Courier Newsroom runs a network of local news sites that seem at first glance to be nonpartisan but are actually deeply biased.
Voters in key races in Iowa and Ohio are being peppered with campaign messaging that relies on misleading claims made by biased websites parading as nonpartisan news sources.
NewsGuard, a controversial tool in its own right that provides “trust ratings” for news and information websites, found video ads for the make-or-break races featured on-screen citations of George Soros-backed and other “pink slime” websites that “present themselves as professional news outlets but are secretly backed by partisan groups with a clear though undisclosed agenda.”
Courier Newsroom, which has received at least $5 million from a nonprofit previously led by the Democratic billionaire, has exploited the “collapse of local journalism to spread ‘hyperlocal partisan propaganda,’” according to OpenSecrets. The “newsroom” is owned by leftist nonprofit ACRONYM and has “numerous undisclosed financial ties to Democratic-aligned groups, including $13.6 million from liberal nonprofit Future Forward USA Action in 2024.”
During the 2020 election, OpenSecrets found political operations poured millions of dollars in “dark money” into ads and digital content “masquerading as news coverage to influence the 2020 election.”
With control of the House and the Senate on the line, the Democratic disinformation machine is back in action for the 2026 midterms.
The Government That Works PAC ran an ad attempting to link Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson to policies that “threaten Iowans’ rural way of life while promoting her Democratic opponent, state Rep. Josh Turek.”
Near the end of the ad, a caption cites Iowa Starting Line, one of Courier Newsroom’s fake news outlets. Iowa Starting Line has also published articles on the group’s ads endorsing Turek — an example of the cozy, interconnected nature of the Democratic groups.
Courier Newsroom has “news” operations in 20 states and has recently taken to using TikTok to further the reach of its Democrat-friendly disinformation. Across 21 TikTok accounts, Courier Newsroom has amassed an audience of 4.3 million followers and has collectively received 665.5 million likes on its videos, according to NewsGuard. The “newsroom’s” national account has 3.7 million followers — more than the Washington Post’s popular account.
And not only are the websites’ claims appearing in television ads and TikTok videos. NewsGuard found AI chatbots cite the pink slime websites nearly half of the time when asked about candidates and issues that the sites have covered in the midterm elections. The websites have also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars this year alone on advertising to push their misleading content into voters’ Facebook and Instagram feeds, the group found.
Courier Newsroom isn’t the only Democratic “pink slime” operation: WinSenate recently ran an ad attacking incumbent Republican Senator Jon Husted that attributed information to Ohio Capital Journal, one of 40 local affiliates of States Newsroom, a nonprofit that received support from liberal nonprofit the Hopewell Fund. The nonprofit was managed by Arabella Advisors, a now-defunct consulting firm that specialized in left-leaning philanthropy and once operated a network of nonprofits at the center of a liberal dark money network, according to a December 2021 report from OpenSecrets.org.
The ad, aiming to boost former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in his race against Husted, claims “Husted was in charge of FirstEnergy’s bailout,” citing Ohio Capital Journal. Husted has argued he was not “in charge” of the controversial state legislation benefiting utility company FirstEnergy.
States Newsroom, for its part, refuted NewsGuard’s characterization of the group’s sites as pink slime.
“States Newsroom should not be included in any discussion of partisan media or so-called ‘pink-slime’ as we are fiercely independent and nonpartisan,” the group’s communications director Lara Weber told NewsGuard. “We question NewsGuard’s agenda as your organization appears unwilling to address your mischaracterization of our work, even as respected media watchers have called it unfounded.”
A 2020 investigation by Neiman Lab found partisan media sites posing as nonpartisan local news sites are pervasive. The Harvard-based research center found more than 400 partisan media outlets, most of which were funded by government officials, political candidates, PACs, and political party operatives. Many of the sites were concentrated within swing states. At the time, the report claimed there were far more conservative-leaning sites than liberal-leaning sites but suggested that “could change as left-wing funders and operatives seek to counteract similar efforts by the right.” In 2020, Courier Newsroom had newsrooms in six swing states and was also publishing a politics site for Latinx readers.
The NewsGuard report also identified an Alabama-based website, Yellowhammer News, as a conservative pink slime outlet — but the website falls short of the group’s own definition of pink slime because it explicitly discloses its conservative bent. Allison Ross took over the site in 2017 and published a public comment saying, “Yellowhammer has positioned itself as Alabama’s premier source for conservative news, opinion, and analysis.”
Headline Fail of the Week
ABC News removed a report on President Trump’s oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, last week: “Trump sons’ investments have won billions in Pentagon contracts since his election.”
The outlet quietly took down the report less than 24 hours after publishing it on Wednesday, without offering a public explanation. ABC News then published a revised version on Friday: “New shipyard announced amid earlier Democratic concerns about potential conflicts of interest.”
The updated version featured an editor’s note that read, “CORRECTION: A version of this story published on Oct. 7 contained errors in the description of certain company investments, government contracts and event chronologies. After subsequent reporting, this version contains corrected information and additional context regarding some of those investments, contracts and events.”
“1789 Capital — a venture capital firm that lists Donald Trump Jr. as one of six partners along with three founders — claimed a major stake in Anduril in June 2025 from a $2.5 billion investment into the company,” ABC News reported in the deleted story.
While the initial report attributed a $2.5 billion investment in defense contractor Anduril to 1789 Capital, the updated article explained that the figure actually represented the total funding Anduril raised last year.
The updated version came after 1789 Capital, the venture firm in which Trump Jr. serves as a partner, disputed the initial reporting about the firm’s investment. Spokeswoman Alexa Henning said the firm “does not have a ‘major stake’ in Anduril” as the report claimed.
“Here’s a small lesson, that I also explained to ABC, the ‘reporter’ who is a complete idiot conflated raising funds with investment by 1789. Those are two separate actions,” Henning wrote.
The revised article also explains that Trump Jr. does not sit on the three-person committee responsible for investment decisions, according to a spokesperson for 1789 Capital.
Media Misses
• A new Vox video argues Democrats should view abortion as an issue of affordability, because raising children is expensive.
The decision to carry and raise a child can shape every part of a person’s financial life. @JessicaValenti joins Vox’s @AsteadWH to explain why abortion belongs in Democrats’ affordability message and what the party misses when it treats reproductive rights as a social issue. https://t.co/SaRxU1Ymz9
— Vox (@voxdotcom) October 6, 2026
• Nickelodeon is under fire over its “Parent Resources” webpage, which offers guides for discussing anti-racism, gender identity, and other issues like “How to talk to kids about the attack on the Capitol.” The kids’ network partnered with LGBT organization Glisten to create a guide for teachers titled “Talk & Take Action: An Educators’ Guide to Combating LGBTQIA+ Discrimination.”
“When preparing to talk about topics around identity, gender, and sexuality with students, it’s important to frame those discussions in ways that maximize opportunities to learn, while at the same time ensuring that students don’t leave the encounter confused, afraid, or traumatized,” the guide reads.
“This guide delves into misgendering, discriminatory acts, and other forms of discrimination the LGBTQ+ community has endured, which can be challenging for all of us to read and talk about,” it continues.