[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 part of this entry mentioned that Laurene Powell Jobs is lively in two organizations to advance her preferred left-leaning activist agenda. In that first entry, we examined her quasi-charity organization that provides financial support to many well-known media outlets. In this article, we examine the second organization, a shady company aligned with the Democratic Party that has built an astroturfing media network.
We’re talking about a fraudulent collection of “news” sites that act as a syndicate of media outlets across the country. In reality, they’re a front for Democrat propaganda. While some media watchdog groups acknowledge this, it’s telling how little we hear about this party fraudulent news campaign in the broader media landscape. At a time when the press is supposedly concerned about disinformation and outraged at any insult to the character of their industry, the silence is getting even louder.
Fake news, real project
“Pink Slime Journalism” is a term used to describe news outlets and websites created out of slender air to provide positive coverage of certain candidates. The name derives from the Reports from brisk food manufacturers Processing food from an amorphous lump of meat waste. I reported on this during the 2022 midterm elections when these outlets were placed in areas to provide news about Democrats running for office in various states. The Republicans have also taken this step creating party-friendly websites.
These “news” websites have pages that look like local news, with a few regional and state listings and even a local weather widget on the front page. The questionable nature leads to articles and/or content being ripped off from columns, many of them from nonprofit media outlets. Take this example from The Milwaukee Metro Times: There are dozens of entries covering news from this region, but notably, there was no coverage at all of the Republican National Convention in the city.
The purpose of these sites is not only to influence local voters with carefully placed messages, but also to serve social media. These outlets can provide shareable headlines, and if someone has doubts about the credibility of the claim, there is a link to an actual article that appears to come from a legitimate local news source. Another consideration is that because these sites are classified as journalistic sites, they are outside the purview of election oversight.
There are more than one of these ready-made news syndicates, and one of them in particular was Laurene Powell Jobs. She was one of the major donors to a democratic obscure money entity called Acronymfounded by political activist Tara McGowan. This is a digital outreach organization whose main funders were Jobs and another tech billionaire, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn. Acronym has worked for various Democratic Party entities as well as several left-wing activist groups.
One of the major operations the organization was involved in was the creation of The Courier Newsroomanother collection of these surrogate news agencies for “pink slime journalism.” The Courier acts as a syndicate and delivers the content to regionally named agencies in the swing states such as The Keystone in Pennsylvania, The Copper Courier in Arizona and The Nevadan. It currently operates 10 of these locations across the country.
As Politico reported In the fall of 2020, this network was shady, calling into question the legitimacy of this practice and possible violations of campaign finance restrictions.
It is a for-profit newsroom, and the right to vote does not regulate the press because it is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. As a result, Courier raises novel digital-age questions about what is and isn’t a news organization – questions that political ad regulators are unlikely to answer.
This questionable maneuver was considered so problematic that it prompted Mark Zuckerberg to take the step to limit the reach on Facebook of all media outlets considered to be biased news sites. This then became something of a godsend for the social media platform. Restricting these articles from sources like The Courier meant that they had to resort to buying advertising space to place their articles. Since its launch, The Courier has reduced its advertising spend on Facebook by $12 million, in addition to spending money on TikTok.
After the 2020 election, Acronym spun off The Courier. Its website says it is owned by Good Information Inc., an arm of The Good Information Project. This is a company structured just like Powell Jobs’ organization The Emerson Project, with half charitable and half investment-based activities. Good Information is owned by – Tara McGowan. So Acronym essentially sold The Courier to Acronym under a different name.
This further protects the already muddy funding of this news company, as it does not have to disclose its funding. However, Good Information does boast some pretty prominent names as current backers, including Reid Hoffman and George SorosOne of the most recent additions to the portfolio was the avowedly left-leaning Iowa location, starting line. It fits the Courier model.
A look at the current contents of the Courier reveals exactly where these feelings originate.
You get the vibe, so to speak. But if you think they’re not covering the Republican campaign, we can put that to rest.
You can also subscribe to Courier newsletters such as Stop the printing presses“A weekly newspaper about how right-wing extremism has exploited the weaknesses of American journalism,” or American Freak Show“A weekly newsletter keeping an eye on MAGA extremism and its absurdity.”
The only mystery that exists in this space in 2024 is why there needs to be this kind of pre-packaged astroturfing journalism in support of Kamala and the Democrats. The national news complicated has already shown, within two weeks, that it is in a state of pom-pom-shaking hysteria and is willing to work on her behalf. to redefine their recordand that of her running mate.
