We're also curious if there were any elements of pay-to-play in the amplification of the Gruenhagen Facebook post as "news."
Those rumor-mongers at Action4Liberty describe their mission on their about page:
Our Mission at Action 4 Liberty is to expand individual freedoms by reducing government control. We concentrate our efforts on three policy areas: business freedom, health freedom and educational freedom.
We recruit conservative candidates for the legislature and equip them to win their elections. Our objective is to lead a conservative offense at the Capitol to overpower the liberal agenda that seeks to grow government and reduce freedoms.
The group does operate a state level political action committee, though filings at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board report taking in no donations this year, while contributing $1000 to a candidate committee, Marianne Stebbins, who lost the MN House 33B Republican primary (see 2020 September report here). Bluestem reported on her bid in early June's Pair to draw to: "Liberty Republican" Stebbins & Liberate Minn host Malsom file for MNHouse.
Representative Gruenhagen's district is deeply Republican, so we're puzzled about what the threat might be to trigger an article about his vote on the bonding bill.
Photo: Glenn Gruenhagen, Via Facebook.
Anifa fever here in McLeod County. Check out Morgan Baum’s run for mayor and the recent vandalism to her billboards.
Posted by: Matthew Fitzgerald | Oct 24, 2020 at 08:49 PM