Pinehurst Today: One of 1,200 AI-generated media outlets seeks to influence voters

According to Media Bias/Fact Check, (MBFC) Pinehurst Today is a questionable source of news with mixed ratings for bias and credibility.

Pinehurst Today is a free online algorithm-generated news source that does not identify the editor and sometimes identifies journalists, but only with initials and a last name. This makes feedback challenging and fogs transparency.

This editorial explores ethics in journalism and shows that legality does not justify practice.

The fact-checking website supporting this investigation is widely used. MBFC’s website reads it “relies on human evaluators to determine the bias of media sources and the level of overall factual reporting through a combination of objective measures and subjective analysis using our stated methodology.” Dave Van Zandt is the founder of MBFC and is the primary editor for sources.

On Feb. 7, Sandhills News used Pinehurst Today’s contact form to request answers and it has not responded. It is now late June. It also reached out to the “editor” of Pinehurst Today and has not received a reply.

Meanwhile, a simple investigation revealed a lack of humanistic qualities and the presence of repeated bias in its articles, which is known as propaganda, pushing one idea.

The subject of raising children to form empathy is personal and humanistic, yet the article on Pinehurst Today, “President of League of American Workers: ‘Our children are not being formed with the character to function as responsible and loving adults’” is shallow and void of the human qualities a journalist would induce. Read it here.

The article promotes school choice vouchers and open enrollment, which are subjects of ongoing political debate. The article quotes Steve Cortes, a strategist who directed Republican campaigns and served as Hispanic outreach lead for Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns. However, the article omits opposing viewpoints, which biases it toward the Republican Party.

This article and the majority of its other articles are geared toward making the Republican Party grow, which suggests Pinehurst Today is propaganda, not journalism.

Journalism promotes a voice for all sides.

Pinehurst Today pushes the Republican agenda. For example, the following Pinehurst Today articles have one voice—for the Republican Party. “Hudson and Crenshaw reintroduce Protect Medicaid Act targeting state loopholes” does not include an opponent’s viewpoint. The media outlet publishes donations to Republican candidates, like Diane Wheatle, and Dan Forest, exemplifying the party as popular, as in “Randall Phillips from Pinehurst contributes a total of $250 to Republican Party candidate Mike Hardin.” It continually publishes articles on bills submitted by Republicans but not those submitted by Democrats.

Although concise writing is prized in journalism, transitional words and sentences and stacking information as it relates one topic to the next are missing. It reads like an outline or rough draft with its formulaic tone.

For example, the article lists sources: Carolina Journal, Holly Springs Update, Gallup/WCPSS survey data, ERIC archives, and the Panorama platform, but does not contextualize these sources. Meaning, it does not give an inference, such as showing why the source is important. The “because” sentences on why it matters to one’s quality-of-life are missing. Sometimes the reason a source is important is simple and blatant and does not need explaining, and sometimes AI is instructed to simply list sources.

AI Benefits in Journalism

AI-generated articles speedily provide blurbs of data for busy readers. But have they been fact-checked by editors? AI makes mistakes.

For journalists, AI tools process large chunks of data much quicker, so they can focus on analysis and investigation. Combined with ethics, AI can speed the process of quality work without bias or sounding robotic.

Problems stumble in when AI phishes data with information requests and exposes personal information and that poses safety threats.

Who is the founder of Pinehurst Today?

Readers cannot locate the founder or editor on Pinehurst Today. The “About” page purports the news outlet is their “trusted source” and lists its covered subjects.

Pinehurst Today is the product of Locality Labs, founded by Brian Timpone, CEO and Chairman. LinkedIn shares Locality Labs is “a leading producer of content for local media companies, marketers, and digital publishers. Founded the company in May 2006.”

Locality Labs’ website reads that it is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) expert and provides data collection services from federal, state and local governments and forms it into articles for its clients.

MBFC reveals that Metric Media LLC, founded in 2019, (a timely pre-election year when candidates raise funds), has a network of 1,000+ conservative-leaning “news outlets”, including Pinehurst Today, Auburn Times, Jonesboro Times and Tucson Standard. Each “About” page has the same information.

This investigation discovered that Metric Media has 1,200 media outlets.

It may be reasonably assumed that collected FOIA information requested by Locality Labs is fed into AI programs focused on algorithms to find subjects in specific locations to generate Metric Media LLC’s articles, including Pinehurst Today.

Brian Timpone’s History and Life Influences

Depending on perspective, when reading over Timpone’s history, it seems he may be fulfilling his destiny or serving the Republican Party or both.

Timpone graduated from Marian Catholic High School in Illinois and earned a bachelor’s in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia before he “surprisingly” snagged the position as the “personal spokesman for Lee Daniels” in 1997, as stated in Diane Ross’ article “Marian grad aide to House leader,” [a Republican] in Southtown Star.

The spokesman gig may have been the beginning of Timpone’s idea for growing the Republican Party through media.

Timpone’s LinkedIn profile shares he worked with “Governor Jim Edgar, Legislative leaders Michael Madigan, Pate Philip, Emil Jones and Lee Daniels” in 1996-1997 through WCIA-TV (CBS).

Each of the aforementioned politicians delt with public controversy over less than ethical choices.

In this political environment, Timpone would have been exposed to many political contacts, yet the major supporter for his media endeavor may stem from his Catholic education.

The Oct. 2024 article by Jennifer Smith Richards and Megan O’Matz, “Who’s Mailing the Catholic Tribune? It’s Not the Church, It’s Partisan Media,” published by ProPublica, reveals Brian Timpone’s financial ties. “His brother, Michael Timpone, also leads a media company at the address listed on the Catholic Tribune papers… stories in the Catholic newspapers also were published on websites operated by Metric Media…Metric Media’s sister companies were paid nearly $6.4 million in 2021 and 2022 by the nonprofit Restoration of America and its Restoration PAC, campaign finance and tax records show. Uihlein [Catholic owned] has donated about $125 million to Restoration PAC since 2020… Tax records show that CatholicVote in turn has paid companies in the Metric network about $827,000 since 2020. Turnout for America paid CatholicVote $200,000 and one of Brian Timpone’s companies $250,000 for “media services.”

What’s at stake?

Carolina Journalism Review published a Feb. 5, 2026, article, “How ‘Pink Slime’ Publishers Are Weaponizing FOIA” by Miranda Green. She writes, “Two days after the 2024 elections, Metric Media, the online publishing company, started filing thousands of public records [FOIA] 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.”

Personal information within voter records has been published through the release of information from FOIA requests.

Green’s article shares that an attorney for Metric Media, Edward Weinhaus, said, “…all public records should be fair game.”

How to stop the madness

Perhaps the House will revise FOIA laws to exclude voter records. A handful of states have bills in place or in progress to restrict voter information in FOIA requests: Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, and Utah.

North Carolina, House Bill 788, led by Democrats, is now in the committee reading process. It aims to make personal information in voter records attained under FOIA and some similar methods confidential.

It is not a standalone Bill.

Bill 788 includes a proposal that, if passed, would redraw state and congressional districts after each census and omit the legislature’s role in map-making to make voting nonpartisan. Districts would be in somewhat equal proportions, and they would try to prevent splitting counties.

While Democrats want the maps redrawn, many Republicans like the district maps because they sometimes create areas where Republicans are likely to win, and that helps GOP legislators maintain control of the state and U.S. House.

Yet it is safe to bet a penny that neither political party wants private information published, but the Republicans have control and the bill is not likely to pass, according to longtime Republican leaders who wished to remain anonymous.

Suing has not stopped the FOIA misuse.

St. Louis Public Radio’s March 2025 article by Dave McKinney, “Illinois AG settles lawsuit against company that published voters’ personal information,” shares Democratic Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a lawsuit because publishing the information “posed ‘a grave threat to certain classes of individuals, such as domestic violence victims, judges, and law enforcement officers, whose safety will be endangered by having their private information published on the internet.’”

No one claimed any monies in the settlement. LGIS did not admit to wrongdoing.

McKinney writes, “A Lake County judge ordered the restricted voter data be removed from LGIS’ websites shortly after the lawsuit was filed, and the company complied… An analysis of more than 30 of LGIS’ websites also identified home addresses for those involved in a high-profile federal narcotics case involving a foreign drug cartel, prosecutors involved in public corruption cases, prominent Illinois-based actors and musicians, Chicago sports luminaries, and several billionaires… LGIS dissolved on Jan. 10, 2025, according to the Illinois secretary of state’s office.”

What about the misuse of AI to push biased news, phishing, algorithm targeting, and lack of transparency? People are reading Pinehurst Today and its 1,199 sister platforms, and it programs people to believe their perspective alone. Do citizens truly want the government to create laws that control what information is available? In America, it is fair to assume citizens prefer reputable media outlets to educate them on how to choose unbiased, trustworthy news. 

Draining Metric Media’s 1,200 outlets of reader support would send a clear message that readers want both sides of a story and do not appreciate robotic brainwashing.

Local media outlets, like Sandhills News, with human faces and transparency, provide local coverage with contact information for citizens to reach editors. Several outlets provide transparent reporting, including Sandhills Sentinel, The Sanford Herald, The Pilot, Seven Lakes News, The Pinehurst Gazette, Southern Pines Today and The Daily Record in Harnett County.

Without media accountability and open communication, citizens face a dark space in a robotic world programmed to brainwash the population into believing there is only one way to look at a subject.

June 28, 2026

Stephanie M. Sellers

Submit news tips, events and interview requests to editor@sandhills.news.

Sandhills News is plain-English local government reporting that explains how decisions affect your land, taxes, schools and rights.