Shot in the Dark

Anonymous Funding

We – local center-right bloggers – spend a lot of time beating on the Minnesota Monitor, the local group leftyblog funded by a variety of liberals with deep pockets.

Part of it, of course, is the extremely shoddy level of “Journalism” that some of their “citizen journalists” – who were, at last report, paid $1,500 a month for their efforts, a princely sum in the world of blogs – exhibit, as well as their seeming unwillingness to follow their own “Code of Ethics” – itself a matter of longstanding derision.

But at the end of the day, it’s all about following the money. Minnesota Monitor is funded by a group called the Center for Independent Media, a group that started life sharing offices with the George Soros-funded attack-PR firm “Media Matters for America”. They initially denied any connection (and the CIM eventually relocated its offices) – but the Monitor and the CIM has been pretty mum about its funding.

Which doesn’t mean the truth isn’t out there somewhere.

Learned Foot at KAR has been doing some digging:

Well, wonder no longer! While MinnMon and CIM aren’t forthcoming about their sources of income, at least we now know where $100,000 of it came from:

$100,000 to the Center for Independent Media. This grant will support the Center’s efforts to strengthen its New Journalist Program by establishing a national branch in Washington, DC. The fellowship program, with operations currently in Colorado, Minnesota and Iowa, mentors and trains state-based political news bloggers in investigative reporting with the aim of creating a robust corps of citizen journalists to add diversity and local expertise to media coverage of important issues. Fellows serving in the New Journalist Washington DC Program will focus their coverage on Congress, federal agencies, the presidency, Supreme Court and the influence of lobbying, the national press corps and campaign finance.

From the Sunlight Foundation! And what is the Sunlight Foundation’s raison d’etre?

Transparency! In government!

If a website actively rejects transparancy in the woods and nobody hears them…

…no, wait. Foot is fixing that.

And I don’t think he’s done yet.

UPDATE:  Either is Jeff “El Jeffe” Kouba, who’s dug a little further still.

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Mitch Berg

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Comments

11 responses to “Anonymous Funding”

  1. Master of None Avatar
    Master of None

    “Learned Foot at KAR has been doing some digging:”

    Holy Crap, what’s a guy got to do to get a hat tip?

  2. Truth v. The Machine » Archives » Transparency for thee… and for me

    […] Over at KAR, Learned Foot put on his rubber gloves, reached down into the roiling leachate of Democratic finances, and pulled out this gold nugget about one source of funding for Minnesota Monitor. (h/t Shot in the Dark) Well, wonder no longer! While MinnMon and CIM aren’t forthcoming about their sources of income, at least we now know where $100,000 of it came from. … From the Sunlight Foundation! And what is the Sunlight Foundation’s raison d’etre? […]

  3. LearnedFoot Avatar
    LearnedFoot

    I had it before you left your comment and Mitch has the e-mail to prove it.

  4. Kermit Avatar
    Kermit

    “Center-right bloggers” I’m suprised the Greasepaint Kid didn’t jump all over that one.

  5. Master of None Avatar
    Master of None

    Don’t need to prove it…..

    I’d still like to know the tax status of CIM. Can a 501(c)(3) give money to a 527? Doesn’t seem right.

  6. jb Avatar
    jb

    Master asked:

    “I’d still like to know the tax status of CIM. Can a 501(c)(3) give money to a 527? Doesn’t seem right.”

    Well, Foot is onna them fancy law-talking guys so he should know the answer to this question.

    He didn’t waste 5 grand on his degree from the Hollywood Upstairs Law School for nothin’.

  7. zestro Avatar
    zestro

    Great work!

    Tsk,tsk

    Among the facts uncovered that I see right away is Jeffrey Fecke in the Minnesota branch can’t follow directions from DC very well.

    “Fellows serving in the New Journalist Washington DC Program will focus their coverage on Congress, federal agencies, the presidency, Supreme Court and the influence of lobbying, the national press corps and campaign finance. ”

    Nowhere do I see those “serving in the New Journalist Washington DC Program will lurk in the comments sections of local bloggers.”

  8. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Nowhere do I see those “serving in the New Journalist Washington DC Program will lurk in the comments sections of local bloggers.”

    No, he does that in his off time.

  9. Master of None Avatar
    Master of None

    Fecky is not in the DC program. We’re stuck with him here in MN.

  10. Master of None Avatar
    Master of None

    If CIM is a 501(c)(3), then Fecke’s latest post
    http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2086
    violates IRS regulations against a 501(c)(3) from distributing campaign statements.

  11. Shot in the Dark » Blog Archive » Just To Be Perfectly Clear On Things

    […] Back before the Minnesota Monitor even started publishing, I got a tip from a source that said the “Center for Independent Media”, a group that “rented” office space from the George Soros-funded Media Matters for America, was going to be funding “grassroots citizen media” outlets, and was looking for reliably liberal bloggers to write for them.  So – going back to the summer/fall of 2006 – I and quite a number of center-right bloggers, in the interest of clarity, started asking the Monitor and its management (at that time, Robin “Rew” Marty of Powerliberal) where the money came from – who, indeed, were the “liberals with deep pockets” that were fronting the Monitor writers’ “stipends”? […]

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