ProPublica: Investigative Journalism or Liberal Spin? By Cheryl K. Chumley Summary: The press is fi lled with sad sto- ries about venerable for-profi t newspapers that have been forced to declare bankruptcy and shut down. So it’s striking that the bil- lionaire liberals Herb and Marion Sandler have decided now is the time to fund a new nonprofi t group called ProPublica whose mission is to serve the public interest by funding independent investigative journal- ism. Too bad Pro Publica churns out little more than left-wing hit pieces about Sarah Palin and blames the U.S. government for giving out too little foreign aid. uestion: What’s a liberal to do? QWith the burgeoning popularity of Fox News, the Drudge Report website, the dominance of conservatives on talk radio The king and queen of toxic mortgages: Herb and Marion Sandler sold their S&L and (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin its doomed loan portfolio to Wachovia for $24 billion, a transaction that sealed the et al) and the rising tide of conservative bank’s fate. Generous funders of left-wing groups such as ProPublica, the Sandlers political bloggers, it’s no wonder old-line are members of George Soros’s Democracy Alliance, a billionaires’ club determined left-liberal journalists are growing anxious to push America to the left. about promoting their message to the media. As daily newspaper circulation plummets to generate hard-hitting investigative jour- Investigative journalism is at risk. Many and the audience of ABC, CBS, NBC, and nalism by pursuing stories that have “moral news organizations have increasingly CNN ages and shrinks, liberals are watching force.” Paul E. Steiger, a former managing come to see it as a luxury. Today’s investi- their authority fade. They can no longer set editor at the Wall Street Journal, was an- gative reporters lack resources: Time and the public agenda without being challenged nounced as the organization’s president and budget constraints are curbing the ability by conservative media voices. editor-in-chief. May 2009 Answer: Create a media outlet that will pro- Steiger said ProPublica would “shine a light duce left-wing “investigative” hit pieces that on exploitation of the weak by the strong CONTENTS can be given to cash-strapped newspapers and on the failures of those with power to at no cost. vindicate the trust placed in them. We will be non-partisan and non-ideological, adher- ProPublica In October 2007 the world of journalism ing to the strictest standards of journalistic Page 1 was informed that a fl edging nonprofi t outfi t impartiality and fairness.” called Pro Publica, Inc. was about to come to Philanthropy Notes its rescue. The stated mission of the group, ProPublica’s website ominously declares Page 6 which goes by the trade name ProPublica, is that: FoundationWatch of journalists not specifi cally designated The ProPublica manifesto sounds reasonable ProPublica’s president is also on the Knight “investigative” to do this kind of reporting enough, but what’s left unsaid is the fact that Foundation board.) in addition to their regular beats. This is this particular nonprofi t 501(c)(3) organiza- therefore a moment when new models tion gets its money from donors who want Also on the ProPublica board is former Rep. are necessary to carry forward some of to promote radical left-leaning change in James A. Leach (R-Iowa) whose transforma- the great work of journalism in the public American society. tion from milquetoast moderate Republican interest that is such an integral part of to fl aming leftist was completed last summer self-government, and thus an important The white knights are the billionaires Herb when he endorsed Barack Obama for presi- bulwark of our democracy. and Marion Sandler, a married couple who dent and addressed the national Democratic have committed a reported $10 million to convention. Herb Sandler is the board’s The business crisis in publishing and — the cause of strengthening the left’s shaky chairman. not unrelated — the revolution in publish- grip on the media. ing technology are having a number of ProPublica also has an advisory board that wide-ranging effects. Among these are In unveiling his new organization, Herb lists to port. On it are Jill Abramson, a manag- that the creation of original journalism Sandler boasted that ProPublica would be ing editor of the New York Times, perennial in the public interest, and particularly the “devoted entirely to the creation of journal- pundit David Gergen, and Cynthia A. Tucker, form that has come to be known as “in- ism in the public interest.” who manages the editorial page of the Atlanta vestigative reporting,” is being squeezed Journal-Constitution. down, and in some cases out. ProPublica currently employs 28 journalists who are supposed to fi ll the nation’s gap in Subprime Sandlers ProPublica acknowledges that “the num- investigative reporting by providing budget- Herbert and Marion Sandler made their ber and variety of publishing platforms is conscious media with in-depth prepackaged fortune by purchasing a humble California exploding in the Internet age,” but it warns news stories. Headquartered in Manhattan, savings and loan called World Savings for $4 that “very few of these entities are engaged the group’s newsroom was up and running million in 1963 and building it into mighty in original reporting.” Sources of opinion in June 2008, as the presidential campaign Golden West Financial Corp., one of the may be proliferating, “but sources of facts on was in moving into high gear. largest home mortgage lenders in the coun- which those opinions are based are shrink- try. In 2006, they lost Golden West, which ing.” While the fl ourishing of many opinions ProPublica does not publish its own reports. had over $125 billion in assets, to Wachovia is good for society, ProPublica laments that Instead, like a traditional news wire service it for $24 billion. Wachovia, which made the any lack of interest in reporting actual facts tries to place its stories in established media terrible decision to purchase the company’s is harmful. outlets. However, unlike a for-profi t wire portfolio of subprime loans, teetered on the service like AP, it makes its work available edge of bankruptcy when the housing market no cost. To date ProPublica has worked collapsed. It reported losing $24 billion in the Editor: Matthew Vadum with, among others, the Washington Post, third quarter of 2008 and was subsequently Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, acquired by Wells Fargo at the end of 2008 Publisher: Terrence Scanlon and WNYC Radio. for a paltry $12.7 billion. Foundation Watch is published by Capital Research In addition to the Sandlers, the group has Having gotten out of the market at precisely Center, a non-partisan education and received funding from the John D. and the right time, the Sandlers are fl ush with research organization, classifi ed by Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the cash, and they are throwing mountains of the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Atlantic Philanthropies (whose CEO is Gara money around in an effort to make America LaMarche, a former U.S. program director more liberal. In May 2006, Herb Sandler Address: 1513 16th Street, N.W. at George Soros’s Open Society Institute) rejected the criticism that he was selling out Washington, DC 20036-1480 and the now-defunct JEHT Foundation. at the top of the market: “The situation is JEHT closed its doors recently after liberal fantastic. The expectations are fantastic, and Phone: (202) 483-6900 philanthropist and fi nancier Bernard Madoff, the prognosis is fantastic,” he told the Wall Long-Distance: (800) 459-3950 who managed the charity’s funds, siphoned Street Journal. Holding 10.24% of Golden E-mail Address: away its endowment. West’s shares, the Sandlers were in line to [email protected] receive a reported $2.6 billion windfall from ProPublica’s board of directors is packed with the Wachovia sale. They cashed in about Web Site: garden-variety liberals, including Harvard half of it when they contributed $1.3 billion http://www.capitalresearch.org professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Rebecca in cash to their Sandler Family Supporting Organization Trends welcomes let- Rimel, who heads the Pew Charitable Trusts, Foundation (assets: $1.5 billion) in 2006. ters to the editor. and Alberto Ibargüen, former publisher of the Miami Herald who heads the journalism- In 2004 the Sandlers had contributed $13 Reprints are available for $2.50 pre- paid to Capital Research Center. focused John S. and James L. Knight Founda- million to pro-John Kerry 527 organizations– tion (2007 assets: $2.3 billion). (Paul Steiger, including $2.5 million to the MoveOn.org 2 May 2009 FoundationWatch ProPublica founders Herb and Marion Sandler were brutally lampooned on the Oct. 4 “Saturday Night Live” for their role in the subprime mortgage crisis. They sold their S&L, which was weighted down by risky mortgages, to Wachovia. When the housing market went into a tailspin, Wachovia found itself in serious fi nancial trouble. (screen grab above from the show) Voter Fund. After the Kerry defeat, they socially-aware donors. But instead, they are Feeding the Liberal Narrative joined George Soros’s Democracy Alliance fi nding themselves vilifi ed in the mainstream In October 2007 Slate magazine’s Jack Sha- (of fellow billionaires), a group whose mis- media. fer wrote a report on the Sandlers’ political sion was to avoid future political defeats by contributions and theorized that the decision building an organizational infrastructure of But by early this year, the couple found their by the husband-wife team to fund ProPublica liberal think-tanks, leadership schools and way onto Time magazine’s list of “25 People signaled an attempt to use their money and media outlets to rival the imagined “vast to Blame for the Financial Crisis.” Golden infl uence “to return us to the days of the right wing conspiracy.” (See Foundation West had been a pioneer in the creation of partisan press.” Watch, December 2008.) exotic mortgage products such as the option adjustable-rate mortgages, known as ARMs.