Maggie Severns for Notus:
Thousands of North Carolinians — mostly women — were targeted with Facebook and Instagram ads shortly before the last midterm elections that shared a dire message: A little-watched race could determine whether abortion would remain legal in the state.
“Reproductive freedom in North Carolina could come down to this fall’s elections for two seats on the state Supreme Court,” said one post from a state-based news outlet called Cardinal & Pine. Republicans in the state were nearing a supermajority in the legislature, “potentially making N.C.’s high court the last bulwark for abortion rights.”
Cardinal & Pine, which promises readers “fact-based, audience-centered journalism” on its website, boasts as many Facebook followers as the longtime North Carolina newspaper, the Winston-Salem Journal. It employs several journalists and publishes stories ranging from politics to lifestyle content.
However, key facts about Cardinal & Pine and its parent company, Courier Newsroom, go undisclosed. Courier does not disclose that the newsroom is run primarily by former Democratic operatives, including its publisher and CEO, Tara McGowan. It has received funding from groups like the pro-abortion rights Planned Parenthood, which gave $250,000 to Courier Newsroom between June 2021 and June 2022, the year it was promoting content about what the election means for abortion access.
Cardinal & Pine is one of 10 websites in political battleground states run by Courier quietly testing the limits of what a newsroom can be. Courier grew out of a series of explicitly political experiments that hinged on using paid online advertising to turn out voters. It then pivoted to being a privately owned media company that bills itself as a “pro-democracy news network” serving news and lifestyle content to the left. The project has raised and spent millions of dollars since launching its first site in 2019 and has announced plans to launch an additional newsroom in Texas.
But Courier’s undisclosed funders and glowing coverage of Democratic candidates should raise questions about its reliability, said McKenzie Sadeghi, editor at NewsGuard, which publishes trustworthiness ratings for thousands of sites.
“Courier Newsroom sites do not disclose ownership and financing, they do not disclose possible conflicts of interest, nor do they gather and present information responsibility,” Sadeghi told NOTUS.
Courier does not aim to spew misinformation, former employees say. Its articles are usually written by journalists, some of whom have years of experience covering local politics. But in many cases described to NOTUS, Democratic political operatives like McGowan call the shots for Courier….