Background on the new conservative owner of IowaPolitics.com

The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity has purchased IowaPolitics.com from WisPolitics Publishing, effective April 4. IowaPolitics.com “will continue to provide regular coverage of the Iowa legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government, including agencies and other governmental entities […].”

After the jump I’ve posted some background on the website’s new owner, a 501(c)3 organization that advocates for government transparency but conceals its own donors.

From an IowaPolitics.com press release of April 4:

“We are honored to be working with the terrific staff at IowaPolitics. Their dedication to uncovering the truth and keeping their elected officials accountable has made them a truly remarkable news organization,” said Jason Stverak, president of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.

As part of the Franklin Center, IowaPolitics will continue to provide regular coverage of the Iowa legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government, including agencies and other governmental entities, from the state capital of Des Moines. […]

“IowaPolitics.com is in good hands. I’m confident from what I’ve seen at the Franklin Center’s Wisconsin operation that IowaPolitics.com will provide robust, independent coverage of news events,” said Jeff Mayers, president of WisPolitics Publishing. Mayers will no longer be connected to IowaPolitics.com .

Founded in January of 2009, the Franklin Center is a nonpartisan organization that believes that new technology can advance the cause of transparency in government. The Franklin Center aims to educate, to advise, and to train individuals and organizations from all backgrounds to become thorough, unbiased, and responsible reporters well versed in new media techniques and journalistic integrity.

Stverak has worked for various Republican campaigns and served as political director of the Nebraska GOP and executive director of the North Dakota GOP during the past decade. He does not appear to have worked in journalism prior to running the Franklin Center, but he was regional field director for the conservative Sam Adams Alliance. According to Laura McGann’s must-read Washington Monthly feature on conservative-funded investigative journalism, the Sam Adams Alliance provided the Franklin Center’s initial funding in 2009.

The Franklin Center’s website states that “a belief that new technology can advance the cause of transparency in government” is at the heart of its mission. However, it does not believe in transparency regarding its own operations:

The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity neither accepts nor receives any government or taxpayer-financed grants and relies solely on the generous support of our donors.  The Franklin Center protects the identification of its generous donors and ensures anonymity of all contributions.

McGann noted in her article that the Sam Adams Alliance does not disclose its donors either. I’m no expert in tax law, but I thought that 501(c)3 organizations–unlike 501(c)4s–were required to release that information. The Franklin Center’s 990 form for the 2009 tax year is available at GuideStar.org, and the form reports a little more than $2.9 million in contributions and grants. Where I expected to see a list of donors, I found a “Statement of Donor Anonymity”:

The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity does not provide specific identifying information on its donors on the ground that such disclosure may chill the donors’ First Amendment right to associate in private with the organization.  […] While the other information has been provided on this Schedule B, actual identities have been protected by assigning a number or letter to each donor listed.

I am not aware of any progressive journalism-oriented non-profit taking the same position. It seems to me that if the Franklin Center wants the benefits that go along with 501(c)3 status (individual donors’ gifts are tax-deductible), the organization should comply with with the typical disclosure requirements for a 501(c)3. If anonymity is a priority, the Franklin Center’s board should seek to reclassify the organization as a 501(c)4, and its donors should be willing to forgo the tax deductions.

UPDATE/CORRECTION: 501(c)3s are allowed to keep donors anonymous, but there are strict limits on the kind of political advocacy those organizations can do. Individuals can disclose their gifts to 501(c)3s if they want to receive a tax deduction. I still find it strange that a group dedicated to government transparency would shield the names of all its donors.

McGann reports that little is known about the Franklin Center’s training sessions:

Franklin hosts strategy calls, and an e-mail listserv for conservative reporting organizations, and hosts investigative journalism training sessions for reporters at free-market think tanks and Web sites-at least fifty of them have been invited to attend a training session in June [2010], according to an internal e-mail-but instructs participants not to discuss the event with outsiders. For a little over a year, the group has also been giving grants to state-based conservative think tanks with a free-market bent to hire in-house reporters. But don’t bother asking who’s getting the money. Jason Stverak, the former political operative who runs Franklin, won’t disclose anything about the independent projects his organization is bankrolling (though he’ll have to on his 2009 tax returns). Nor will the directors of the state-based groups that have brought journalists on board say where they got the money to do so.

The Franklin Center’s 2009 tax return lists the following grants to other organizations: $43.412.56 to the Lucy Burns Institute in Wisconsin, $45,000 each to the Pershing Center of Kansas City and the Small Business Foundation Hawaii, $60,000 to the Idaho Freedom Foundation, $74,000 to the Cowboy Free Press of Wyoming, $68,000 to MarylandReporter.com, $150,000 to TN Watch of Tennessee, and $200,000 to the Missouri News Network. The 990 form for the 2010 tax year isn’t yet available.

The Franklin Center did not announce today whether it will be adding staff to IowaPolitics.com. The website currently provides some original reporting for free and exclusive reports to subscribers. Much of its front-page content consists of links to news reports and commentary from various Iowa newspapers, radio stations and websites (including, sometimes, Bleeding Heartland). It will be interesting to see whether the selection of headlines and links starts to tilt more toward conservative or Republican viewpoints.

Iowa already has a conservative news aggregator site, The Bean Walker, established in early 2009. Governor Terry Branstad’s communications director, Tim Albrecht, has run The Bean Walker for much of its existence. He took a leave of absence after joining Branstad’s campaign but started working on The Bean Walker again in September 2010. Albrecht recently told me that “a friend” is running the site for him now. He did not disclose the friend’s identity.

Any comments about Iowa online media are welcome in this thread.

About the Author(s)

desmoinesdem

  • Wait...

    So you’re “no expert in tax law,” but the Franklin Center “should seek to reclassify the organization as a 501(c)4?

    What’s more likely?  That their tax lawyer and/or accountant is flagrantly violating the law, or that you (“no tax expert”) are simply wrong about the applicable legal requirements?

    And you’re “not aware” of any similar progressive organizations handling things this way?  How hard did you look?

    The reason I read this site regularly is that it provides honest, well-reasoned commentary from the left.  This story contains some excellent reporting, but the statements above don’t qualify for that label.

    • I am involved with various 501(c)3s

      I don’t know of any that claim a First Amendment exemption to this rule. It’s possible the Franklin group has found some loophole in the code, but 501(c)3 organizations are supposed to disclose their donors. That’s the trade-off–donors get a tax deduction but can’t be anonymous.

      I didn’t search every progressive media non-profit, but I saw no disclaimer like Franklin’s on the 990s filed by Media Matters or the Foundation for National Progress, for instance. Please correct me if you have found a left-leaning 501(c)3 group that keeps all donors anonymous, and I will correct the post.

      • That's fair...

        I’m not a tax expert either; your argument just seemed pretty thin as stated.  I honestly have no idea whether 501(c)3s are required to disclose anything regarding their donors.

        Do churches disclose their donors?  I believe they’re organized as 501(c)3s…

      • Actually...

        After a bit of online research, every indication I can find is that 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 organizations have the same donor disclosure requirements – that is to say, in most cases, no such requirements.

        Here’s one such resource (although I believe it’s pre-Citizens United):

        http://www.cfinst.org/Press/PR…

        • you are correct

          501(c)3s usually disclose their donors (acknowledging them in annual reports, for instance), but they are not required to do so. I have corrected the piece.

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