On the trail of ‘pink slime’

The Kicker

The network of websites that pose as local news outlets but aren’t has grown exponentially in the run up to next year’s midterm elections. Who funds the sites, and how can we track them? And why are they called “pink slime”? On this week’s Kicker, Priyanjana Bengani, a senior research fellow at Columbia Journalism School's Tow Center for Digital Journalism, sits down with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss her study of these op-up sites, how to find and follow them, and what the phenomenon means in the face of ever-dwindling local news.