Editor's note: This article has been updated to include a statement received Friday morning from Scott Christen, associate professor of communication studies and interim chair of the Department of Communication at Tennessee Tech.
A leader of a reported “pink slime” media publication has been hired to teach journalism at Tennessee Tech University, according to a Raw Story review of online records and sources familiar with the situation.
Kyle Barnett, who is publicly cited as a publisher and general manager associated with publications run by Metric Media — a network of more than 1,300 local “pay-for-play” media websites that is reportedly funded by conservative and specialist interest PACs to push political agendas — is slated to teach three undergraduate journalism classes at Tennessee Tech University for the upcoming Spring 2024 semester.
An online course catalog from Tennessee Tech — a public university with a student body of just over 10,000, according to its website — lists Barnett as the instructor for “mass comm/changing society,” “multimedia storytelling” and “advanced reporting.”
Raw Story reached out to more than half a dozen professors and administrators at Tennessee Tech to inquire about Barnett’s apparent hire. Most declined to comment or did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Barnett did not respond to Raw Story’s requests for comment.
“We're not at liberty to talk about our employees with external agencies,” said Kevin Vedder, associate vice president of human resources at Tennessee Tech University.
Jonathan Frank, director of news and public relations for Tennessee Tech, asked Raw Story to send an email about its inquiry, but Frank did not respond to numerous follow-up calls, texts and emails by the time of publication. Vedder confirmed Frank was the correct person to contact about the inquiry.
On Friday morning, after publication of this article, Frank sent a statement from Scott Christen, associate professor of communication studies and interim chair of the Department of Communication at Tennessee Tech.
"I appreciate the diligent work of my colleagues on the hiring committee who reached a decision to offer appointment to Mr. Kyle Barnett as a lecturer in our communication department next semester," Christen said. "Mr. Barnett is a Louisiana Press Association award-winning communicator who brings more than 15 years of experience to his role, ranging from his time as a reporter and producer for Clear Channel Media (now iHeartMedia), to his roles as lecturer at Grambling State University and professor of journalism at Oklahoma City Community College."
Mike Gotcher, dean of the College of Interdisciplinary Studies, which houses the communication department, and Lori Mann Bruce, provost and vice president for academic affairs, did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.
Members of the Department of Communication also did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment, including Brenda Wilson, director of journalism, Teddy Burch, an assistant professor and adviser for the student newspaper, The Oracle, and Russ Witcher, a professor.
‘How does this guy get through?’
Tennessee Tech’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors expressed concern Thursday about Barnett’s hire and its impact on the school’s reputation.
The decision “seems too preposterous to be real,” said a member of the organization who requested anonymity out of concern for their “personal and professional safety.”
ALSO READ: These healthcare nonprofits are accepting millions from Big Tobacco
“What I'm afraid of is that in the highly politicized, post-Trump public higher ed landscape, there are certain universities that want to position themselves as safe havens for right-wing organizing and right-wing ideas, and I think Tennessee Tech has clearly created a context where it is seen as kind of a public flagship for right-wing activism,” the AAUP member said.
Faculty search committees at the university are "incredibly rigorous" with "legal and professional guardrails," the member said. “How does this guy get through the search committee?”
The member added: “I had a colleague forward me the text of an email where a supervisor had advised Tennessee Tech faculty to not speak to the press. The direct supervisor is actually putting a ‘gag order’ of sorts, if you will, on Tennessee Tech faculty to even discuss this matter.”
‘Pink slime’ and ‘pay-for-play’ news
Barnett worked for a publication owned by Metric Media, which The New York Times reported is a “pay-for-play” media network owned by a former reporter turned conservative businessman Brian Timpone.
Metric Media, the New York Times reported, allows conservative operatives to direct editorial content for its clients on local news websites.
Timpone did not respond to raw Story’s request for comment.
The Columbia Journalism Review calculated that Metric Media received at least $1.6 million from three PACs in the 2022 election cycle.
ALSO READ: Nazis bullied a conservative Tennessee town. Locals punched back. Trump should be worried.
The PACs were the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, which is largely funded by West Texas oil billionaires and recently reported by the Texas Tribune to have met with white supremacist, Nick Fuentes; the People Who Play by the Rules PAC, an anti-Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker PAC run by Republican radio host and former Illinois gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft and largely funded by Richard Uihlein, a Republican mega-donor and founder of shipping company Uline; and Restoration PAC, which Uihlein also funds.
“The concern, of course, arises from the fact that there's a complete lack of transparency in terms of who’s funding them, which candidates they're working with, and which political action committees they're working with,” said Priyanjana Bengani, Tow Computational Journalism Fellow at the Columbia Journalism School, who has extensively investigated Metric Media for the Columbia Journalism Review.
Jeffrey Blevins, a professor of journalism at the University of Cincinnati, said Metric Media is the “biggest and most prominent” example of what’s called “pink slime” journalism, where outlets purport to produce local news, but the content is poor quality, often computer generated or created by low-wage workers who don't necessarily live in the communities they're covering.
The term "pink slime" originally comes from the food industry, which at times uses the term to describe certain meat by-products criticized as substandard food that people shouldn't consume.
“Pink slime” news outlets often don’t uphold journalistic standards of fact checking, balanced sourcing and unbiased language, in addition to lacking proper grammar and journalistic style, Blevins said.
“It really goes against the fundamentals of journalism. I even have a hard time referring to it as journalism,” Blevins said.
Of Metric Media, Bengani said, “They have 1,200 to 1,300 websites across the country right now, but if you look at all of the websites, they are all using the same handful of authors across all the states. The approach is the reporters don’t need to belong to the community they’re covering. That’s not really local news.”
Timpone has a history of owning companies that have been questioned for their journalistic practices.
In June 2012, “This American Life” reported on Timpone’s company Journatic that was allegedly outsourcing content production to low-wage writers in the Philippines and then using fake bylines and made-up quotes, Bengani said. Journatic rebranded to Locality Labs, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.
Other Timpone-owned companies include Advantage Informatics and Local Government Information Services, which the Washington Post investigated this year for its lack of transparency around placing conservative operative and political action committee content with its Illinois media outlets.
Raw Story tried to reach Barnett at the phone number for Mount Vernon News, which covers Knox County, Ohio, where Barnett has previously been referred to as its publisher. When connected to the circulation department, “Carol,” who declined to give her last name, said she did not think Barnett worked as the publisher anymore.
“I am not sure because he is out of state,” “Carol” said. “I'm not sure his capacity in the business now.”
“Carol” at the Mount Vernon News shared with Raw Story an Advantage Informatics email address for Barnett to get in touch with him, but he did not respond.
The Mount Vernon News’ contact page lists a "Carol Hess" in “Circulation/Accounts Payable/Receivable/Legal Advertising,” and it lists Barnett as the sports editor.
While not written by Barnett, The Upper Cumberland Times, another Metric Media outlet, has published numerous favorable stories about Tennessee Tech.
Blevins said a university hiring someone associated with a “pink slime” news outfit adds to an “uphill battle” that journalists face in a current climate of “hatred and distrust” about the media.
“This is very likely to muddle the waters even further if your institutions of higher learning, universities and colleges, can't make better assessments. That is really troubling,” Blevins said.
Who is Barnett?
Barnett’s byline is active on the website of the Mount Vernon News, which is owned by Metric Media.
As recently as Tuesday, he published a story, “Reaper Valley Tactical’s Jacobs offers expert tips on muzzleloading season,” which ended with a sales pitch from the company.
Another recent article from Barnett published on Dec. 4 offers a one-source story about a talk by a fellow from the conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, about how “solar won't stop climate change.”
On Aug. 5, 2020, a letter from Barnett, who identified himself as the Mount Vernon News’ publisher, served as an introduction to the newspaper community amidst the change in ownership for the paper, which was locally owned for 80 years.
A screen grab from the Mount Vernon News website showing Kyle Barnett's most recent bylines.
“Starting today, the Mount Vernon News will be moving to a two-day-a-week publication, providing our readership with a print version full of local news and features,” Barnett wrote. “We may be scaling back our printing, but we are going to bring increased coverage each and every week to what is important here in Mount Vernon.”
Barnett continued, “We promise to deliver more local news in 2 days than what you received before in 6 days.”
Three days before Barnett’s letter, the Mount Vernon News announced the new ownership, quoting Barnett as the “general manager” for Metric Media.
The article quoted Barnett saying: “Our corporate mission is to re-build community news in America. We believe Mount Vernon is a great place to start.”
Barnett’s byline recently appeared in other Metric Media publications such as the Florida Record. His latest article, published on Friday, was headlined: “U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz on the Free Speech Protection Act: ‘Americans must be able to freely express their opinions without fear of censorship’.”
A January 2022 article by Barnett, which appeared in another Metric Media publication, the South Columbus News, which covers the Columbus, Ohio, area, was titled: “'Under the bus': DeWine opponent attacks governor's push to force Ohio National Guard vaccinations,” referring to Mike DeWine, the Republican governor of Ohio.
The “About Us” page for the South Columbus news says Metric Media was “established to fill the void in community news after years of decline in local reporting by legacy media.”
“Our approach is to provide objective, data-driven information without political bias. We provide 100% original reporting, including to share as much data as possible from government and other publicly available sources,” the website continued. “We also provide a platform for all citizens whose views on issues are rarely heard. If you want a voice in your community, we want to hear from you.”
‘Oil and water:’ Barnett’s teaching history
Barnett has worked as a journalism professor before.
He taught at Oklahoma City Community College from October 2021 to August 2022, according to Erika Williams, a journalism professor at the school who worked with Barnett.
She said she temporarily left the college in part due to her experience working with Barnett.
At Oklahoma City Community College, Barnett was hired as a journalism professor and faculty adviser to the student newspaper. Williams was a staff adviser to the student paper at the time, she said. Barnett didn’t supervise Williams, but she said he treated her like a subordinate, which created tension.
“It was just kind of like oil and water just trying to get that working relationship where he was not taking on like a boss role and more of a colleague role,” Williams said.
When Williams was hired as an adjunct professor, Barnett tried to stop it, she said.
“He wrote an email to the president telling her that I was unqualified, and that hiring me was going to set back the entire department,” Williams said, pointing out that she and Barnett had the same level of education at the time. “I actually have a higher education level now. At the time, I was being hired to teach, and I have taught in the past, so there was no reason really for him to say that, and so I just feel like there was a lack of respect the entire time.”
Barnett is listed on an Oklahoma City Community College faculty and staff website page as having a master of arts from the University of Illinois, Springfield, a bachelor of arts from Southeast Missouri State University and an associate of arts from Moberly Area Community College.
Williams did not know the reason for Barnett’s departure and the college spokespeople did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.
When asked about Barnett’s ability to teach objective journalism, Williams said his work “seemed fine,” and she didn’t remember any time that he was ever “pushing a certain agenda necessarily.”
But the website for the student newspaper, the OCCC Pioneer, had ongoing IT issues, Williams said, and Barnett “decided to make one himself and then the ads that were run on it were really conservative.” Currently the OCCC Pioneer website is not accessible since a “security certificate expired 430 days ago,” according to a browser message seen when Raw Story tried to access the site.
When Williams returned to the college she also noticed the newspaper staff had changed to all male students while under Barnett’s direction, despite the presence of female students at the time of her departure.
During her time as staff adviser, Williams said female students expressed concerns that Barnett “questioned them more,” which she said “I did my best to handle it” and brought the issue to HR.
Barnett wrote commentary on May 25, 2022, for CapitolBeat OK, where the editor’s note says, “Kyle Barnett is a veteran, award-winning journalist and media executive who serves as Professor of Journalism at Oklahoma City Community College. Be forewarned, if anyone lays a finger on his reporters there will be hell to pay, you can guarantee that.”
Williams knew about Barnett’s connection to Metric Media due to her own research, but she said she wasn’t sure if the college’s department chair of arts who hired them was aware of the company’s reputation. Williams was not aware of Barnett’s move to Tennessee Tech, which she said made her “very surprised” and was “a little bit interesting and frustrating.”
“I just hope Tennessee Tech is feeling good, or maybe he's changed, and I hope it works out for them because I know it's a good program,” Williams said.
Prior to teaching at the community college, Barnett taught at Grambling State University in Louisiana.
“He was here years before I was hired,” Tisha D. Arnold, director of strategic communications and marketing, wrote to Raw Story via email. “The Dean was also not here at the time Mr. Barnett was employed.”
Arnold declined to comment further and did not confirm his dates of employment.
Coursicle, a college course scheduling app, listed that Barnett taught “mass media writing and editing,” “specialized reporting” and “web writing and development” from 2019 to 2021. A course catalog dated from July 2021 listed Barnett as a lecturer.
Barnett is listed in an employee directory as a “lecturer 1” and production manager for The Gramblinite, the student newspaper.
