Tracking “Pink Slime” & Syndication

The Concept: What is “Pink Slime”?

In the meat industry, “Pink Slime” is a cheap filler used to bulk up beef. In journalism, it is the same thing: cheap, automated, partisan content used to bulk up a “Local News” site.

Trust in national media is low, but trust in local media (The “Springfield Gazette” or “Highland County Times”) remains high. Propagandists know this.

• The Tactic: They buy expired domain names of old local newspapers (or create new ones that sound local).

• The Content: They populate 90% of the site with benign, automated content (High School sports scores, weather, stock prices) to look normal.

• The Payload: The remaining 10% is hyper-partisan propaganda, “hit pieces” on local politicians, or corporate PR disguised as news.

• The Scale: These are not isolated blogs. They are vast networks of 1,200+ sites, all managed centrally, often by political action committees (PACs) or corporate lobby groups.

Case Study: The “Metric Media” Scandal

In 2019/2020, researchers at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism uncovered a massive network of over 1,200 websites operating in the US.

• The Names: They had names like The North Bay Today, Ann Arbor Times, or Des Moines Sun.

• The Reality: They were not local. They had no office in those towns. They had no reporters in those towns.

• The Deception: Writers were often freelancers in the Philippines or Kenya, paid pennies to re-write press releases using a specific political angle. When you read an article about your “Local Mayor” raising taxes, it was actually a script written by a DC Lobbyist, copy-pasted across 500 different “local” sites simultaneously.

The Syndication Trap: The Sinclair Effect

This doesn’t just happen in print; it happens in Broadcast TV. The Scandal: In 2018, the Sinclair Broadcast Group (which owns hundreds of local TV stations) sent a “Must-Run” script to its anchors.

• The Script: It was a warning about “Fake News” and “biased reporting.”

• The Reality: A viral video compilation showed dozens of different anchors—from Seattle to New York to Texas—reading the exact same speech word-for-word on the same night.

• The Lesson: Just because the face is familiar (your local anchor), it doesn’t mean the words are theirs.

Hands-On Exercise 1: The “Copy-Paste” Google Audit

This is the single fastest way to detect a Syndication Network.

The Drill:

1. Find the “Key Phrase”: Open a suspicious political article on a “local” news site. Find a sentence that sounds oddly specific or highly opinionated (e.g., “The Senator’s radical agenda is a threat to our families”).

2. The Exact Match Search: Copy that sentence. Paste it into Google inside Quotation Marks ("The Senator's radical agenda...").

3. Analyze the Results:

   • Normal: You see 1 result (the article you are reading).

   • Syndicated: You see 50+ results from different “local” papers (The Ohio Star, The Minnesota Sun, The Arizona Monitor) all containing that exact same sentence.

4. Conclusion: If the Ohio Star and the Arizona Monitor are using the exact same sentence to attack a politician, they are not newspapers. They are a network.

Hands-On Exercise 2: The “Address Check”

Real local newspapers have offices. Fake ones have mailboxes.

The Drill:

1. Scroll to the bottom of the website and look for the “Contact Us” or “About” link.

2. Find the physical address.

3. Map It: Paste that address into Google Maps and go to Street View.

4. What do you see?

   • Pass: A building with a sign saying “The Gazette.”

   • Fail: A UPS Store, a PO Box center, a residential house, or an empty lot.

   • Fail: An office building in Washington DC (when the paper is supposed to be in Iowa).

Hands-On Exercise 3: The “Ghost Writer” Hunt

Pink Slime sites often use fake bylines (names of reporters who don’t exist).

The Drill:

1. Click the name of the author on the article (e.g., “By Sarah Jenkins”).

2. Reverse Search the Face: If there is a photo, use TinEye.com or Google Lens. Is “Sarah” actually a stock photo model?

3. Search the Name: Google "Sarah Jenkins" journalist.

   • Does she have a LinkedIn?

   • Does she have a Twitter/X account where she talks to locals?

   • Or does she only exist on this one website?

4. The “Global Freelancer” Check: Sometimes the person is real, but they aren’t local. If “Sarah Jenkins” writes for the Iowa Sun but her LinkedIn says she lives in Dubai and writes for “Content Mills,” she is not covering your local school board meeting.

“Pink Slime” journalism is the mass-production of partisan propaganda disguised as local news. Propagandists know you don’t trust national cable news, but you do trust the Springfield Gazette or the Highland County Sun. So, they buy hundreds of these “local” domain names and fill them with automated content from a central office (often funded by dark money PACs).

Your job is to prove that The Arizona Monitor and The Ohio Star are actually the same person.

LAB EXERCISE 1: The “Exact Match” Script Hunt

The Scenario: You are reading a political article on a small local news site. The language feels a bit too “national” for a local story. The Objective: Prove this article was mass-distributed to 50+ sites simultaneously.

The Mission:

1. Find the “Payload”: Scan the article for a sentence that expresses a strong opinion or attacks a specific policy. Avoid generic facts (like “The vote was held on Tuesday”). Look for the spin.

   • Example: “This radical legislation threatens the very fabric of our state’s economy.”

2. The Google Operator: Copy that sentence. Paste it into Google inside Quotation Marks ("...").

   • Input: "This radical legislation threatens the very fabric of our state's economy"

3. The Analysis:

   • Normal Result: You see 1 or 2 hits (the site you are on, and maybe a Facebook share).

   • Syndicated Result: You see 400+ results.

4. The Verdict: Scroll through the URLs. You will see The Maine Wire, The Florida Record, The Lansing Sun, etc. If they all published the exact same opinion sentence at the exact same time, this is not a newspaper. It is a Bot Network.

LAB EXERCISE 2: The “Ghost Writer” Audit

The Scenario: The article is written by “Sarah Jenkins.” She looks like a friendly local reporter. The Objective: Prove Sarah doesn’t exist.

The Mission:

1. The Face Check:

   • Right-click Sarah’s profile photo.

   • Select “Search Image with Google” (or use TinEye.com).

   • The Reveal: If Sarah’s face appears on a site called “Shutterstock: Young Businesswoman” or is used by a “Dr. Emily Smith” on a dental website, she is a ghost.

2. The Bio Check:

   • Copy her name and the publication: "Sarah Jenkins" "Des Moines Sun".

   • Look for a Twitter/X or LinkedIn profile.

   • The Red Flag: Real reporters live on Twitter. They interact with the community. If “Sarah” has no social media presence, or her account was created last month and only retweets the main website, she is a “Sock Puppet.”

LAB EXERCISE 3: The “Mailbox” Audit

The Scenario: The “About Us” page claims the paper is “The Voice of [Your Town].” The Objective: Prove they aren’t even in your state.

The Mission:

1. Scroll to the bottom footer of the website. Look for “Contact Us”, “Privacy Policy”, or “Terms of Service”.

2. Find a physical address. (If there is no address at all, that is an immediate Fail).

3. The Map Check:

   • Copy the address into Google Maps.

   • Switch to Street View.

4. The Verdict:

   • Real Paper: You see an office building with the paper’s logo.

   • Pink Slime: You see a UPS Store, a PO Box Center, or a residential house in a different state.

   • Classic Example: During the 2020 election, hundreds of “local” papers listed their address as a single UPS store in Chicago or a mailbox in Washington D.C.

LAB EXERCISE 4: The “About Us” Template

The Scenario: Networked sites often copy-paste their “Mission Statement” because they are lazy. The Objective: Find the rest of the network by searching for their “Values.”

The Mission:

1. Go to the “About Us” page.

2. Find a generic, noble-sounding sentence.

   • Example: “We are dedicated to bringing truth and transparency to the citizens of this community.”

3. The Search: Paste that sentence into Google in quotes.

4. The Reveal: You might find that the Highland County Press, the River City Times, and the Valley News all have the exact same mission statement, word-for-word. They just swapped the town name.

Real World Case Study: The “Sinclair Script”

In 2018, the Sinclair Broadcast Group sent a “Must-Run” script to dozens of local TV stations.

• The Exercise: Go to YouTube and search for “Sinclair Script Compilation.”

• Watch: You will see dozens of different anchors, from Seattle to New York, reading the exact same warning about “fake news” in perfect unison.

• The Lesson: This proves that even “Trusted Local Anchors” can be puppets for a national script. Always check who owns the station.