Due to the tireless work of a sensationalist news site that takes delight in assailing the most vulnerable people in Maine, GOP candidates scramble around our 16 counties trashing Somalis, bashing trans people and excoriating China for allegedly turning every other rural property in the state into a drug factory.

Through hyperbole and scaremongering, the Maine Wire has risen from obscurity to become the dominant media player in Republican politics in Maine. This should concern us all.

For those unfamiliar with the outlet, some recent headlines may offer insight: “Former Lewiston Councilor Melts Down, Smears Award-Winning Maine Wire Editor in Chief as ‘Neo-Nazi.’” Or “Chellie’s Support of Minnesota Anti-ICE Hooligans Brought Her Back to Her Radical Roots.” Or “Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills Caught Napping by Ohio GOP Governor in Coast Guard Competition.”

Earlier this week, the Maine Wire wrote a story about a young, politically active Somali who criticized the site for stirring up anti-immigrant sentiment in Maine. The image of Safiya Khalid that the editors pulled to accompany the piece shows her in a purple hijab, making a face while giving someone the finger. It was taken by a classmate in a school cafeteria more than 10 years ago when Khalid, a friend of mine in Lewiston, was just 15.

Led by Steve Robinson, who presents himself as a hotshot investigative reporter, the site’s influence is growing quickly — to the detriment of political discourse in a state once known for its civility and equanimity.

Today’s conservative candidates tend to kowtow to Robinson, who recently collaborated on a project with Tucker Carlson, allowing the Maine Wire to set the news agenda and even the prevailing tone of the campaign statewide.

I should add here that Robinson and I have often exchanged potshots on X, formerly Twitter, and that the Maine Wire has spewed its customary swill at me, my politically active son and, somehow, even my wife. Fortunately, I’ve never much cared when disreputable people try to smear me. For sure, that experience isn’t what prompted me to write this column.

The Maine Wire began in 2011 as an extension of a local conservative think tank — then the Maine Heritage Policy Center, now the Maine Policy Institute — and its stated goal, originally, was to “provide balance and a deeper level of analysis of the issues decided in Augusta that affect Mainers all over the state in a very real way.”

By 2012, on the heels of firing a reporter who showed support for a white supremacist, the organization described itself as “a strong advocate for the liberty and prosperity of all Mainers” with members who “deplore the concept of race-based politics.” Things have changed. Robinson’s work now attracts giddy white supremacists from all over the country.

The shift began in earnest after Robinson took the helm as editor-in-chief in 2023, bringing with him a digital strategy determined to attract attention to the site and its MAGA-oriented ideas.

A Bowdoin College graduate who got his education in radio shock talk, Robinson peddles prejudice and calls it news. The day I realized just how material he had become to the Republican agenda in Maine came two months ago when I saw, to my horror, a photograph showing Sen. Susan Collins standing beside Robinson as he won some little-known journalism award in the nation’s capital.

Sen. Collins used to be a moderate, reasonable, compromise-minded Republican, the sort who once dominated New England politics. I once thought Collins might still stand for something. It turns out she’s content to stand with Robinson.

What a horrifying image of what’s become of the Republican Party in our state. I have little doubt Collins knows that coddling a purveyor of repugnant clickbait is beneath her. The senator seems to understand, however, perhaps too well, that the Maine Wire could badly damage or end her political career if it ever tried.

Although Collins is by far the most prominent of the Republicans who have been friendly with this supplier of slime, most of her party’s congressional and gubernatorial candidates echo Robinson’s agenda on the campaign trail.

Shortly after jumping into the 2nd District U.S. House race, former Gov. Paul LePage told WVOM that Democrats used taxpayer funds to register noncitizens as voters. His source for this baseless claim? The Maine Wire.

David Jones, a gubernatorial hopeful, devoted considerable attention this month to the Maine Wire-hyped question of whether a Somali representative elected to Lewiston City Council should step down. Nearly every word he uttered on the issue in a number of social media videos and posts came from the Maine Wire.

On Friday, Jones issued a press release bragging about the media attention he’s earned. The proof? “We were all over the Maine Wire,” he said, calling it “Maine’s fastest-growing news media organization [that] is covering the real news.”.

The Maine Wire is so friendly to gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles that it has published more than two dozen opinion pieces by him. Both Charles and Robinson’s propaganda outfit are cheering daily for ICE. They must be feeling good right now.

I could go on. It’s clear to anyone watching that the Maine Republican Party has fallen in line with Robinson’s website and its manic, free-for-all social media presence.

While Robinson deserves nothing but scorn for his incessant bragging and for injecting so much darkness into our politics, the man has been successful in his aims. He should be a social pariah and — so far, at least — he isn’t. His site is now the dominant voice in Maine’s GOP circles.

Maine could use a strong conservative news outlet to advance traditional conservative ideas. There’s merit in the political philosophy that champions holding down spending, minimizing taxes and restraining government.

The Maine Wire isn’t that outlet.

Its aggressive promotion of a newfangled Republican agenda of picking on the weakest, poorest and often most troubled people in our society isn’t just wrong, it’s wicked.