To:\u00a0 MPR News
\nFrom:\u00a0 Mitch Berg,Uppity Peasant
\nRe:\u00a0 Re-Joyce And Be Glad<\/p>\n
MPR,<\/p>\n
Last week, in a similar open letter to the management at the news-blog MinnPost<\/em>, I asked how they squared the fact that they were accepting sponsorship for their “news” coverage – let alone sponsorship from non-profit issue advocacy groups and the government that journalists are supposed to hold accountable <\/a>– with professional journalism’s purported ideals and ethics.<\/p>\n These ideals are – we are told – set forth in the “Society of Professional Journalists’ “Code of Ethics<\/a>“.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now – in 2011, MPR accepted a grant from the Joyce Foundation <\/a>supporting the production of a series, “Following the Firearm<\/a>“.\u00a0\u00a0 As Joyce notes…:<\/p>\n The Center selected reporters working in the Great Lakes region and awarded them fellowships to enable them to undertake in-depth investigative reporting projects. The fellows also attended workshops to learn from experts in gun crime and gun policy. MPR News reporter Brandt Williams spent four months researching the story. The four-part series looks at the sources of Minneapolis crime guns, sentencing for gun crimes, the impact of gun violence on the African American community, and the challenges surrounding firearm tracing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now, as has been noted in this space, the Joyce Foundation is the primary sponsor of gun control groups in the United States.\u00a0 They donate a lot of money to groups like Michael Bloomberg’s “Mayors Against Illegal Guns<\/a>“, the Violence Policy Center <\/a>(whose “research” on Second Amendment issues is notable for its strident inaccuracy)…<\/p>\n …and the MinnPost<\/em><\/a>, whose own “journalism” on the subject has been increasingly suspect for the past year or so; the MinnPost\u00a0<\/em>would seem to have turned into a PR <\/a>firm for the “Gun Safety” movement.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n But enough about them; let’s talk about MPR.<\/p>\n The SPJ Code of Ethics’ “Accountability” section says that the journalist should…:<\/p>\n \u00a0Your series aired back in 2011 – and to be fair, it presented factual information without pushing a political point of view especially overtly.\u00a0 But neither did it go out of its way – in my opinion as a news consumer, activist on the subject and one-time reporter – to present much considered dissent from material supporting\u00a0Joyce’s desired narrative, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n Which would make for an interesting parlor discussion – not that MPR News is especially interested in parlor discussions with people outside the Journo tribe.\u00a0<\/p>\n But beyond that?\u00a0 About a month after the Joyce-sponsored series ran on MPR, the MPR News\u00a0website published a commentary piece by Heather Martens <\/a>– director and one of very few members of “Protect Minnesota”, a gun-control group.\u00a0 The piece was notable for its complete absence of fact<\/a>; every single non-numeric assertion made in the “Commentary” was false.\u00a0 Every single one.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n And since I can’t imagine MPR News would publish a commentary by, say, a 9\/11 Truther, or someone who favors white supremacy on biological grounds at all, much less without some sort of dissenting comment, I thought it was odd that MPR News granted her the bandwidth they did.<\/p>\n\n