In other words, local news outlets are failing in their jobs, simply publishing cult screeds fed to them
Mysterious eco group is funding local climate journalism: ‘Advocacy dressed up as news reporting’
climate change joke
A little-known environmental organization founded by the heir of a billion-dollar fortune has quietly organized large grants for local news outlets to boost climate change coverage and, sometimes, hire new climate reporters.
The North Carolina-based 1Earth Fund states on its website that it was founded to “fund cost-effective communication projects that can reach audiences across the political divide.” The group markets itself as a counter to “disinformation campaigns” funded by fossil fuel companies.
While little else is publicly shared about 1Earth Fund’s operations, the group adds on its site that it funds “projects like Connected Coastlines,” a nationwide climate reporting initiative in coastal states overseen by the Pulitzer Center. The project’s list of partners includes The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Seattle Times and Orlando Sentinel. (snip)
One such reporting project is titled “State of Change” and is based in North Carolina. The Pulitzer Center highlights six grantees who are journalists tasked with showcasing “the effects of climate change: sea level rise, ocean acidification, coastal erosion, more powerful storms, global warming, etc., and its impact on communities and individuals.” Their work has largely been published by a local PBS affiliate. (snip)
In addition, 1Earth Fund has partnered with various non-profit organizations to send direct grants to newsrooms located throughout the Southeast. The grants include a $65,000 grant to USA Today affiliate Wilmington News-Star in North Carolina, a $50,000 grant to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) in Georgia and a grant to The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun in North Carolina. Articles published in the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina have also been funded by a 1Earth Fund grant.
So, basically, these newsrooms have abandoned their independence and journalistic integrity to publish cult advocacy pieces.
Articles produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund grants or by reporters funded by such grants often promote green energy and warn of dangers posed by global warming.
Examples published over the last 12 months include a News & Observer story with the headline “Sea change: NC is starting to make progress on wind energy, but lags other states” and a Winston-Salem Journal article titled “100% green energy in NC would cut costs, spark job growth, study says.”
That N&O one sounds familiar.
Still, the newspapers that have received financial support from 1Earth Fund have said the group doesn’t influence their editorial judgment. When asked about 1Earth Fund’s ties to the Southwire Company, a spokesperson for the AJC said the outlet maintains “strict editorial independence at all times to protect journalistic integrity.”
BS
“The notion that McClatchy doesn’t consider the agenda of the special interest donors who pay their reporters’ salaries is ridiculous,” Daniel Sr. (chairman of the NC Ag Partnership) said. “We’re entering a startling new frontier when secretive donor networks pay journalists who claim their work is ‘objective.’”
It’s typical shady media stuff.
“My” McClatchy newspaper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, has ‘arrangements’ with outside sources to provide content or pay for some or all of a reporter’s salary. But let’s face facts: without these things, many newspapers would simply not survive. What my best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal is a shadow of its former self, and if it weren’t for their coverage of University of Kentucky sports, would probably lose another third of its current subscribers.
The Herald-Liberal is completely out-of-touch with the people of Kentucky and the sixth congressional district. I went through their endorsements from 2014 through 2022, all of them were for the Democratic candidates . . . and all of their recommendations were rejected by the voters of the Commonwealth as a whole, and the sixth district individually. The only exception was the 2019 gubernatorial race, in which incumbent Governor Matt Bevin, a Republican, had angered the teachers, and he lost statewide by about 5,000 votes. It’s a shame he wasn’t re-elected, because we wouldn’t have had Reichsstatthalter Andy Beshear (NSDAP-KY) and his illegal and unconstitutional COVID executive orders.
It’s not even smaller, local newspapers which are in trouble. Jeff Bezos saved The Washington Post, but even with that, he has had the temerity to want the newspaper to do something radical like show a profit, and the Post is losing money. If even the Post is losing money, imagine how bad things are for smaller newspapers.
I’ve noted some of the begging letters from the
LeftistLenfest Institute for Journalism, which owns The Philadelphia Inquirer, our nation’s third oldest continuously published daily newspaper. I have said it before: if I were a billionaire, I’d do what Jeff Bezos did, and but the Inquirer, and clean house. The Inky won’t report any politically incorrect news anymore, due to publisher Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Hughes decree that it would be an “anti-racist news organization,” and “anti-racist” apparently means not reporting at all on anything which might throw shade on any non-white, homosexual, or minority groups. I’d have the newspaper report all the news, regardless of who was offended.The Louisville Courier-Journal was once a top newspaper, but it has fallen on hard times as well, and now owned by Gannett, it’s basically a few local and sports pages wrapped around USA Today.
Lt. Michael Byrd
NEVER FORGET, NEVER FORGIVE
#LetsGoBrandon
Bwaha! Lolgf
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