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.