Chatbots cite partisan local-news lookalikes in nearly half of tested answers
The study shows how source selection inside answer engines can turn low-transparency political outlets into apparently authoritative news suppliers.
A NewsGuard audit found seven leading chatbots cited undisclosed-partisan ‘pink slime’ sites in 48.2% of 168 responses to prompts tied to election coverage in six battleground states. The sites were the only sources cited in 7.7% of answer text, though other links appeared in source lists, and just one response identified a cited outlet as partisan. By laundering advocacy sites through a neutral-sounding interface, AI intermediaries can redirect news visibility and authority away from independent local publishers without sending users to the original source.