-By Warner Todd Huston
Several newspapers have recently announced that far left leaning, non-profit foundations such as The Ford Foundation have given them hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover “the news.” Many wonder if this “coverage” is being programmed by these left-wing moneymen. Others note that the tax-exempt, left-wing foundations are essentially lending U.S. government subsidies once remove to both newspapers and NPR. Is this all merely a way to “save” the news gathering industry, or are left-wing organizations just buying the news and pushing their far left narrative through stealth?
NPR’s On The Media recently talked to several members of the Old Media about the huge grants that The Ford Foundation and others have given traditional media outlets such as the Washington Post, the L.A. Times and NPR and positing the questions above. Naturally the Old Media representatives pooh poohed any thought that the left-wing organizations are buying news coverage and claimed that newsrooms and editorial boards are insulated from any influence by their funders.
This grant-making to news agencies is nothing new, of course. As far back as 1993 the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation had been granting large amounts to fund “journalism.” In 2009 the Knight Foundation awarded $5 million to 21 “civic organizations” to report the news. More recently, this sort of grant giving has continued with a $1.8 million grant to National Public Radio from left-wing, anti-American philanthropist George Soros and the Ford Foundation gave $500,000 to the Post and a whopping $1 million to the L.A. Times.
Continue reading “
Left-Wing Non-Profits Paying Big Grants to Newspapers for ‘News Gathering’”