How Peter Thiel Funded Draft “Saving Arizona” Act Targeting Swing Voters

It was as if Grand Canyon TimesThe sports department put the list of local football stars in a mixer and printed the results. A brief glimpse of star receding back Bijan Robinson is topped with a photo of tight end Aaron Greene, whose resume featured a professional headshot of long-legged snapper Ethan Nguyen. Profile pictures of other athletes and biographical details also appeared at random in the full page spread on “Former District Footballers”.

The rest of the paper — shared online by confused Arizona sports fans — was filled with conservative political content, particularly articles championing Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters.

The Grand Canyon Times Not a traditional newspaper. It’s part of an obscure media organization that recycles right-wing news articles across a network of loud news sites, filled with press releases. With the 2022 midterm elections looming, conservative campaigns have exploited the network to send seemingly realistic (and undesirable) newspapers to voters in sensitive areas.

In publications such as Grand Canyon TimesThe line between newspaper and political advertising can be porous. At least two print versions of the paper, reviewed by The Daily Beast, contained a disclaimer that described the contents as “paid by Saving Arizona PAC.” PAC, which supports the Senate’s campaign for master’s More than 13 million dollars From conservative billionaire Peter Thiel.

PAC did not respond to a request for comment. Nor Grand Canyon Times, which lists one email address on the Contact Us page. It is not clear even a file Grand Canyon Times Arizona newsroom. While that, It is a subsidiary of Metric Media, a network of conservative websites designed to look like local news outlets. Metric Media operates at least 15 other local outlets in Arizona, including North Bima News and the Tucson Standard. All promote a strange mixture of conservative talking points and reprinted press releases.

Metric Media is not a new process. It’s run by Brian Tempon, a former news anchor turned political speaker. For more than a decade, Timpone has operated a network of media companies with names such as Journatic, Pipeline Media, and Local Government Information Services (LGIS). Years of exhibitions like NPRAnd the The The New York TimesAnd the Columbia Press Review Timpone companies have been accused of shady practices such as plagiarism, fake quotes, using algorithms to write articles, and outsourcing local news to independent employers in the Philippines who use fake names. (Timpone did not respond to a request for comment.)

In 2020, . was released times She reported that publications in the Timpone network accepted money from clients (often political processes) to write articles on topics of their choice. “Customers pay us to produce a certain amount of copies per day for their websites,” read Metric Media “Toolkit” review it times. “In some cases, customers offer their own version.”

It is part of an opaque media organization that recycles right-wing news articles.

“Only a few dozen” sites in the sprawling network have revealed funding from political groups, and times mentioned.

In the past, much of the network was limited to news sites. But as the 2022 election season approaches its climax, some of those publications have ventured into their print.

Illinoisers may not have subscribed to newspapers with headlines like Chicago City Wire or the DuPage Policy Journal. But they reached the thresholds of the state’s gates, with Front page titles like Will it literally be the end of days and No More Boys and Girls? The Pritzker family is leading a campaign to replace the ‘biology’ myth.

“Despite the publications’ different names, they all feature nearly identical stories,” The Chicago Tribune I mentioned last month.

The newspapers, many of which attack Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker, are hallmarks of LGIS, a company Timpone launched with Florida-based Republican strategist Dan Proft. Proft, who did not respond to a request for comment, directs the People Who Play By The Rules political action committee.

People who play by the rules have earned more than $26 million this year from Illinois billionaire Richard Oehlen. Public filings showed that PAC spent more than $226,000 on services from Pipeline Media, another Timpone subsidiary. Expenses are earmarked as text messages, bot calls, and a website opposing Democratic candidates; It is not clear from the filings whether any of the PAC’s funding went toward LGIS publications.

But publications in the Illinois LGIS Network acknowledge that there is outside funding, even if it’s not clear who supports the outlets. “Funding for this news site is provided, in part, by advocacy groups that share our beliefs in limited government,” reads the standard disclaimer on the About page of the LGIS Illinois websites.

This disclaimer appeared in 2016, After the Illinois Board of Elections One of Proft’s now-defunct political action committees found that the rules for electoral communication had been violated, and ordered the PAC to “ensure that all literature and future political communications identifies the PAC as a motive.”

Although some Grand Canyon Times The print editions contain a disclaimer about funding from PAC’s pro-Master Saving Arizona, and the journal’s website does not disclose his financial arrangements with PAC. The site’s only passing mentions of saving Arizona appear in a pair of articles casting the Masters in a positive light. (One of the headlines reads “Native Arizona son to run for US Senate,” published a baffling full year after Masters announced his candidacy. The article does not mention an author.)

Outside the pages of politics, the newspaper’s offerings are scarce: blunders of local footballers; press releases; Collected articles from authors whose work appears in other metric publications in Georgia, Texas, and Illinois.

“Senator Virginia Kerstin Senema Delivers Speech in Defense of Bipartisanship,” an October 4 article began. Grand Canyon Times website. Sinema does not represent Virginia, but Arizona, the state in which it is located Grand Canyon Times Ostensibly located.

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