QUESTIONABLE SOURCE
A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency, and/or is fake news. Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for profit or influence (Learn More). Sources listed in the Questionable Category may be very untrustworthy and should be fact-checked on a per-article basis. Please note sources on this list are not considered fake news unless specifically written in the reasoning section for that source. See all Questionable sources.
- Overall, we rate The Tennessee Star Right biased and questionable based on a lack of transparency and acting as a propaganda imposter website through deceptive publishing tactics.
Detailed Report
Questionable Reasoning: Imposter Site, Lack of Transparency, Propaganda
Bias Rating: RIGHT
Factual Reporting: MIXED
Country: USA
Press Freedom Rating: MOSTLY FREE
Media Type: Website
Traffic/Popularity: Minimal Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: LOW CREDIBILITY
History
Founded in 2017, The Tennessee Star is a news and opinion website with a right-leaning bias in reporting. According to their about page, “We feature articles reporting news, politics, and policy at the state level, primarily from Tennessee. We round out our daily coverage with national stories and thoughtful commentary of interest to our readers.” According to an investigation by Snopes, The Tennessee Star is not a local newspaper but rather a front for “Tea Party-connected conservative activists: Michael Patrick Leahy and Christina Botteri.” Snopes details connections to conservative donors and PACS as well.
Read our profile on USA Media and Government.
Funded by / Ownership
The Tennessee Star is a “Delaware-registered company, Star News Digital Media, Inc., whose explicit strategy is to target battleground states with conservative news.” Under this company are the Ohio Star, Michigan Star, Battlegroundstatenews.com, and Minnesota Sun, essentially duplicating the Tennessee Star. Advertising generates revenue; however, Snopes goes in-depth on how they are funded.
Analysis / Bias
In review, The Tennessee Star presents news with a conservative bias through story selection that usually favors the right. All articles are properly sourced and generally use credible mainstream sources. There is some use of loaded words within news stories, but not excessive. The Tennessee Star has a far-right bias with frequent use of strong emotional loaded words that favor the right and denigrate the left.
Although The Tennessee Star is right-biased and generally factual, we cannot rate them High for factual reporting due to the source being exposed as a political activism website attempting to look like a local paper. For this reason, we rate them factually Mixed based on a lack of transparency and the promotion of propaganda.
Failed Fact Checks
- None in the Last 5 years
Overall, we rate The Tennessee Star Right biased and questionable based on a lack of transparency and acting as a propaganda imposter website through deceptive publishing tactics. (D. Van Zandt 10/26/2017) Updated (01/05/2023)
Source: http://tennesseestar.com/
Last Updated on July 1, 2023 by Media Bias Fact Check
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