"Metric Media filed more than nine thousand public records requests last year. It used the data to target Democratic politicians and private citizens."
"Two days after the 2024 elections, Metric Media, the online publishing company, started filing thousands of public records requests. Metric, which operates a network of nearly twelve hundred news sites, sent letters to the governments of every city, town, and village in the state of Wisconsin—one thousand, one hundred, and fourteen requests in all. Every one asked for the same thing: a list of voters who had registered on Election Day.
“As a media organization, we are involved in gathering and reporting news to the public. Access to public records is essential for us to fulfill our professional responsibilities, which include holding public institutions accountable and providing transparency to the public,” NE Wisconsin News, a Metric website, wrote. The request also sought a fee waiver typically reserved for press outlets.
But Metric Media is not a traditional news company. Its network, which includes websites with innocuous-sounding names—such as the Chicago City Wire and Ohio’s Buckeye Reporter—has been accused of plagiarism and using fake bylines. The sites are designed to appear legitimate, but they are partisan outlets masquerading as local news—what is sometimes referred to as “pink slime” journalism."
Miranda Green reports for Columbia Journalism Review February 5, 2026.
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