<
https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/pink-slime-networks-are-weaponizing-foia.php>
"Two days after the 2024 elections, Metric Media, the online publishing
company, started filing thousands of public records requests. Metric, which
operates a network of nearly twelve hundred news sites, sent letters to the
governments of every city, town, and village in the state of Wisconsin—one
thousand, one hundred, and fourteen requests in all. Every one asked for the
same thing: a list of voters who had registered on Election Day.
“As a media organization, we are involved in gathering and reporting news to
the public. Access to public records is essential for us to fulfill our
professional responsibilities, which include holding public institutions
accountable and providing transparency to the public,”
NE Wisconsin News, a
Metric website, wrote. The request also sought a fee waiver typically reserved
for press outlets.
But Metric Media is not a traditional news company. Its network, which includes
websites with innocuous-sounding names—such as the
Chicago City Wire and
Ohio’s Buckeye Reporter—has been accused of plagiarism and using fake
bylines. The sites are designed to appear legitimate, but they are partisan
outlets masquerading as local news—what is sometimes referred to as “pink
slime” journalism.
Founded in 2019, Metric has been criticized for jury tampering and tied to
pay-for-play political schemes and fake newspapers that land in mailboxes ahead
of key elections. Recently, it has focused on obtaining troves of public
records. In the past year, an investigation by the Tow Center for Digital
Journalism has found Metric filed more than nine thousand Freedom of
Information Act requests across all fifty states.
Many of the requests are for data at the forefront of America’s culture-wars,
from allegedly rigged elections to banned books to transgender inmates. With
public records in hand, Metric has targeted liberal politicians with negative
reporting, criticized the funding of nonprofit organizations, and published
personally identifying details about small-town residents who spoke up at
school board hearings. Unlike traditional journalism, Metric’s stories do not
air dueling perspectives or offer targets a chance to comment.
Brian Timpone, one of the founders of Metric Media, disputed Tow’s FOIA count,
saying, “We have sent far more FOIAs than that.” He did not respond to a list
of detailed questions. Metric’s other founders, Dan Proft and Bradley Cameron,
did not respond to requests for comment."
Via Brian Krebs and Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
