By: Ghazala N. Yousafzai
1. Overview
Drop Site News (DSN) is an American-based investigative journalism platform, launched on 8 July 2024 by Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim. DSN claims to focus on (1) Exposing crimes, (2) Covering conflict zones, (3) Analyzing overt & covert conflicts, and (4) Investigating US involvement in global conflicts. DSN offers covert/ secure channels for whistleblowers to safely submit information via encrypted services like Proton-mail and Signal. Drop Site has faced many controversies including credibility of information, funding and unethical journalism.
Aim of this study is to analyze Drop site News to ascertain its areas of interest, authenticity of reporting, adherence to norms/ ethics of Journalism and funding sources to identify their professionalism as a News Platform.
2. Methodology
For this study, we analyzed dataset of all 151 news articles published on DSN website (till 15 Dec 2024) to identify key authors, countries and topics covered by DSN. News articles regarding Top countries (US, Israel-Palestine, Pakistan) and Top authors (Ryan Grim, Murtaza Hussain) were analyzed by collecting data in detail to identify following: –
- Focus of authors and Drop Site News on various topics.
- Biase of authors towards selective topics/ narratives.
- Content Analysis to identify keywords, sensationalism and degree of authenticity/ fabrication including controversies.
- Engagement techniques vis-à-vis reach/ views obtained.
- Evaluation of norms/ ethics of Journalism.
To achieve above & draw analytical findings; a dataset of all tweets by Ryan Grim, Drop Site News and Murtaza Hussain were scraped and analyzed (open-source).
3. Insights
3.1 Authors and Countries
- Ryan Grim stands out with 51 x articles followed by Jeremy Scahill & Murtaza Hussain. Data depicts that platform heavily dominated by these 3 contributors (Figure 1).
- Drop site focused on US, followed by Israel-Palestine & then Pakistan (Figure 2).
3.2 Top authors by Countries
3.3 Top Topics of Drop-Site Website
- DSN focused on American politics, Israel-Palestine conflict, global media censorship, Middle East quagmire and political instability in Pakistan.
- Talked comparatively less on geo-strategy, free speech and minorities issues etc; which shows where the site’s priorities really lie.
- Many articles cite leaked documents, videos, audios and insider/ anonymous sources and covert reporting to create sensationalism in titles (35% content was found lacking credible sources and was sensational).
Since G5iO is a Pakistan-based internet observatory, thus besides US which is a key global player, our focus gravitated towards topics related to Pakistan for an in-depth analysis.
4.1 Articles on US
DSN strongly criticizes U.S. military interventions and foreign policy, challenging government’s accountability for corporate influence of promoting its weapon industry. DSN has reported on several alleged leaks including United Nations report revealing that 366 x UN staff members and their families were killed in Israeli war, leaked calls involving American prosecutor Wesley Bell and Representative Cori Bush, leaked chats from U.S.-linked prosecutor behind attacks on opposition in Ecuador.
OSINT analysis revealed that many of the reports on US were factually incorrect, exaggerated and fueled with sensationalism of leaked documents tactics. Many articles were rebutted by concerned authorities.
4.2 Articles on Pakistan
DSN exaggerates/ sensationalizes Pakistan’s civil-military relations, political instability, strategic alliance with US/ China. It propagated false news of Pakistan requesting nuclear weapons assistance from China as a bargaining tool over Gwadar Port. Moreover, DSN falsely accused Pakistan military that it has ordered thousands of field officers to counter narrative of one political party on digital platforms.
OSINT analysis revealed that all reports related to Pakistan aligned with specific political agenda and used words like “leaked” to capture audience attraction.
4.3 Social Media Posts on Pakistan
A comprehensive content analysis of Drop Site News, along with its affiliated journalists Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim, reveals a clear tendency to labelling state institutions in a negative light, inciting violence for views and doing Churnalism aligning themselves with content provided by specific political party.
Their reporting has raised concerns about impartiality and adherence to foundational principles of Independent Journalism. DSN creates mistrust in media outlets, contributes to the polarization of public opinion. Whereas DSN claims to undertake investigative journalism, while it relies on unsubstantiated content and sensationalism.
Interestingly, DSN has no author to criticize Pakistan other than Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain. These authors function more as lobbyists than as impartial journalists and actively promote specific political narrative rather than adhering to ethics and principles of Journalism. Furthermore, their social media content clearly indicates the forces behind the curtain; lobbying against Pakistan leveraging platforms like Drop Site News to propagate anti-Pakistan narratives and malign state institutions.
DSN has not revealed any sources or have not disclosed any leaked document; rather they make only the claims; triggering sentiments of mass. Sympathies are being exploited to obtain fundings.
4.4 Misc Controversies
- Meta Platforms including Facebook and Instagram have periodically blocked sharing of Drop Site’s coverage of Gaza conflict.
- Pakistan also cautioned Drop Site News for spreading false news and fabricated stories against the state institutions.
- Ryan Grim has been involved in direct altercations and contentious exchanges with various news outlets and journalists. Notably, he was involved in physical confrontation with Fox News host Jesse Watters at the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
- DSN itself claims to annoy multiple government and falsely claims to be blocked in Pakistan.
5. Analysis of DSN Social Media Handles
Discourse analysis of DSN revealed that key proliferators are Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain. So, we decided to analyze their X accounts in detail. A dataset of 6219 x tweets was scraped in the observatory; selenium and pandas’ package were used for data analysis and results are as under: –
| Handle | Tweets After Jun | Views | Followers | Average | Tweets (Leak,audio,video, document,insider) | Sentiment Analysis | ||||
| Views/ Tweet | Shares/ Tweet | Comments/ Tweet | Positive | Negative | Neutral | |||||
| Ryan Grim (ryangrim) | 1364 | 151M | 374 K | 110.9K | 515 | 48 | 98 | 34.4 | 23.23 | 42.37 |
| Drop Site (DropSiteNews) | 1997 | 94M | 81.4 K | 47.2K | 139 | 10 | 107 | 37.91 | 32.05 | 32.05 |
| MurtazaHussain (MazMHussain) | 2858 | 88M | 136.3 K | 31K | 55 | 8 | 36 | 43.71 | 30.42 | 25.87 |
DSN Network is exploiting leaked document claims and relying on controversial reporting under the guise of Investigative Journalism
Further analysis revealed that DSN is actually sponsored by Intercept which is famous for its negative and biased reporting specially on Pakistan.
G5iO found the link which clearly states that Ryan Grim will continue working for Intercept and Drop Site news will be sponsored by Intercept Source:
6. Conclusion
The Drop Site News platform operates under a strong anti-establishment bias, challenging mainstream narratives and promoting a specific agenda. Their methods, including sensational language and a focus on controversy, might resonate with an audience critical of traditional media but could also be seen as lacking journalistic neutrality and responsibility.
- Findings highlight DSN’s potentially compromised journalistic integrity and reliance on fake, sensational news to attract audience.
- DSN has completely ignored objectivity, provision of balanced and fair coverage by presenting multiple perspectives, and seized public right to an informed opinion.
- The platform’s content is disproportionately dominated by few authors, particularly Ryan Grim, Murtaza Hussain, and Jeremy Scahill, which raises concerns about diversity of perspectives needed in fair journalism.
- Targeted reporting on specific countries by biased authors on pretext of leaked documents provided by specific group of lobbying firms confirm that DSN is actually doing Churnalism.
- Intercept and Drop site news have a strong bias towards Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf whereby mostly fabricated questions are asked on various platforms by Ryan Grim.
- Content analysis proves that most probably, Drop Site news is hired by PTI lobbyist for promoting their content.
- Contributors have faced allegations of sensationalism and misinformation, particularly in their portrayal of events related to Pakistan and the U.S.
- A significant portion of DSN’s content targets Pakistan with number of allegations; most of which have been discredited by official statements, indicating a pattern of targeted propaganda against state institutions.
- DSN’s operational transparency is evidently questionable; moreover, its reliance on sensational stories to attract readership suggests a strategy focused on engagement rather than factual accuracy.