WHAT THEY REPORT: WHO DECIDES? The Associated Press is reporting that a McClatchy newspaper in Kentucky, the Lexington Herald-Leader, is returning to the Center for Public Integrity Center for Investigative Reporting* a $37,500 grant the foundation made to the paper to finance a series of stories on the fundraising operation of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who famously opposed the McCain–Feingold campaign finance reform legislation.
The paper is returning the grant to the Center in response to allegations by McConnell’s staff that the foundation has a liberal bias. However, it will still run the four-part series about McConnell — considered the likely replacement for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) — for which it had awarded the grant.
Bias or no, the thing I find curious about the deal is why a for-profit media operation should require grants from non-profit foundations in order to do a bit of investigative journalism. Is this a harbinger of the future? Will big media only investigate that which is earmarked for outside, philanthropic financing? In the meantime, I concede that I look forward to reading what the Herald-Leader has dug up, on the Center’s grant-turned-(interest-free?)-loan, about the crotchety Kentuckian.
UPDATE: *Whoops. A commenter points out this is the Center for Investigative Reporting rather than the Center for Public Integrity.
–Adele M. Stan
