Last week, Jem Bartholomew and Dhrumil Mehta of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism published an absolute must-read in the Columbia Journalism Review, exploring how Cowboy State Daily, a conservative media outlet funded by Daily Caller donor Foster Friess, has filled a growing Wyoming news desert with climate disinformation:
“Tow Center analysis of Cowboy State Daily content found the five most commonly cited institutes/think tanks in energy stories all had links to climate denial. These were: the Heartland Institute (mentioned in fourteen articles), Manhattan Institute (eleven), American Petroleum Institute (ten), Institute for Energy Research (ten) and Competitive Enterprise Institute (seven). All five appear in nonprofit DeSmog’s Climate Disinformation Database, which tracks organizations that ‘delay and distract’ on the need to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.”
And like so many others in the right-wing, billionaire-funded disinfosphere, Cowboy State Daily is making explicit use of anti-trans rhetoric:
“Per Tow Center analysis, the outlet has published 129 articles mentioning the word ‘transgender’ in 2023 so far, almost double the 68 found from 2022. That’s not necessarily significant given the national and statewide uptick in interest in trans rights this year. But our analysis also found numerous instances where Cowboy State Daily reporting on trans communities used tropes the Trans Journalists Association’s style guide says perpetuate ‘harmful cliches and stereotypes.’”
There's plenty more, so please go give the deep-dive analysis a full read.
But if you really need to TL;DR, here's their conclusion:
“In this sense, Wyoming’s experience—declining local news, a vacuum of good information, a mega-rich partisan setting up a news outlet that has pushed anti-trans views and climate misinformation—is an alarm bell for the rest of America. If local news cannot find a route to sustainability, actors with cash and questionable motives are free to inject their talking points into the political bloodstream. It’s a warning for where we’re heading as news deserts take hold.”