By Chuck Ross
The Associated Press, the country’s top wire service, is now bankrolled in part by millions of dollars from left-wing foundations, including one founded by “1619 Project” author Nikole Hannah-Jones.
The news organization last year announced a series of “partnerships” to subsidize reporters covering climate change, race, and democracy. A review of the donor roster shows that the vast majority fund left-wing political causes, while none are supporters of conservative initiatives.
The Ida B. Wells Society, founded by “1619 Project” lightning rod Hannah-Jones, has teamed up with filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s Hearthland Foundation, for example, to foster “more inclusive storytelling” at the Associated Press.
In some ways, it was a natural partnership: The AP’s global investigations editor, Ron Nixon, serves on the Ida B. Wells Society’s board of directors. In others, it may prove more problematic, given that Hannah-Jones’s own reporting has been disputed by historians, who have argued—among other things—that her account of the motivations of the American revolutionaries is factually inaccurate.
The funding, much of it from these sorts of overly political actors, will make it more challenging for the Associated Press to swat away accusations of political bias. In one high-profile example, critics blasted the organization for revising its style guide to instruct reporters to avoid the use of terms like “the French,” which the AP indicated was “dehumanizing.”
AllSides, a group that tracks media bias across the industry, last year changed its rating for the AP from “center” to “leans left,” citing what it said was an increase in “word choice bias” and “bias by omission of views” in its coverage. AllSides says it closely monitors the Associated Press’s content because the AP’s content is “broad and far-reaching.”
The Associated Press is also taking nonprofit money to fund coverage of race and climate. The organization’s “democracy journalism initiative,” a division whose reporters cover “the intersection of race and voting,” is bankrolled by nonprofits such as the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. That organization also funds Stacey Abrams’s New Georgia Project and the left-wing activist group Take Back the Court, which advocates for expanding the Supreme Court.
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Though the Associated Press is funded largely by subscriptions from the thousands of news organizations that pay to license its content, its donors shell out millions to subsidize coverage of some of the country’s most divisive political issues. It is unclear when the AP began entering such partnerships, but they have proved lucrative in recent years.
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The AP takes in millions more from philanthropies—the Hewlett Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, and others—to fund reporting on climate change, such as stories that this summer’s heat wave is due to global warming, that President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act boosted America’s “climate credibility,” and that climate activists have ramped up protests against the “emissions-spewing lifestyles of the ultrawealthy.”
The Rockefeller Foundation, one of the country’s largest private philanthropies, in 2021 awarded the Associated Press $750,000 for a climate change initiative to increase reporting “on the increased and urgent need for reliable, renewable electricity in underserved communities worldwide.”
The Outrider Foundation has donated in a bid to help the AP beef up its coverage of climate change and nuclear weapons. Outrider has embraced an apocalyptic view of both issues. In recent years, the foundation launched an app that simulates the effects of a nuclear detonation. One of its advisers is Michael Mann, the climate researcher behind the controversial “hockey stick” graph, which claims global temperatures spiked dramatically around 1900 due to manmade global warming.
The Public Welfare Foundation, which gave the Associated Press a $200,000 grant this year for investigative reporting on crime issues, funds organizations that supported legislation in Washington, D.C., to drastically reduce penalties for various crimes.
Associated Press spokeswoman Nicole Meir told the Washington Free Beacon that the organization maintains “complete control” over content produced through its philanthropic partnerships, and that “no funder has any influence over AP journalism.”
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Highlights:
Free Beacon: The news organization last year announced a series of “partnerships” to subsidize reporters covering climate change, race, and democracy. … The Ida B. Wells Society, founded by “1619 Project” lightning rod Hannah-Jones, has teamed up with filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s Hearthland Foundation, for example, to foster “more inclusive storytelling” at the Associated Press.
The organization’s “democracy journalism initiative,” a division whose reporters cover “the intersection of race and voting,” is bankrolled by nonprofits such as the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation…The AP takes in millions more from philanthropies—the Hewlett Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, and others—to fund reporting on climate change, such as stories that this summer’s heat wave is due to global warming, that President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act boosted America’s “climate credibility.”
The Rockefeller Foundation, one of the country’s largest private philanthropies, in 2021 awarded the Associated Press $750,000 for a climate change initiative to increase reporting “on the increased and urgent need for reliable, renewable electricity in underserved communities worldwide.” …
The Outrider Foundation has donated in a bid to help the AP beef up its coverage of climate change and nuclear weapons. Outrider has embraced an apocalyptic view of both issues. In recent years, the foundation launched an app that simulates the effects of a nuclear detonation. One of its advisers is Michael Mann, the climate researcher behind the controversial “hockey stick” graph, which claims global temperatures spiked dramatically around 1900 due to manmade global warming.
Related:
The Great Reset book by Marc Morano: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pumps out tens of millions of dollars annually to pay for positive media. Media partnerships and sponsorships essentially buy slick public relations for Gates and his foundations. Gates influences coverage of global health and development issues as a “top 10 donor” to BBC’s Media Action organization. In the United Kingdom, he also funds The Guardian’s Global Development website. And Gates funds NPR’s global-health coverage.
Welcome to a new form of Checkbook Journalism.
Morano: “The AP will now have zero ‘obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and government’ and instead be approved messaging lapdogs to their paymasters. Will the AP ever offend their donors and looks critically at the UN IPCC climate panel? Or NASA? It’s a laughable thought.”
Climate Depot analysis:
“Objectivity, balance, neutrality, plurality, and bias are among the concepts used to evaluate news media programming,” noted a report from Professor Natalie Jomini Stroud, Ph.D. of The Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation at the University of Texas at Austin.
In 2009, Climate Depot founder, Marc Morano, launched Climate Depot with this statement: “It is very hard to get accurate information on global warming and environmental issues. Much of what the media reports is simply a regurgitation of the rhetoric from partisan and ideologically driven environmental groups, foundations, and the United Nations, which are spinning data to promote a cause,” Morano said.
Morano added in 2009: “Sadly, many of today’s mainstream climate reporters would be better-suited writing newsletters for Al Gore than attempting to inform the public about the latest climate science developments.”
Fast forward to 2022. My comments in 2009 are even more prescient with AP’s announcement that they will be a pay-to-report news agency. The Associated Press will be tossing their journalistic ethics out the window.
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) issued its “Code of Ethics” for journalists. Let’s see how AP’s big announcement that big donors are going to drive their climate change news holds up to these ethical journalist codes.
Key excerpts from SPJ Code of Ethics:
Related Links:
‘Mutually Beneficial’: Associated Press Expands Climate Reporting Funded By Left-Wing Activist Groups– The Hewlett Foundation has long supported leftist causes, including abortion provider Planned Parenthood and Defending Democracy Together, according to the Capital Research Center. The organization has also funded several climate groups and causes like the Sierra Club, Urban Environment Foundation and ClimateWorks Foundation. …
The Rockefeller Foundation is a “pillar of the liberal philanthropic establishment,” a report from InfluenceWatch, which tracks non-profit organizations, said. …
The Walton Family Foundation is an active donor to multiple environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund, World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Meridian Institute. The foundation also funded the New Venture Fund, which helps grow left-wing advocacy groups, according to InfluenceWatch. …
Lukas Walton, who chairs the foundation’s environment program committee, has a history of donating to Democrats, and he owns a major stake in First Solar, a large solar panel manufacturer.
AP Climate Army? Four Leftist Big Money Orgs Fund AP Eco-Journalists– Climate Depot founder Marc Morano put it best: “The AP will now have zero ‘obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and government’ and instead be approved messaging lapdogs to their paymasters. Will the AP ever offend [its] donors and look critically at the UN IPCC climate panel? Or NASA? It’s a laughable thought.” The organizations that opted to exchange cash for influence included left-wing organizations like the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Quadrivium Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
The Rockefeller Foundation has a sordid history of extremism. The Rockefeller Archive Center, a research center and grantmaking organization, documented the group’s funding of population control research in the past. Additionally, “Dean Rusk, who served as Rockefeller Foundation president in the 1950s, led an effort to dramatically expand federal population control funds when he served as Secretary of State in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations,” Influence Watch reported.
The Walton Family Foundation of Walmart fame also got in on the climate action. It awarded at least $64,597,090 in grants to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The EDF held a string of events in 2020 that exploited the Marxist Black Lives Matter protests and riots to rail how “[c]urrent demands for racial justice have put the spotlight on environmental racism.”
AP Announces Sweeping Climate Journalism Initiative – The Associated Press will significantly expand its climate coverage, creating a standalone desk and hiring about 20 journalists – The expansion is being supported by several philanthropic organizations, including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Quadrivium and The Rockefeller Foundation. AP retains complete editorial control of all content.
Associated Press Announces That Billionaires Control The News – Tony Heller: The Associated Press has announced that their fraudulent reporting on energy and climate is funded by billionaires who want to control the energy supply. They call this power and money grab through massive fraud “philanthropy.”
AP Take The Climate Bribe! – Paul Homewood: Well at least they’re honest! The far left foundations listed have long been involved in funding disinformation campaigns in the US and Europe. What could be simpler than paying AP to print the propaganda they want? It is little wonder the industry’s financial outlook is bleak! Readers are leaving the legacy media in droves, fed up with the constant lies and fake news.
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