‘Pink Slime’ Websites Outnumber Daily Newspapers on the Internet

Websites posing as local news outlets funded by partisan groups have surged past the number of sites of independent daily newspapers on the internet, according to a report released Tuesday by a disinformation watchdog.

According to NewsGuard Technologies, a company that evaluates and rates the trustworthiness of news and information websites, the number of “pink slime” sites jumped to 1,265 after it discovered a network of 167 Russian disinformation sites fronted by John Mark Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff who fled to Moscow after being investigated for computer hacking and extortion.

That compares to 1,213 daily newspapers left operating in the U.S., according to Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative.

“With traditional newspapers disappearing at a rate of two and a half per week, pink slime sites are rushing in to fill the void,” the report noted. “Consequently, millions of Americans are left without legitimate local coverage.”

It added that the network linked to Dougan appears to be the first known instance in which foreign disinformation efforts have intersected with pink slime sites, so named after the meat-based filler that created a furor circa 2012 when it was discovered it was being added without a label to ground beef products.

“There are different definitions of pink slime, but essentially, we’re talking about sites that purport to be something that they are not,” explained Dan Kennedy, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston.

“We see this most commonly in local news, where bad actors take advantage of news deserts by putting up digital outlets that look local but really aren’t,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Sometimes they are politically motivated, but not always. About a dozen years ago, pink slime referred to outlets that surreptitiously used low-paid labor from distant locales, even the Philippines. Now they’re being produced by AI.”

Blue and Red Slime

Pink slime sites pose multiple risks to communities, observed NewsGuard Senior Analyst Chiara Vercellone. “They can confuse readers about what sources are trustworthy, thereby undermining the credibility of genuine local news outlets,” she told TechNewsWorld.

“By pushing their specific political agendas,” she continued, “they can polarize community opinions and influence voting behavior, oftentimes without the readers fully realizing the source’s bias.”

Vercellone cited a 2023 Courier Newsroom study that found individuals who had been subscribers to its newsletters for longer than eight months were the most likely to change their minds in terms of supporting candidates. The same study stated that recipients of the Courier’s political newsletters increased their support for Democratic candidates by five percentage points.

The NewsGuard report noted that the partisan websites masquerading as local news outlets comprised groups on the left and the right, including Metric Media, Local Government Information Services, Courier Newsroom, The American Independent, and States Newsroom. It added that these networks receive low ratings from NewsGuard for failing to adhere to basic journalistic standards.

Kennedy maintained that NewsGuard is stretching the definition of pink slime to cover projects that produce reliable news and information but may have some undisclosed partisan funding. “It calls States Newsroom a pink slime project, for instance, which seems like a stretch,” he said. “Maybe States Newsroom should be more transparent, but that doesn’t mean it produces nothing of value.”

Partisanship Everywhere

Vincent Raynauld, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Emerson College in Boston, maintained pink slime websites take a partisan approach to delivering the news.

“Partisanship is becoming an increasingly big component of how people behave politically and in their personal life,” he told TechNewsWorld. “There are dating websites where your political identity is becoming a key component of how people introduce themselves. Pink slime builds on that dynamic to make a quick buck.”

“Pink slime is more than just fake news — it’s the first step in fostering a mistrust in news organizations, which can foster a low-trust society,” added Vanessa Walilko, an independent scholar in Chicago.

“Low-trust societies are more susceptible to fascist takeover,” she told TechNewsWorld.

While fake news isn’t great, it isn’t a grave threat to our society, contended David Inserra, a fellow for free expression and technology at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank.

“There has always been and will always be fake or bad news,” he told TechNewsWorld. “We should remember that while the internet allowed these pink slime sites to emerge, it has also enabled countless other Americans to become citizen journalists.”

“While some may wax nostalgic when they think of the media of 1990, we should keep in mind that back then, if the media didn’t want to cover issues that were important to you or didn’t frame your viewpoints in a fair light, you might not have many other local options,” he said.

“Now we have so many ways to access, share, and create useful information online across a wide range of perspectives,” he continued. “The challenge we face is being good and critical consumers of this dramatic increase in information available to us.”

Slime Spurt Expected

Mark Marino, director of the Humanities and Critical Code Studies Lab at the University of Southern California, found the numbers in the NewsGuard report troublesome. “It’s disturbing where we are now, since it doesn’t account for the full transition to what will happen when more people harness ChatGPT and other LLMs to create content sites,” he told TechNewsWorld.

What’s more, another spurt in slime sites can be expected as the nation approaches November. “In previous election years, we saw the presence of pink slime networks increase, and new sites appear,” Vercellone said. “For example, ahead of the 2022 U.S. midterms, NewsGuard discovered a new network of five news websites in battleground states that pushed a steady stream of left-leaning partisan content aimed at influencing potential voters.”

“The average voter is going to have a much harder time this year sorting things out and will have to wade through increasingly more slime,” predicted Marino.

Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near Media, a news, commentary, and analysis website, agreed. “The decline of local news has contributed to political polarization,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Unfortunately, I’m not very optimistic about the situation.”

“The big tech platforms seem to be ambivalent at best about trying to prevent disinformation and only committed to occasional enforcement,” he continued. “Foreign adversaries clearly recognize an opportunity to destabilize the U.S. and influence elections.”

“I think the onslaught will only get worse as we approach November,” he added. “And many Americans, prone to accepting conspiracies, don’t seem to be savvy enough to distinguish real from fake news.”