A $1.5-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to ABC News has led some observers to wonder why the philanthropy is helping a for-profit news organization.
The grant is also raising further questions about the Seattle foundation’s growing involvement in journalism.
The financial commitment from Gates, announced last week, is helping ABC News conduct a yearlong report on global health, a primary focus of the foundation’s work. The news outlet is putting up $4.5-million.
But Marc Cooper, a journalist and faculty member at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism, says it’s “grotesque” that ABC News—which is owned by Disney and reportedly pays anchor Diane Sawyer a salary of at least $12-million—is taking money from Gates.
He also questions why the Gates foundation is giving that money to ABC News, rather than directly to the health projects that ABC will be discussing in its reporting.
As Mr. Cooper then notes, this criticism “doesn’t even address the possible issue of conflict of interest.” He asks: Will the ABC News coverage look into possible corruption or inefficiencies in Gates-backed projects?
Mr. Cooper says he doesn’t think so. And other observers who have noted the foundation’s growing interest in backing news-media projects continue to raise similar questions.
The Columbia Journalism Review has published two articles on the Gates foundation’s growing support of news-media organizations, the second of which discusses grants to ABC and to the Guardian, the British newspaper that recently unveiled a new section on global poverty co-sponsored by the Gates foundation.
Robert Fortner, the article’s author, says that despite agreements in both cases that the news outlets will have editorial independence, there are “reasons to worry.”
The Guardian‘s special coverage of global development doesn’t appear in the paper’s news section, Mr. Fortner writes, sowing confusion among readers about whether it is straight journalism or advocacy.
Although the Guardian recently raised questions about the Gates foundation’s approach to agriculture, and its financial investments in the agribusiness Monsanto, much of the newspaper’s coverage of Gates has been fawning, Mr. Fortner says.
In the first article of the series, Mr. Fortner alleges bias in how the Kaiser Family Foundation selects news articles for its daily online digest of stories on global health, which the Gates foundation supports.
He concludes: “The effect, intentional or not, of Gates funding of the Guardian and other media organizations is to reduce coverage that holds the foundation accountable, even as Melinda Gates maintains that such criticism is welcome and beneficial. ”
What do you think of the Gates grant to ABC News? Do you think the foundation’s financial backing of news-media organizations will result in fewer stories that hold the grant maker accountable? And is it a wise use of the foundation’s money to support journalism efforts?
7 Responses to Why Is the Gates Foundation Giving So Much Money to Journalists?
bonniekoenig - October 12, 2010 at 11:09 am
Caroline – Excellent article and you outline the issues and questions raised well. Although I understand and appreciate the concerns being raised I am not convinced this is an entirely bad thing. Global Health needs attention in the U.S. and other developed nations for a commitment to the Millennium Development Goals and other aid to be maintained by governments. I posed the following question on Twitter when the ABC announcement first came out: If you were a foundation (or a donor with a lot of money) and wanted to put money into educating the public on issues like Global Health where would you put it?
philippeboucher - October 12, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Why aren’t we told how much was the “grant” given to the Guardian? Nor the Foundation, nor the Guardian answer this question while the amount provided to ABC is public.
As long as the partnership is public and transparent, why not supporting professional journalists?
The Gates Foundation is intent on having stories told that are usually not told and I can agree with this concern. What are the best ways to get such stories produced and disseminated?
Partnerships like the ones with The Guardian and ABC are one option but there are many others including supporting local journalists in developing countries, helping them to tell the stories with the most modern tools and also in their own languages and not only in English.
Tobacco Control in Africa
http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/africa
franklyann - October 12, 2010 at 6:12 pm
It is a good article, but let’s face it if we want news agencies to talk about global health or poverty someone is going to have to pay them to do it & it certainly won’t be Corporate America. So I say THANK YOU to the Gates Foundation for stepping up to increase the public awareness of what is truly important to the future of us all.
leoniehaimson - October 12, 2010 at 7:28 pm
You didn’t mention the travesty that was NBC’s “Education Nation” co-sponsored by Gates (and Broad and University of Phoenix). A more biased and pathetic demonstration of propaganda has rarely been seen. And what about the recent controversy over the LA Times publication of teachers’ unreliable value-added test scores? Who funded that?
kevin_johnson - October 15, 2010 at 8:28 pm
This article raises larger questions about the relationship with journalism and the nonprofit world. Since January 1st this year more than 2,393 newspaper jobs were cut in the United States. See the facts at http://graphicdesignr.net/papercuts/
Nonprofits NEED Reporters. ith fewer reporters at all levels, it is likely only the largest groups or most dramatic stories will be covered.
With fewer reporters and dramatically different distribution channels for information, will policy makers and community decision makers get the information that will help them make the right big-picture decisions? Plus, more than they suspect or acknowledge, nonprofit organizations rely on validation provided by news and feature stories that reporters write and produce.
From the group that works with pre-school children, to others that help feed those in need, to those making sure we have clean water, all rely upon fact-based digging by reporters. With a greatly reduced supply of information, how will this affect the nature of public and private interactions and decisions?
There is more to transparency than news stories. It is the ability of donors and community members to get the right information in a timely manner, in a useful form, and then be able to use or understand that data. Often reporters not only accumulated data from hard- to-find sources, they also interpreted it. The result was a valuable service. How will it be replaced?
As a result of these accelerating changes there are issues that will have to be addressed by nonprofits wishing to strive in the coming years.
• How will you provide donors, supporters, policy makers with the news that need to make decisions that affect your work?
• What will you do to ensure the information you need to be successful reaches the people you need to reach?
• What data do other organizations and those linked to your mission work need?
• Will you need to tell “both sides of the story” as your role changes and there is a greater need to present the other side of the story in a fair manner?
chroniclececp - October 20, 2010 at 1:19 pm
A recent article by Judith Samuelson “What Civil Society Needs,” in the Stanford Social Innovation Review discussed how strengthening civil society by supporting the news media, which has been weakened by the commercial pressures it faces, is overlooked. She describes “the precarious state of the civic media and the need for philanthropic intervention…. Their continued decline poses a distinct threat to the health of civil society.” This example of non-profit support of journalism just may indicate that philanthropy is willing and able to take on this task.
caro2675 - October 28, 2010 at 11:44 am
Thanks for all the great comments.
I thought I’d share a few other discussions of this topic -
Tom Paulson, a reporter, writes on Humanosphere that philanthropy should support the news media, but such arrangements need to be done extremely carefully, and completely in the open:
http://humanosphere.kplu.org/2010/10/thoughts-on-the-gates-foundation-paying-media-to-cover-global-health-and-development/
Alanna Shaikh, an aid worker, writes about the challenges of communicating to people and donors about global-health work:
http://endtheneglect.org/2010/10/global-health-the-marketing-and-the-programming/
The Puget Sound Business Journal reports on some additional Gates foundation grants to journalism efforts:
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2010/09/guardian_is_gates_latest_advocate.html
–Caroline Preston, The Chronicle of Philanthropy