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How ‘Pink Slime’ Publishers Are Weaponizing FOIA

Columbia Journalism Review · Miranda Green · last updated

Metric Media filed more than nine thousand public records requests last year. It used the data to target Democratic politicians and private citizens.

Two days after the 2024 elections, Metric Media, the online publishing company, started filing thousands of public records requests. Metric, which operates a network of nearly twelve hundred news sites, sent letters to the governments of every city, town, and village in the state of Wisconsin—one thousand, one hundred, and fourteen requests in all. Every one asked for the same thing: a list of voters who had registered on Election Day.

“As a media organization, we are involved in gathering and reporting news to the public. Access to public records is essential for us to fulfill our professional responsibilities, which include holding public institutions accountable and providing transparency to the public,” NE Wisconsin News, a Metric website, wrote. The request also sought a fee waiver typically reserved for press outlets.

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