The Markup, now a part of CalMatters, uses investigative reporting, data analysis, and software engineering to challenge technology to serve the public good.
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Markup → use → good
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that → sign → inbox
A conservative organization with decades of influence in California has quietly turned attention, and millions of dollars, to a national initiative of right-leaning news operations, records show.
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records → turn → operations
The Lincoln Club was established in the early 1960s by a group of California business leaders.
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Club → establish → leaders
Since then, it’s been a quiet but formidable force in state and local politics, pushing right-leaning causes and candidates.
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it → push → causes
But in the past few years, an affiliated organization, the Lincoln Media Foundation, has massively increased its incoming revenue as it pushes online content with a conservative slant under the guise of local news in markets around the country.
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it → increase → country
According to Internal Revenue Service disclosures, the foundation had a little more than $400,000 in net revenue for the fiscal year ending in 2021, all of it from contributions.
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all → accord → contributions
By the fiscal year ending in 2024, the most recent disclosure available, that revenue had ballooned almost 10 times, to nearly $4 million.
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revenue → end → million
In the same period, the Lincoln Club itself grew more modestly, not quite doubling its revenue to just over $3 million, according to records.
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Club → grow → records
According to independent research and promotional material produced by the club’s media foundation, its money has gone toward creating a network of websites across the country, with the hopes of influencing the public and swaying voters in key states.
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money → accord → states
Many of the sites, first flagged by the researcher Max Read of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, say they are locally organized, with names like The Angeleno and The Keystone Courier.
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they → flag → Angeleno
CalMatters and The Markup recently explored another site linked to the organization, called the California Courier, using the same name as an unrelated Armenian newspaper.
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CalMatters → explore → newspaper
The Courier produces a steady stream of often unattributed articles about political controversies throughout the state and pays Facebook to promote those posts and videos on similar topics.
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Courier → produce → topics
Critics say the group is attempting to influence the public with the veneer of local news that fails to offer clear disclosures about the messenger.
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that → say → messenger
Kevin DeLuca, an assistant professor of political science at Yale University who has studied similar news sites, sometimes called “pink slime” news, told The Markup and CalMatters earlier this year that such sites may not be outright lying.
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sites → study → Markup
Still, the sites often fall short of traditional journalistic standards, failing to properly attribute stories and funding, or heavily pulling and slanting press releases.
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sites → fall → releases
Jim Miller, a labor activist and co-author of a progressive history of San Diego, called the tactic “a menacing example of the use of stealth.”
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Miller → call → stealth
“If you don’t think you can win an argument in a transparent debate publicly,” he said, “you try to disguise the messenger as much as you can.”
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you → think → messenger
Neither the club nor the foundation responded to requests for comment or interviews with executives about its work.
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club → respond → work
The Lincoln Club of Orange County was established in the 1960s by wealthy local businessmen eager to spread pro-business Republican ideas locally and nationally.
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Club → establish → ideas
Those businessmen donated handsomely to sympathetic candidates and causes.
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businessmen → donate → candidates
The club became a power player in Southern California politics when Republicans had more leverage in the Golden State.
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Republicans → become → State
The group still boasts online of having counted among its ranks famous California political figures like Richard Nixon and John Wayne.
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group → boast → Nixon
A 1972 article in The New York Times described it as a group “made up largely of millionaires” who “boast that, without their efforts and generosity, [Nixon] would not be occupying the White House today.”
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Nixon → describe → House
The Times article described the group as an organization with “many secrets” that shunned publicity but successfully influenced the political scene.
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that → describe → scene
“I think they were very influential back in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” said Steve Earie, professor emeritus of political science at the University of California, San Diego.
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Earie → think → California
Could this mysterious California news site influence the 2026 election?
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site → influence → election
The California Courier uses the name of an established paper and doesn’t disclose apparent Republican ties.
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Courier → use → ties
Critics call it “pink slime”
By 1996, as the Los Angeles Times reported at the time, the group’s financial power had waned in the face of internal battles, but the club continued to wield influence.
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club → call → influence
The group, according to legal documents, partly funded the 2008 anti-Hillary Clinton documentary that became the subject of the landmark Citizens United Supreme Court decision that opened the door to unlimited spending by corporations and unions on elections.
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that → accord → elections
In 2012, the group was described as the key architect of Proposition 32, a ballot measure that would have severely curtailed the power of unions in the state by limiting their ability to collect and spend funds for political purposes.
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that → describe → purposes
The ballot measure ultimately failed.
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measure → fail → ?
Although its light may have dimmed from 50 years ago, the Lincoln Club still exerts influence in California politics.
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Club → dim → politics
“If you look on their website, they don’t start it talking about helping businesses, the quality of life,” Earie pointed out.
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Earie → look → life
“They talk about ‘preserving the American way of life.’
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They → talk → life
And that’s as much cultural as it is economic.”
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it → ’ → ?
Despite its old Republican roots, the group appears to have moved into a 21st-century online influence strategy with the Lincoln Media Foundation.
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group → appear → Foundation
According to a promotional video, the foundation uses targeted web ads to broadcast its message where it can reach key voters in battleground states.
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it → accord → states
In one recent LinkedIn post accompanying a video explanation of its work, the group says it acts as a corrective to “material omissions, alternative sets of facts, and outright lies” by the media.
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it → accompany → media
“Our country can’t stay free if we’re not informed with the truth,” the video reads, describing the group as a “megaphone” for “unbiased truth.”
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video → stay → truth
…and 13 more, not listed.
