One by one, Catholic dioceses in key presidential states are making extraordinary claims: Newspapers with the word “Catholic” in their titles showing up in people’s mailboxes are not what they seem and are not affiliated with the church .
With a classic typeface and traditional newspaper design, the Catholic Tribune mass newspapers bear the hallmarks of legitimacy. But most newspaper articles are inflammatory and overtly partisan, focusing on culture war issues that resonate with conservative voters.
A headline in the Wisconsin Catholic Tribune, reproduced in versions for other states, provocatively asks, “How many ‘gender reassignment’ mutilation surgeries have been performed on Wisconsin children?” Another: “Haitian illegals in America: What do Harris supporters say?”
At the same time, they undermine Vice President Kamala Harris and support former President Donald Trump, for example by reminding readers on the front page that anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father and uncle were among the most prominent Catholics in country,” Trump supported.
Dioceses and parishes in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin issued warnings about the publications. “It gives the impression that the Diocese of Grand Rapids or the Catholic Church is behind this newspaper,” diocese spokeswoman Annalize Laumiere told the Michigan Catholic Tribune.
She appealed to the local media to tag parishioners so they would not be misled. And because of the overtly partisan content, non-Catholics may have a troubling impression of the Catholic Church, she said.
The documents, which also appeared in Arizona and Pennsylvania, are called “pink slime” by scientists. The name comes from a filler in processed meats – or a product that isn’t quite what it seems.
Using tax and business records, ProPublica traced the documents to a Chicago-based publishing chain headed by former television reporter Brian Timpon. His companies are well-known, including Metric Media among researchers for spreading misinformation and biased coverage. The network received money from right-wing super PACs funded by conservative billionaires Richard Uline, founder of the giant Uline cargo company.
The Catholic Church does not endorse candidates or call for their defeat, but speaks out on moral issues and participates in public policy debates. Many dioceses publish newspapers, but they are non-partisan.
Dissociating itself from the Michigan Catholic Tribune, the Archdiocese of Detroit noted that tax-exempt churches are not allowed to participate in partisan politics under the Internal Revenue Code. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee sent Catholics to Fr Document of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference defining the principles of church participation in electoral politics.
Jason Bourget, a Catholic in the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, received a copy of the Wisconsin Catholic Tribune in the mail and immediately thought it was suspicious. He never asked for a newspaper or paid for a subscription.
“I threw it, along with all the other political ads, straight into the trash,” he said.
Similar documents were sent to state residents ahead of the 2020 and 2022 election cycles. They have also been seen in past elections in Arizona and Iowa. There are Catholic Tribune websites registered for all 50 states, as well as one national version, but most of them don’t seem to have published anything in months, if at all. It is unclear how many documents were sent out this year.
Timpone did not respond to requests for comment or questions from ProPublica.
In an age of crowded “pink slime” sites, elaborate AI-generated hoaxes, and outlandish conspiracy theories engulfing social media, newspapers are a throwback to low-tech disinformation tactics.
But they are not uncommon in the Metric Media universe. ProPublica, in collaboration with the nonprofit news organization Floodlight and Columbia University’s Center for Digital Journalism, recently reported on disinformation campaign against solar energy in Ohio with the help of Metric Media, which included distribution of a similarly obscure newspaper, the Ohio Energy Reporter. It shares the same mailing address as the Catholic Tribune newspapers.
Metric Media and its subsidiaries operate more than 1,100 local news websites across the country. The Michigan and Wisconsin Catholic Tribunes’ return address matches the business mailing address of companies in the Metric Media network, ProPublica found.
Timpone, who lives in Illinois and has contributed to conservative campaigns and causes, heads Metric Media. His brother, Michael Timpon, also runs a media company at the address listed in the Catholic Tribune papers, and he headed the Metric Media affiliate that published similar documents in previous election cycles. Michael Timpon also did not respond to a request for comment.
ProPublica’s analysis shows that stories in Catholic newspapers were also published on Metric Media’s websites. Almost every story has no reporter, so it’s impossible to tell who wrote it.
Metric Media affiliates received nearly $6.4 million in 2021 and 2022 from the nonprofit Restoration of America and its Restoration PAC. Uihlein donated about $125 million in the Restoration PAC starting in 2020. Wiline did not respond to ProPublica’s questions or a request for comment.
Restoration also funded CatholicVote, another super PAC nonprofit that acts on behalf of the laity, not the church. He supports conservative political causes. Tax filings show that CatholicVote, in turn, paid companies in Metric’s network about $827,000 since 2020.
In August, Restoration PAC sent $2.5 million to another right PAC called Turnout for America, according to recent campaign finance filings. And then in September, Turnout for America paid CatholicVote $200,000 and one of Brian Timpono’s companies $250,000 for “media services.”
CatholicVote officials did not respond to questions for this story. The organization features prominently in Catholic Tribune materials. The paper, distributed in Michigan, has three stories with quotes from Jackie Eubanks, CatholicVote’s regional director for the state. Eubanks ran unsuccessfully for the Michigan House in 2022 in a campaign that called for ban on contraception and same-sex marriage. Trump supported her.
Eubanks told ProPublica that she was not familiar with the Catholic Tribune and had never spoken to their reporters. She said the quotes were ones she gave to her employer, CatholicVote, including one in which she said “nothing good” could come from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz being elected vice president. “My employer must have put it in some kind of press release, email or text message,” she said.
A devout Catholic, Eubanks said her politics stem directly from her faith. “If the Catholic Church teaches it,” she said, “that is my belief.”
The newspaper caused confusion among some Catholic parishioners until the church leadership issued a statement.
“Thanks, I thought that was pretty amazing. Gonna shred it,” said one Facebook commenter in Reno, Nevada, in response to her parish’s confirmation that the Nevada Catholic Tribune is not an affiliate.
In other families, including non-Catholic ones, the newspapers caused irritation and anger.
Ingrid Fournier, a Lutheran, was confused when it arrived at her home.
“We live in Michigan, in no man’s land,” she said of their home in Branch, about 90 minutes northwest of Grand Rapids.
She took to Facebook to see if anyone else in her circle had received a copy.
“This is a DJT propaganda nightmare,” she wrote. “Everyone offended me. Single. page. In fact, every article was wild.”
Some who have obtained the documents are questioning why the Catholic Church has not been more forceful in condemning the lies and hateful rhetoric in the publication, which includes allegations that Democrats were responsible for the assassination attempt on Trump. The full page appears to be designed to incite hostility, allegedly quoting Harris supporters praising Haitians, calling Midwesterners “white trash” and “crying lazy fentanyl addicts.”
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Detroit told ProPublica, “We do not want to draw undue attention to the publication by discussing the specific content, other than to reiterate that we do not endorse it.”
The fact that the Catholic Tribune mimics the look and feel of a traditional newspaper means it can attract more attention than “pink slime” online outlets, said Ben Lyons, a University of Utah assistant professor who studies partisan disinformation. It is, in a sense, “credential hacking,” posing as a local news source affiliated with the Catholic Church, he said.
Internet sites with “pink slime” tend to reach a small number of readers, Lyons said. Door-to-door mailings increase the likelihood that they will be noticed, especially by older voters. That tactic “could potentially be more impactful than a lot of the random stuff we see floating around,” he said.
While most evangelical Christians remain firmly in Trump’s corner, the Catholic vote is less favorable. In the 2020 presidential election, Catholic voters were about evenly split, with 49% backing Trump and 50% voting for Joe Biden. Pew Research Center. It notes that 1 in 5 US adults identify as Catholic. Biden is the second Catholic president in US history. Republican Vice Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance, converted to Catholicism five years ago.
Catholic Tribunes highlights Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s role as a Trump supporter. At the end of the article in the Michigan publication, it is noted: “His Catholic background and political positions may motivate Catholic voters who are undecided or are looking for candidates who reflect”
The sentence ends abruptly, without a period, and the story never continues on the next page.
