He received a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri; while attending, he covered sports and news for the University-owned KOMU-TV.
[7] Timpone is involved with a number of interconnected media companies that post press releases and lightly copied content as news articles, at one point publishing under false bylines.
[3] It's sort of a tattered product that's being written overseas and halfheartedly edited and just kinda slopped on the page[...] Journatic (a portmanteau of "journalism" and "automatic")[4] was founded by Timpone in 2006.
[5] Journatic's job listings in the Philippines advertised a $0.35–0.40 pay rate per article for "writers to work on events stories" who are "able to commit to 250 pieces/week minimum".
[4] In a June 2012 episode of This American Life, Timpone disclosed that Journatic was outsourcing its writing to over 300 freelancers using fake "Anglo-sounding"[22] bylines in several geographic areas outside of the United States, including the Philippines, Eastern Europe, Brazil, and Africa.
After BlockShopper published high dollar real estate sales and purchases by several high-profile people, and in some cases tied in their employer in the announcement, several anti-BlockShopper websites popped up and lawsuits were filed.
Officials from the district sent cease and desist letters to several companies in the Timpone network, stating that the use of its logos were deceptive and an instance of trademark infringement.
Also disclosed were some of the financial relationships between the entities, certain individuals involved, and several political and advocacy organizations which have funded the network, all under the guise of "local news".
Right-wing interests give money through a series of interlocking organizations in return for publishing indoctrination disguised as local news.
[38] A 2024 study by NewsGuard, a misinformation tracking company, found that "the number of partisan-backed outlets designed to look like impartial news outlets has officially surpassed the number of real, local daily newspapers in the U.S." NewsGuard identified at least 1,265 such websites "backed by dark money or intentionally masquerading as local news sites for political purposes."