Maine's biggest paper shenanigans

By Ted Cohen, staff reports

Maine's largest newspaper failed to clearly spell out for readers that a liberal group funded a big story on conservative advocacy it just published.

The second problem is this is the second time the paper has pulled a similar stunt in just a week.

In the most recent incident, the paper published a blowout four-page saga - on parents-rights' groups funded by conservatives trying to upend school-board meetings - that began on Page 1 and continued inside.

The Maine Sunday Telegram led with it and ran three full pages on it inside. It was clearly painted as a major editorial effort. All Maine Trust for Local News Sunday papers ran it.

At the end of the online story is this tagline:

"This project was made possible in part through a grant from ... the Joyce Foundation."

What is the Joyce Foundation? Too bad the paper didn't fully explain that.

The Joyce Foundation claims it's non partisan. But non-profit watchdogs such as Influencewatch.org says it's left of center.

According to InfluenceWatch.org, "The Joyce Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Chicago that finances advocacy for gun control, environmental causes, and liberal education policy; opposition to right-of-center election reforms; and left-of-center nonprofit media outlets."

So let's unpack this.

The paper does an "investigation" about conservative and christian-right forces impacting local school boards - and the project is funded by a liberal group not clearly described in the story.

Did Executive Editor Carolyn Fox approve the support from a liberal organization about a story on conservative tactics without fully explaining to readers the implications?

Meanwhile, the Joyce Foundation's website says: "We invest in evidence-informed public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin."

And later on the site the foundation says it is "supporting high-quality journalism projects focused on public policy issues affecting the Great Lakes region."

So how suddenly did Maine suddenly get into its geographical crosshairs? That needs explaining.

The bottom line is an otherwise well-reported story is tainted by the connection to a liberal group that the paper fails to fully explain.

If the paper is trying to reach an expanded readership to include more conservatives, it cut its own throat by hiding the liberal politics of the story's financial support.

Conservatives can't trust the reporting when they learn it was connected in some way to a left-leaning foundation.

All that work and ink for nothing.

Worse, it was a repeat performance.

To wit, the paper just days ago pulled a similar stunt, publishing a story criticizing the health-insurance industry that was secretly sourced by an insurance-lobbying group.

Stay tuned for the next blooper.