To Brad Dechant, the copy of the Nebraska Independent that landed in his mailbox last month looked like any other newspaper.
The cover of the neatly designed tabloid featured several news headlines and a blurb about the crossword puzzle and “Cornhusker Cooking” section inside.
The 12-page paper didn’t leave many hints about where it had come from or who was behind it. Maybe it was a rebrand of the Omaha World-Herald, he wondered.
Then, Dechant started reading the lead story, “a fluff piece on Harris and Walz,” as he put it.
“I was like ‘OK, this doesn’t even seem like reporting,’” the central Omaha resident said. “They put a lot of effort into pretending to not be political mailers. I kind of thought that was odd.”
Just four months after launching, the publication has become one of the most widely circulated newspapers in the state — delivering “hard-hitting independent news” to more than 100,000 Nebraskans, according to its editor.
But to media observers, the publication is a glaring example of “pink slime journalism” – information produced by partisan operations posing as traditional news outlets. The practice, employed by both the left and the right, has drawn concern from researchers who say it muddies an already murky media ecosystem.
The Independent also isn’t independent. Rather, it’s the latest addition to a network of left-leaning newspapers published in political battleground states by a Washington-based group that does not disclose its funding.
Some publications previously run by the group died out in the years after pivotal elections, while others went into months of hibernation until political season kicked up again.
That track record should raise a red flag for readers, said John Bender, a journalism professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“If it sticks around, it doesn’t smell as bad,” Bender said. “If it comes up just for this campaign cycle and goes away by January … that looks awfully suspicious, as if it were just propaganda.”
Since its first online story came out in June, the Independent has run dozens of articles promoting the positions of Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. House candidate Tony Vargas and others, while denouncing Republican candidates with headlines like, “Deb Fischer’s Senate record: Putting corporate donors over Nebraska families.”
The publication has caught the attention of at least one major campaign in Nebraska. U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn has cited the outlet in a TV advertisement and posted a few of its articles on social media, garnering thousands of likes and reposts.
American Independent Editor-in-Chief Joe Conason said in an email that the organization is informing readers “about state and federal issues and providing a carefully reported and fact-checked source of news and information.” The organization targets its print distribution to readers “who are less likely to subscribe to newspapers,” he said.
The longtime liberal political commentator said the group’s publications fight against “insidious fake news” that has proliferated with the decline of print journalism.
But rather than a solution, the American Independent’s publications are part of a national rise in pink slime journalism that is making it harder for readers to distinguish reputable sources of information, said McKenzie Sadeghi, a New York-based editor for media watchdog NewsGuard.
The Independent isn’t the first to target Nebraskans, Sadeghi said.
Conservative publisher Metric Media runs 10 Nebraska-focused websites, including Cornhusker State News. Most aren’t regularly updated with new political articles, and it’s unclear how much online traffic the sites receive. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Several Russian disinformation websites with names like “heartland-inquirer.org” and “heartlandheadlines.net” also target Nebraskans, according to Sadeghi.
Pink slime journalism undermines the credibility of “actual local news outlets” and “takes away from reporting on actual local issues,” she said.
News or propaganda?
In some ways, the Nebraska Independent is a throwback — a new twist on an old tradition.
Partisan newspapers dominated the American mediasphere decades before the advent of journalistic objectivity, Bender said.
Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and other Founding Fathers funded newspapers to spread their political beliefs. One of Nebraska’s first newspapers, the Nebraska City News, had an obvious pro-slavery stance, Bender noted.
The partisan press never disappeared completely, but readers’ attitudes evolved to expect more transparency from news outlets, Bender said. The First Amendment protects a newspaper’s right to print whatever it wants, but nowadays, if it isn’t disclosing its political slant, “it may seem deceptive,” Bender said.
David Brock, a conservative journalist turned Democratic operative, helped establish the American Independent, serving as its president for most of the 2010s, according to nonprofit records.
Brock ran the organization in concert with American Bridge, a high-profile Democratic opposition research group, the Washington Post reported.
The American Independent, which is organized as two related nonprofits, does not publicly report its donors, but a contracted fundraising firm brought in more than $26 million for the group in 2022, according to financial records.
Conason did not respond to questions about its funders and Brock’s involvement.
The only indication of the Nebraska newspaper’s origin comes in the return address, which reports the sender as “The American Independent Foundation,” according to two September issues obtained by the Flatwater Free Press.
In 2022, American Independent distributed monthly newspapers to more than 3 million households in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio, according to the former president’s LinkedIn biography.
For the current election cycle, the organization dropped Ohio and added Montana and Nebraska — both historically conservative states with competitive federal races. All five existing publications bear the “Independent” name.
Most of the bylines that appear in the Nebraska paper belong to out-of-state writers, but at least one reporter is local. Kevin O’Hanlon, a former Associated Press reporter and Nebraska Democratic Party spokesman, has authored more than 20 articles for the outlet. O’Hanlon declined to comment to FFP.
Conason said the Nebraska paper will continue to exist beyond 2024, but the national organization has a mixed record on maintaining publications in the long term.
Outlets in Ohio, Georgia and Arizona have disappeared since the 2022 midterms, and the papers in Pennsylvania and Michigan posted only a few new online stories in the six months after the election.
Avoiding pink slime
With “pink slime journalism” on the rise, readers can take several steps to ensure they’re consuming trustworthy nonpartisan news coverage, said NewsGuard editor McKenzie Sadeghi.
- Look for balanced coverage and depth of reporting. One-sided coverage is a red flag.
- Check for bylines and look up reporters to make sure they are real people working locally.
- Identify and seek out local outlets with reputations for nonpartisan coverage.
The Nebraska publication popped up amid one of the most competitive election cycles in recent memory.
Donald Trump and Harris are vying for the single electoral vote awarded by the Omaha area, while GOP Rep. Don Bacon and Vargas play a rematch of a 2022 House race decided by fewer than 6,000 votes. Fischer, a two-term Republican senator, faces an unusually tough challenge from Osborn.
The independent candidate has given at least one interview to the publication in addition to posting its stories on social media. Osborn’s campaign wasn’t aware of “the background of this publication”
The newspaper represents “a dishonest attempt by out-of-state Democrats” to influence Nebraska elections, said Fischer campaign manager Derek Oden.
Bacon spokeswoman Danielle Jensen likened the paper to Soviet propaganda and said it would be best used as toilet paper.
“We have faith that Nebraskans will fact-check what they read and see through the BS,” she said in an email.
Dechant said he doesn’t have an issue with the newspaper being circulated in Nebraska, but the name “Independent” is misleading.
“You’re not from Nebraska, and there’s nothing independent about you,” the 32-year-old said.
Thomas Latchford took a slightly different view after receiving the paper at his west Omaha home. Though he found the articles to be “one note,” the 41-year-old thinks it could help persuade undecided voters.
If the newspaper’s goal is to influence voters, Dechant and Latchford said it didn’t work on them.
Dechant is leaning toward Trump. Latchford is voting for Harris.
“It didn’t do anything for me or anybody in the house,” Latchford said. “My girlfriend is doing the crossword puzzle. That’s probably the most we’ve used these for.”