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 media industry is “supposed” to be the truth-seekers and completely transparent, correct? But what we are seeing now is the MSM, who often scream and demand for maximum disclosure, are hiding it own dirty secrets. Zero curiosity investigating themselves. Writing up stories for left-wing groups and their mega-rich cohorts.
…There was not a peep of media consternation about the exposure that some of their alleged fellow Incorruptible High Priests of the Truth were taking money from foreign oligarchs to do “research.”
Which, by the way, almost certainly then became planted stories appearing in the media. A foreign oligarch is probably savvy enough to avoid saying “I am paying you to plant this story.” He knows that a few members of the Incorruptible High Priesthood of the Truth would understand that as a gross violation that could get them blackballed.
But if he says “I’ll pay you $50,000 to do ‘research’ on Trump’s empire for me, and then you own that research to do whatever you want to with it,” well, the “researcher” can then write it up as a “news” article and get it published. He can say “no one demanded i publish it” — yes, but they did pay you $50,000 to do a month’s worth of work, which is now all conveniently sitting in your hard-drive, and can be sold again, this time to a leftwing media publisher.
This corruption is not surprising to most of us I know. No surprise that they get paid discreetly and then plant stories their masters tell them to plant. Just as sickening however is the fact that none of their peers show any curiosity. While they pressure others to show all conflicts of interest…they remain quiet when it’s one of their own.
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