Last October, we examined a WyoFile story about the race between two Republicans for Wyoming House District 57. Our exam illustrated the subtle and not-so-subtle ways leftwing media outlets cloak their biases in the reassuring language of “facts” and “objectivity.” That story, framed in such a way as to quietly promote one candidate at the expense of the other, was misleadingly presented as news instead of opinion.
WyoFile claims to be an unbiased and nonpartisan source of local news. Although WyoFile is an online-only outlet, it has considerable reach in the state. In its 2024 annual report, editor Matthew Copeland boasted that local newspapers republished its stories more than 2,700 times last year. WyoFile promotes itself as “Wyoming’s independent news for independent thinkers.”
WyoFile’s claims of independence, however, are belied by its reliance on States Newsroom, a liberal nonprofit in D.C. with a network of news outlets in all 50 states. These affiliates include the Arizona Mirror, Utah News Dispatch, and the Idaho Capital Sun—all outlets that claim to be unbiased but approach covering the news with a well-known liberal slant. States Newsroom has 220 full-time staff covering 39 states and supports established partners in 11 others (including Wyoming).
If you know anything about States Newsroom and its origins, you won’t be surprised that WyoFile approaches the news from a liberal perspective. States Newsroom’s wide-ranging network of state-based outlets allows it to push leftwing narratives from one coast to the other.
Since its earliest days, States Newsroom has existed within a constellation of leftwing nonprofits and donors. The organization owes its beginnings to the Hopewell Fund, which is managed by Arabella Advisors. According to Scott Walter’s 2024 book Arabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Secretly Transforming America, Arabella Advisors is an “influential philanthropic consulting firm in Washington, D.C., catering to donors like the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Ford Foundation, and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. The firm belongs to Eric Kessler—Arabella’s founder and chief string-puller—a child of wealth turned environmental activist and Clinton administration staffer who now operates in the highest echelon of Democratic Party politics.”
In the past, States Newsroom did not even try to hide its political leanings. In a 2020 job listing on LinkedIn, for example, the organization described itself as “a progressive political journalism startup.”
More recently, States Newsroom has received millions of dollars in funding from Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss’ foundation. The New York Times said Wyss has “quietly become one of the most important donors to left-leaning advocacy groups and an increasingly influential force among Democrats.” It has also received funding from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a public-sector labor union with a singular passion for backing Democrats.
Let us pause here for a moment to consider the implications of all this. Why would a leftwing donor group, a wealthy foreign kingmaker in Democratic politics, and one of the most progressive public-sector unions in the country want to fund a nonprofit news organization with national reach? It does not take a very serious leap of the imagination to conclude that, just maybe, these financiers are using States Newsroom as a vehicle for their progressive ideals.
If States Newsroom serves as the ground force for a network of progressive political nonprofits, then WyoFile is its local office.
While States Newsroom calls WyoFile “our newsroom,” WyoFile is not quite so upfront about the relationship. In fact, readers must dig into WyoFile’s annual report to discover that States Newsroom is one of its sponsors. WyoFile may be furtive about its ties to States Newsroom, but their shared politics bleed through WyoFile’s coverage of local issues.
Take WyoFile’s coverage of trans healthcare as an example.
In a story last year about SF 99, a bill signed into law that prohibits doctors from providing minors with puberty blockers, surgery, and hormone therapy, reporter Madelyn Beck repeats one of the central claims underpinning trans activism: “Research shows youth with gender dysphoria who don’t receive gender-affirming care — which includes treatments ranging from therapy to puberty blockers — have worse mental health and double the rate of suicidal thoughts and attempts compared to those who do.”
Contrary to Ms. Beck, research does not in fact establish that so-called “gender-affirming care” helps minors with gender dysphoria or reduces suicide attempts. Chase Strangio, the trans ACLU attorney who recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti, admitted to Justice Samuel Alito that there is “no evidence in some—in the studies that this treatment reduces completed suicide.” If the evidence were as ironclad as trans activists want to claim, then why is one European country after another—all of them less religious and more progressive than America—reversing course on the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors seeking to change their gender?
WyoFile simply adopts the progressive line on trans healthcare as though it were fact. So do the other members of States Newsroom. CalMatters, for example, which covers California, published a story in March about how transgender youth in the state feel “threatened” by President Donald Trump’s (R) executive orders. Instead of a balanced summary of the weak and sometimes contradictory scientific literature on transgender youth medicine, CalMatters tells its readers that “dozens of studies show that gender-affirming care positively impacts youth mental health and decreases suicidality.” You can find similar positive language about experimental gender-related youth medicine across States Newsroom’s state-based outlets.
Another example of WyoFile’s liberal bias is the language its reporters use to describe the conservative lawmakers they dislike. The ones the outlet views as problematic are described as “far-right,” an epithet progressives liberally apply to everyone from Reagan conservatives to Nazis. Illustrative examples include the following headlines and excerpts:
- “Far-right lawmakers prepare to wield their growing power”
- “Special session vote fails following far-right push to combat Gordon’s vetoes”
- “Four Wyoming lawmakers announce their departure, opening door to far right”
The conservative lawmakers whom WyoFile calls “far-right” don’t identify as such, of course. The label serves only to convey to readers that these lawmakers are dangerous, that they are beyond the pale and should be regarded warily. Unsurprisingly, other States Newsroom affiliates also do this. A headline in the Arizona Mirror reads: “Far-right Republicans denounce push for ranked-choice voting in Arizona.” States Newsroom reporters Jennifer Shutt and Ashley Murray used this line in an article about Republican budget disagreements: “The disagreement between centrist Republicans and far-right lawmakers over potential spending cuts to Medicaid is already on full display.” That article was republished across States Newsroom’s network of affiliates.
WyoFile’s leftwing values show up in its opinion section, too. Like most media outlets, WyoFile has a section of its website devoted to “opinion,” which is supposedly separate from “news.” That section is littered with liberal op-eds with headlines like “Should I worry about Trump deporting me?”, “To protest or vote? Pick the right tool for the job.,” and “Traveling upstream: A call to Wyoming’s faith leaders to pursue justice.” Conservative voices are few and far between in its digital pages.
WyoFile separates “opinion” from “news” on its website, but the distinction is meaningless when so much of its news coverage is slanted toward the liberal perspective. Like so many “mainstream” outlets, WyoFile’s reporting reflects biases, hoping readers won’t notice, while unironically decrying plummeting trust in journalism.
The problem is not that WyoFile champions progressive causes—the problem is that they’re not transparent about doing so. Readers imagine that they are reading objective news from a local source when, in reality, they are ingesting the views and values of States Newsroom’s progressive donors. The deception is the problem. If Wyoming readers knew that WyoFile was a front for influential D.C.-based groups, they’d likely read its stories through a more skeptical lens.
Wyoming deserves news outlets that believe in taking an honest approach with their audience. That’s why Honor Wyoming openly makes our position known – to defend and advocate for the conservative values and priorities of our community members, values that we believe represent the best of Wyoming. We strive to provide information that the people of Wyoming won’t get from other news outlets and we do so without pretending that we don’t have a point of view. While we hope to persuade others to our point of view through education and awareness, we don’t expect everyone to agree with our positions. We trust Wyomingites to make up their own minds when presented with this type of respect.
In an 1822 letter, James Madison wrote, “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” WyoFile’s progressive backers want to keep residents ignorant of their involvement in local news, allowing them to push their outside values unbeknownst to readers. However, a thorough understanding of who these groups are and what motivates them can empower readers to see through the progressive smokescreen.
At Honor Wyoming, we’re committed to pulling back the curtain on news bias. If you value independent reporting from a conservative Wyoming perspective, we invite you to subscribe, share, or support our work.