West Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn has poured millions into conservative politics, seeking to push the Texas GOP further to the right since at least 2007. His involvement in intraparty conflicts is well documented, as is his funding of the now-defunct Empower Texans PAC, a conservative advocacy group that closed in 2020, and its spin-off publication, Texas Scorecard. In recent years, Dunn’s involvement in right-wing media has gone from arms-length funding to hands-on involvement, according to a newly released report by researchers at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism (CDJ) at Columbia University.
Recently uncovered documents show that in 2020, Dunn was named a managing director of Pipeline Media, part of a network of companies that manage thousands of local news sites across the country. Most publicly associated with the company Metric Media and conservative businessman Brian Timpone, Pipeline has received funding from multiple right-wing dark-money groups and PACs whose policy positions and candidates it promotes. None of these connections are disclosed by these sites, which can easily be mistaken for independent local news sites. Timpone’s various media enterprises operate as a conglomerate of corporations that share several executives and whose websites share digital identifiers: Metric Media, Newsinator (alias Franklin Archer), Local Government Information Services (LGIS), Pipeline Media (alias LocalityLabs or LocalLabs). Each company claims ownership over different parts of the network.
“While trust in news is declining and partisan antipathy is on the rise, both the left and the right are attempting to use any and all tactics to get their desired electoral outcomes,” writes Priyanjana Bengani, author of the CDJ report.
