“Fake news” websites outnumber daily newspapers nationwide, according to a report Tuesday from the analysis group NewsGuard.

As of June, 1,265 local news outlets presented themselves as objective while in fact reported with bias in favor of partisan groups or foreign governments, said NewsGuard.

That’s versus 1,213 daily newspapers in operation across the U.S., according to a 2023 report from Northwestern University.

The biased sites, which NewsGuard refers to as “pink slime” in reference to supposed filler added to fast food beef patties, are on the left and right.

These sites, NewsGuard says, claim to be independent local news sources but don’t disclose their partisan or foreign affiliations. Some use artificial intelligence-generated content.

In addition to the creation of “pink slime” sites, some political battleground states have seen the websites produce physical newspapers for distribution.

America loses 2.5 daily and weekly newspapers a week, according to the Northwestern report. This decline is driven in part by large chains and regional newspaper conglomerates killing off multiple papers at once.

Since 2005, America has lost 259 daily newspapers. The number of weekly newspapers declined much more precipitously, dropping from 7,419 in 2005 to only 4,792 in 2023, per the Northwestern report.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.