Dallas Express (established 2021)

In early 2021, the Dallas Express was operated by the Metric Media Network, which owns hundreds of other news sites in the United States.[3][4] In February 2021, Monty Bennett, a Dallas hotel executive, re-launched the Dallas Express.[1] In October 2020, Bennett had been named in a New York Times article which alleged he paid a network of pink-slime news outlets operated by Brian Timpone, the operator of Metric Media, to disseminate multiple articles about topics ranging from COVID-19 stimulus legislation to US–China policy.[5][6] After the controversy around Bennett's companies' receipt of COVID-19 loans, Bennett allegedly paid the network to run positive articles about himself, and negative articles about creditors to whom his businesses owed debts.[6][2] Timpone sent a cease and desist letter to the New York Times, demanding they not publish their discoveries about Bennett's alleged payment for articles.[6] Bennett also asserted via his lawyer to D Magazine, who had referred to the New York Times investigation in an article published that same month, that he had never paid for stories to be published by Metric Media.[7] In June 2021, D Magazine reported that Bennett had "decided to ditch the middleman" by taking over publishing the Dallas Express.[5]

The contemporary Dallas Express is a distinct entity from the Dallas Express that operated from 1892 to 1970, which was a progressive Black-owned newspaper.[3][1][8]

On Bennett's February re-launch of the new Dallas Express, he wrote in a note to readers that the publication "was created for one purpose; to help make our city a better place. That's it. It's a nonprofit operation and there's no other agenda."[8] The newspaper's content has been described by outside journalists as right-wing.[1][5] The Dallas Express has been reported to be part of a network of right-wing "pink slime" websites by Columbia Journalism Review,[2] D Magazine,[3] and The Dallas Weekly.[1] Pink-slime journalism is a practice in which websites disguise themselves as local news, but actually use automation to generate news stories that promote partisan agendas.[4]