PAY DIRT
How Dem Consultants Are Paying to Shape News Coverage in Virginia
Acronym, a dark money group that owns and operates a major Democratic digital firm, is investing seven figures in a Virginia-centric news site.
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Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.
A major Democratic consultancy is pouring money into a new digital news venture in Virginia, which will now be in the ethically tricky position of covering many of the same people its top investor is working to elect—or defeat.
Acronym, a dark money group that owns and operates a major Democratic digital firm, is investing seven figures in a Virginia-centric news site called The Dogwood, Axios reported on Tuesday. The schedule of that capital infusion wasn’t immediately clear, but PAY DIRT stumbled on a number of digital fingerprints suggesting that Acronym’s involvement has already begun in earnest.