This story was reported and written by our media partner Capital News Service.
A website that mimics local news sites is spending thousands of dollars on social media political advertisements. This site, the Dogwood Daily Dispatch, follows a trend of “pink-slime journalism” that replaces other local news outlets.
Pink-slime journalism is not local journalism, but defined as content used to push partisan agendas rather than inform the public. The publishers are often unknown, with no affiliated media outlet, or identified authors or editors. These websites may publish works created by artificial intelligence, not real journalists, according to the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University.
The rise of fake news in recent years, particularly political content, has blurred the line between trustworthy and illegitimate journalism. Although this kind of content came to the public eye increasingly during the 2024 election, a recent Yale study found citizens continue to trust fake local news sites over legitimate news organizations.
The algorithmically created local news sites don’t have “about” pages, bylines or other demonstrations of credibility, but the study found participants still preferred websites in alignment with their own biases. Legitimate news sites also generally have ads on their webpages, whereas the AI sites do not.
Local News Site Dumps Thousands Into Political Ads
The Dogwood Daily Dispatch is a Fredericksburg-based “news and media” site that shares “Real News for Real Virginians.” The first post was made in July 2024, and the website features pages for local, state and national news stories that do not list authors or contributors.
The email address listed on the Dogwood Daily Dispatch Facebook page, which has over 1,000 followers, is not a functional address, and no additional contact information is provided on the site or affiliated social media accounts.
The phone number listed as contact for their advertisements sends the caller to an automated voicemail. No one responded to messages sent through Facebook Messenger or Instagram.
The Dispatch has paid over $30,000 since 2024 for over 600 ads on Facebook and Instagram, some of which have up to 30,000 impressions according to Meta’s ad library. Their top target demographic is parents, followed by politics and football, though they equally target genders and age groups over 18.
The ads focus on pushing conservative agendas and candidates, with messages such as “More Money in The Pockets of Virginians under Glenn Youngkin.”
The ads also disparage Democrats, mainstream media and Democratic candidates with messaging such as “MSNBC Just Blamed Charlie Kirk For Getting Shot” and “Democratic governor candidate Spanberger loses composure on podcast when pressured about redistricting issues.”
In contrast, but with a similar name, the Virginia Dogwood is a digital publication owned by the Courier Newsroom. The Courier launched multiple news sites in swing states, including Virginia, with the intention to counter conservative media, according to founder Tara McGowan.
While the parent company supports liberal politics, the Dogwood states that “fact-based, audience-centered journalism” is a part of its mission. The site is transparent about its local journalists and its funding model. The Courier also uses social media to reach and persuade and has spent almost $3 million in the past six years on Meta platforms.
The Dogwood is up front about having a point of view, but states that it does not accept “underwriting funding from any national or state political party, party committee, candidate, or campaign.”
Richard Meagher, a political science professor at Randolph-Macon College, said the internet has allowed for easier creation of content, but made it more difficult for news consumers to tell information from misinformation.
“There’s nothing wrong with a website that has a conservative point of view or that is dedicated to criticizing Democrats,” Meagher said. “[But] the lack of accountability, the lack of any name or voices, the lack of any evidence that this is based on particular information in the world, as opposed to dubiously sourced quotes or things like that, there’s no accountability there.”
Ethical Journalism
Most news organizations follow a code or framework of ethics, often the Society of Professional Journalists’ four-pillar ethical code which aims to create a foundation for ethical journalism.
Judith Crenshaw, an assistant professor of public relations at Virginia Commonwealth University, said such codes are voluntary and not enforced by any entity, so it is up to individual journalists and news organizations to uphold these ethical practices.
But it falls on consumers to determine whether information comes from a credible source, Crenshaw said.
Media literacy is increasingly important, and truth is increasingly subjective, she said.
“People need to be able to filter out verifiable facts from their own personal truths,” Crenshaw said. “The process of verifying what you read, what you see is more and more important so that you can figure out the more ethical sources, the more verifiable fact, and you don't have to waste your time on going down rabbit holes that are going to mislead you.”
Legitimate news organizations have a public relations problem, according to Crenshaw. They need to focus on making it well-known that they prioritize ethical reporting, in order to stand out from other, less credible sites. That is becoming more difficult as they struggle with funding and personnel cuts.
The News Literacy Project advises readers to background a news source, look for its standards, check for transparency, determine ownership and funding, review how it handles errors and read multiple articles.
Impacts of Political Advertising
Social media often facilitates the spread of misinformation through ads or biased reporting, as such posts that maximize engagement and attention. This means content can spread rapidly the more users engage with it.
In addition, political ads on social media are narrowly targeted to specific users, more so than in television advertising, according to Rutgers.
The creators of pink-slime websites that advance political agendas are likely partisan operatives, such as political action committees, public relations firms working for partisan clients and out-of-state or national groups using AI or algorithms, according to Meagher.
He also cited the 2020 presidential election as an example of how misinformation can affect public trust and belief in institutions, governments and media, as well as interfere with people who want to participate.
“It can be true statements that are just shaded in a way to be negative, or it could be actual lies or misinformation, and then there is this often institutional undermining,” Meagher said.
Political advertising focuses more on prompting voter turnout rather than changing voter’s minds or party affiliations. Ads are often created to either invoke anger or move their audience, and these emotions lead to increased intention to provide support, according to a National Library of Medicine study.
Meagher said the people most affected and targeted by political ads are low-information voters. These citizens are more susceptible to read and believe the most recent posts from their social feed rather than double checking the source, as they do not have the context to spot bias or misinformation.
VCU associate professor of political science Alex Keena said sites like the Dogwood Daily Dispatch validate people’s beliefs, which is more important to some than ensuring they are consuming verified news.
“People want to feel informed, they don’t necessarily want to be informed, they want to feel informed, and when they see news articles that validate their preexisting beliefs … they take this as evidence that reinforces their viewpoint,” Keena said.
He also noted these sites have sometimes replaced more credible local news sites.
“Really for the last eight or nine years you’ve seen local papers closing down and you have new papers popping up that purport to offer local news,” Keena said. “Some of them are generated by people overseas, who don't live anywhere near the locality.”
There are currently an estimated 1,265 fake news websites operating in the United States, about 50 more than the number of legitimate daily news websites, according to The Guardian.
The Dogwood Daily Dispatch sounds like the legitimate news site Dogwood, and “piggybacks on that reputation,” Keena said.
“If it’s done in a certain way it can be very damaging because it can obviously spread misinformation,” Keena said. “But it’ll further polarize people and that’s a huge concern because the entire premise of democracy assumes people have access to reliable sources of information.”
Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Communication. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.