Mimicking Local News, a Network of Michigan Websites Pushes Politics

Regardless of working for Michigan State College exterior Lansing, Mich., Matt Grossmann had by no means heard of The Lansing Solar till he stumbled throughout the web site on his Fb information feed earlier this month.

So when he clicked on an marketed article about Michigan’s roads spending that criticized the state’s Democratic governor, he was curious to know whether or not The Solar was a brand new outlet serving the state capital’s 118,000 residents and political leaders.

What he found as an alternative was a community of almost 40 web sites that look like native information shops from all through Michigan however provide largely equivalent articles about taxes, alleged voter fraud and training prices with a distinctly conservative political tone. Web sites with names like The Grand Rapids Reporter, The Kalamazoo Instances and Waterford Right now embody little native information past fuel costs and prewritten releases about library occasions.

“I don’t know if pretend however local-sounding information shops makes issues extra credible, however they actually appear to suppose so as a result of they’ve gone to the trouble to do this,” stated Mr. Grossmann, the director of the college’s Institute for Public Coverage and Social Analysis.

Information of the web sites and their political and enterprise hyperlinks was first reported by The Lansing State Journal on Sunday.

At a time when social media has become a key gateway for sharing information, the collection of websites underscores how political messaging can be deftly repackaged to look like the fading local journalism that readers were used to trusting.

Some of the highlighted articles appeared explicitly designed to appeal to conservative readers. The Lansing Sun’s homepage devoted space to Michigan Republicans who were “pushing forward with efforts to support President Donald Trump in the wake of the impeachment inquiry” and a profane chant from Representative Rashida Tlaib at a pro-impeachment rally.

Conservative media companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group have become known for buying up local outlets they rebrand with ideologically aligned content. But Mr. Grossmann noted that the minimal advertising on the Michigan websites — along with their promotional push on Facebook — may signal that profits are not the main goal.

“It doesn’t look like a business enterprise,” he said. “News is struggling in general. It looks more like they’re trying to influence the political debate by targeting people who are already interested in that content.”

According to the “About Us” section on the websites, they are published by Metric Media, a company that says it was founded to fill “the growing news void in local and community news after years of steady disinvestment in local reporting by legacy media.”

Metric Media’s chief executive is Bradley Cameron, according to his online biography, which says he advises private equity investors in Silicon Valley, has been retained by conservative groups and served as senior adviser in the 1990s to the “Republican strategy leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

Many if not all of the sites were registered on June 30 and updated on the same day in August, according to online domain records. The sites say they are operated by Locality Labs, a Delaware company affiliated with networks of local websites in Maryland and Illinois, according to The Lansing State Journal.

Brian Timpone, the head of Locality Labs, is a Republican activist in Illinois who has founded several media companies that have produced networks of local websites and newspapers with content that reflects staunch conservative views. Mr. Timpone ran a company that created local news stories for The Chicago Tribune, which ended its relationship with him in 2012 after it learned of complaints about faked bylines and plagiarism, according to The Tribune.

Mr. Cameron, Metric Media and Locality Labs could not be reached for comment on Monday night.

On its website, Metric Media describes its reporting philosophy as providing “objective, data-driven information without inserting personal or political viewpoints and biases.” The company wrote that it plans to open thousands of similar sites nationwide.

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