Keller @ Large: Beware of 'pink slime' masquerading as news
The headline was shocking - a public school in Illinois implementing race-based grading.
It went viral - fast. Perhaps you saw it being denounced on YouTube or read about it on popular right-wing websites like Red State, Breitbart or The National Review.
One problem: The story is a fake.
A sketchy Illinois website launched it, with the story linking to a real school planning document that claims "traditional grading practices perpetuate inequities and intensify the opportunity gap" and proposes further examination of those practices. But school officials insist they have no plan to grade students based on race and no plans to make any such plans, and there's no evidence to the contrary.
So what went down here?
"These sites are designed from the bottom up to look like legitimate sources of local news," says Northeastern University journalism Professor Dan Kennedy. These so-called "pink slime" sites have become profitable for marketers and politicians and have proliferated in recent years.
And guess what? We have 14 of them around here at last count, including sites like "North Boston News" with a right-wing slant and a "politics" section with nothing but stories about donations to Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson. These are clues that the site is bogus, but with real local news sources drying up, some readers are vulnerable to confusion and deceit.
"If you have a legit source of local news in your community, you need to support it," says Kennedy. "If you don't, it may not be there when you need it, and instead, you'll be consuming pink slime."
So what can you do to keep from getting fooled by one of these sites?
If you're looking at something that isn't a known and trusted news source, seek out confirmation of what the headline is alleging. It took us just a couple of minutes to click on the link to that school planning document and read it for ourselves. Be sure what you're reading or hearing isn't just some rando on social media mouthing off.
And always remember the credo of the careful consumer: Buyer beware.