The product ads definitely purport to show you news.

You deliberately misunderstand the point about advertising audiences, that is not how advertising audiences work, at all. The point about influencers rejecting shady sponsors is also false, and circular. All evidence suggests they mostly accept sponsors who offer money.

If Ground News "bought into the same categorisation that I do" there would be literally no reason for it to exist. It exists to change the categorisation you buy into.