[This is the second half of an exploration into the secretive press dealings of Steve Jobs’ widow, who is a longtime Kamala Harris supporter. The first half laying out her business dealings can be read here.]
The previous portion of this entry mentioned how Laurene Powell Jobs has two organizations she has been involved with to push her preferred left-wing activist agenda. In that first entry, we explored her quasi-charitable outfit that supports many known media outlets through her financial backing. In this piece, we look into the second entity, a shady Democrat Party-affiliated enterprise that has created an astroturf media network.
We are discussing a fraudulent collection of “news” sites positioned as a syndicate of outlets across the country. What these are, in reality, are a false front for Democrat propaganda. While recognized by some media watchdog groups, what is revealing is how little we hear about this fake news push from the party in the broader media environment. The silence grows even louder in this era of the press allegedly concerned with misinformation and raging about any affront to the character of their industry.
Fake News, Real Project
“Pink Slime Journalism” is a term used to describe news outlets and websites created out of whole cloth to deliver favorable coverage for particular candidates. The name derives from the reports of fast food manufacturers processing food products from an amorphous blob of meat offcuts. I covered this during the 2022 midterms, when these outlets were placed in areas to feed news items about Democrats running for office in various states. The Republicans have also undertaken this step of generating party-favorable sites.
These “news” sites have pages set up to resemble a local news outlet, with a smattering of regional and state-based entries, and even sporting a local weather widget on the front page. The questionable nature leads to the use of poached articles and/or content from columns, many from non-profit outlets. Take this example from The Milwaukee Metro Times: There are dozens of entries regarding news in that region, but notably, there was zero coverage of the Republican National Convention in town.
The purpose of the sites is not only to sway local voters with carefully positioned news items but to service social media. These outlets can provide shareable headlines, and if anyone becomes doubtful of the veracity of the claim, there is a link available to an actual article appearing to be from a legitimate local news source. Another component is that in being positioned as journalism, these sites are outside the purview of election regulators.
More than one of these prefab news syndicates exist, and one in particular involved Laurene Powell Jobs. She was a major donor to a Democrat dark money entity called Acronym, founded by political operative Tara McGowan. This is a digital outreach outfit where Jobs and another tech billionaire, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, were the primary initial funders. Acronym has been doing work for various Democrat Party entities as well as several leftist activist groups.
One of the bigger operations the outfit was involved in was the creation of The Courier Newsroom, another collection of these ersatz “pink slime journalism” news outlets. The Courier serves as the syndicate, feeding the content to regionally-named outlets in the swing states such as The Keystone in Pennsylvania, The Copper Courier in Arizona, and The Nevadan. It currently operates 10 of these sites across the country.
As Politico reported in the Fall of 2020, this network was shady and called into question the legitimacy of this practice and how it possibly ran up against campaign finance restrictions.
It is a for-profit newsroom, and election law doesn’t regulate the press due to its First Amendment protections. As a result, Courier raises new digital-age questions about what is and is not a news organization — questions that political ad regulators are unlikely to answer.
This sketchy maneuver was regarded as problematic enough that it led to Mark Zuckerberg taking the step to limit outreach on Facebook of any media outlets deemed partisan news sites. This then became something of a windfall for the social media platform. The limitation on these items from sources like The Courier meant they would resort to buying ad space to place their items. Since its launch The Courier has dropped $12 million in ad spending on FaceBook and spends additionally on TikTok.
Following the 2020 election, Acronym spun off The Courier, with the site stating it is owned by Good Information Inc., a branch of The Good Information Project. This is an entity set up just like the Powell Jobs organization, The Emerson Project, which is half charitable and half investment-based operations. Good Information is owned by – Tara McGowan. So Acronym essentially sold The Courier to Acronym by another name.
This further shields the already murky backing of this news enterprise as it does not have to disclose its funding. However, Good Information sports some rather prominent names as current financiers, including Reid Hoffman and George Soros. One of the most recent additions to the portfolio was the avowed left-leaning Iowa site, Starting Line. It fits the Courier model.
A scroll through the current content offered up by The Courier lays out just where the sentiments reside.
You get the vibe, as it were. But — in case you think they do not cover the Republican campaign, let us put that concern to rest.
You could also subscribe to Courier newsletters, such as Stop The Presses, “A weekly about how right-wing extremism has exploited the weaknesses in American journalism,” or American Freakshow, “A weekly newsletter keeping an eye on MAGA extremism and its absurdity.”
The only mystery to exist in this realm in 2024 is why there is a need for this kind of pre-fab astroturf journalism in support of Kamala and the Dems. The national news complex has already shown in the span of a fortnight that they are in pom-pom shaking hysteria, as well as willing to work on her behalf to redefine her record, and that of her running mate.
