States Newsroom is the Radical Left’s Mouthpiece for Local News

States Newsroom was spawned by the Arabella “dark money” network to help turn swing states blue. Its claims of being nonpartisan and neutral is cover for a darker agenda: Normalizing the far Left’s control of politics.

Leftist megadonors are working to turn reliably red-leaning states into blue liberal bastions using the Left’s most powerful “dark money” empire.

This is States Newsroom, an operation created in secret by the Arabella Advisors network with funding from partisan interests under the guise of nonpartisan reporting. In reality, these publications generate biased coverage of major issues hoping to trick moderates and center-right voters into defecting from the Republican Party.

States Newsroom has already undergone a rebranding from its original title—the Newsroom Network—and even tried to mask its original intent by removing a job posting that revealed its true mission: To push “progressive” politics onto the public.

With a national bureau in Washington, DC, state-based publications are doing the group’s dirty work on the local level by covering LGBTQ politics, gun control, the green energy scam, healthcare, free speech, education indoctrination, illegal immigration, “racial justice,” and more.  

Who Pays the Bills?

The Arabella-run Hopewell Fund launched States Newsroom in 2019 with funding from unknown donors. PolitiFact supposedly debunked George Soros’ connection to this effort by downplaying his involvement in supporting one of the network’s local chapters, the Missouri Independent, and other local outlets through the Hopewell Fund.

This “centrist” image, embraced by donors and the mainstream media, clashes with a job posting from the States Newsroom’s early days for a position in the pivotal swing state of North Carolina. It referred to the group as a “progressive political journalism startup,” which lines up with Soros’ beliefs and contradicts its message of nonpartisanship. The job post was ultimately taken down.

This highlights how groups like these are dedicated to flipping a red-leaning state like North Carolina into a Democratic stronghold. Recall that the race there between Joe Biden and President Trump was tight in 2020, with Trump only carrying the state by about 1.3 percent.

Despite Republicans’ control of the North Carolina state legislature, Democrats occupy the governor’s mansion and control the Secretary of State and Attorney General’s offices.

States Newsroom was also the recipient of a $1 million donation in 2020 from the Wyss Foundation—a massive force in “progressive” politics, focused on extreme environmentalism and other nefarious policies. The billionaire behind the foundation is Hansjörg Wyss, a member of the Democracy Alliance and recently labeled the new George Soros.

In 2021, Wyss bid $680 million on Tribune Publishing, the news conglomerate that owns the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Orlando Sentinel, and other major newspapers. The bid (thankfully) failed. Yet like most radical operatives, he had a backup plan: Target smaller localities across the nation instead.

His involvement even drew criticism from the New York Times in an article entitled: “Top Bidder for Tribune Newspapers Is an Influential Liberal Donor”: 

The Wyss Foundation has donated to media organizations structured as nonprofit groups. One of them, States Newsroom, a group of news sites based in state capitals, received $1 million from the Wyss Foundation last year.

That article cited NewsGuard, a media watchdog that analyzes the credibility of news outlets, which pointed out that “State Newsroom’s journalism had been ‘bought by people with a political agenda.’”

Expanding Faster Than the Universe

There’s hardly a state in nation without some type of media presence connected to States Newsroom. The only areas listed without any current connections are South Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Maine and of course—deep blue Illinois and California (though the night is still young).

Everywhere the goal remains the same: Lean on local press outlets to turn moderate areas blue, while slowly turning red areas purple, helping push them into the toss-up column for Democrats.  

Same Message, Different Wrappers

In 2019, States Newsroom spun off from the Hopewell Fund as an independent nonprofit. Yet it continued to receive funding the Hopewell Fund, raising the obvious question: How “independent” is it?

We know that the Arabella network pours out billions of dollars in contributions from the Left’s top donors and foundation, funds which supported States Newsroom’s journalism.

We also know that in 2021 States Newsroom granted $310,00 to the North Carolina Justice Center, $225,000 to the Maine People’s Resource Center, and $250,000 to Maryland Matters, all left-wing groups.

Part of the North Carolina Justice Center’s mission statement reads like a pamphlet from Saul Alinksy:

The North Carolina Justice Center is one of the state’s preeminent voices for economic and social justice. As a leading progressive research and advocacy organization, our mission is to eliminate poverty in North Carolina by ensuring that every household in the state has access to the resources, services, and fair treatment it needs to achieve economic security.

The Maine People’s Resource Center isn’t much better, describing itself as a champion of “progressive social change.”

Where Else Has the Hydra Struck?

Politically, Ohio has been heavily conservative over the past several cycles. Yet Barack Obama carried it in 2012 and it remains a checkmate state for the Left. Much like Texas, if Ohio were to flip for Democrats in 2024 the Republican nominee’s path to victory would rapidly evaporate. Hence the activity in the ruby-red Midwest.

The Ohio Capital Journal is States Newsroom’s local affiliate, drawing the attention of Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue in Columbus. He pointed out the potential for bias in a tweet last month, showing that the same group that funded an effort to help advance abortion “rights,” was also the same source of funding for the Capital Journal.

The Pennsylvania Capital-Star, another States Newsroom affiliate, has a homepage that would rival the Huffington Post. Recent headlines included how Democrats were helping extend child care grant programs, an article friendly to removing President Donald Trump from the ballot in several states, and a glowing piece about Joe Biden’s 9/11 commemoration visit—to Alaska.

The Wisconsin Examiner was identical in layout to the Capital-Star, with almost every national story matching up. Its local coverage centered on Milwaukee County becoming a “sanctuary for LGBTQ people” and state Republican attempts to impeach newly minted State Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz—whose victory helped flip the court to a liberal majority for the first time in 15 years.

States Newsroom’s Arizona Mirror ran a headline calling the impeachment of Joe Biden “baseless,” supporting the White House narrative that it’s merely a political stunt. Another article covered an appeal to thwart an abortion ban, while yet another highlighted “far-right Christian lawmakers.” The federal coverage remained in sync with States Newsroom partners, as did the overall messaging of the Georgia Recorder and Virginia Mercury.

Strangely enough, there was also a heavy focus on States Newsroom gaining a presence in Alaska by opening there in 2022. Despite Alaska being deeply red, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski is considered a moderate and oftentimes governs as a liberal, opening the door to influence peddling and cheap media tricks. 

Another glaring similarity: Each local affiliate pushed stories about getting the next round of “CDC recommended” booster shots for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Get Informed, Vet Your News, Spread the Word

Left-wing mega-donors, Soros included, are no strangers to propping up media that would have otherwise failed. He was credited with helping save VICE News, continues his support of groups that help the aforementioned local outlets and has also purchased nearly 20 Spanish language stations throughout Florida. This effort by him and his cronies is likely to continue.

The best defense against such deception is to be informed on who is financially supporting the sources you get your news from. Money talks. It seems States Newsroom affiliates are listening.

Using websites like InfluenceWatch.org and tracking their bias can serve as an important countermeasure.

Supporting new alternatives is another way to push back. Tucker Carlson has taken his talents to X (formerly Twitter) to circumvent the dying cable news industry. Why not take a page from his book and begin circulating news from podcast hosts, independent content creators, and journalists who cover events on the scene? Start relying on other means and individuals who aren’t beholden to radicals.

The last line of defense is to become a citizen-journalist.

Hidden cameras are cheap, easy to operate, and difficult to detect. Wearing them into school board meetings, public hearings, classrooms, workplaces, churches, and other areas of importance would help create stories that are not easily manipulated.

They would be caught on tape for all to see, in black and white, destroying the current smoke screen left-wing writers and commentators seek to create, while helping open the eyes of the public in perpetuity.