CSU Fresno Partnering With Fresno Bee to Raise Nonprofit Money to Report about Rep. Devin Nunes

A newspaper partners with a university on a long-term media project, creates a non-profit foundation, which then pays reporters to go after a sitting Congressman. What could go wrong?

California State University Fresno is partnering with the Fresno Bee, a McClatchy newspaper, to raise non-profit money to report about Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA).

McClatchy’s Shaky Financial Outlook

“McClatchy, the newspaper chain and media conglomerate, has been caught deliberately printing easy-to-prove-false fake news regarding a key GOP congressman at the center of the hoax investigations Democrats are using to target President Donald Trump, then turning around and using said false reports to financially boost the company amid serious concerns about the company’s falling stock price,” Breitbart reported.

“McClatchy’s financial outlook is now so bad that the company received a warning in September of this year from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) that it will be delisted if it does not get its act together financially, with the NYSE giving McClatchy 18 months to come into compliance with its standards, otherwise it will lose its listing.”

“A McClatchy newspaper is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to support its education reporting,” Nieman Labs said in an article, which also reported:

“While McClatchy tries to suss out what might work locally — some Google News Initiative money is supporting an experimental trio of new sites, and CEO Craig Forman is still expecting “greater digital advertising revenues in the future” — there’s a newfound opportunity in The Fresno Bee’s local philanthropic community, focusing on education journalism.” 

The Bee also has the wild card of having its high-profile congressman suing the outlet (and a Twitter cow). Republican Devin Nunes, who has played a significant supporting role in various elements of the Trump-Russia investigation, filed a defamation lawsuit against McClatchy in April over an article mentioning others’ certain party behavior involving a winery he has invested in. He’s been outspoken about his hometown paper before, saying that the Bee works with “radical left-wing groups” to advance “fake news”.

The situation has placed quite a spotlight on the news outlet, but it’s also given the Bee an opportunity to draw financial contributions from supporters beyond a subscription or advertisement. “There are many people who read about The Fresno Bee’s coverage of Devin Nunes and wanted to help,” Gustus said. “Previously we didn’t have an outlet for those people. Now we do. That’s big — it reframes our relationship with the community.”

The nonprofit is also financially benefiting the Bee by relieving the newspaper some of its payroll costs, while the Fresno Bee’s corporate foundation is using corporate funds for the anti-Devin Nunes project.

Former Bee executive editor to become institute’s first executive director

“Fresno State has established the Institute for Media and Public Trust to study media literacy and “fake news,” and develop strategies to restore trust in all forms of media,” the Fresno Bee reported. “What resulted is the Impact Media Fund – a fiscal sponsorship that will manage and fund projects and programs that drive transformation and improve our community through solutions-oriented journalism.

To solidify the relationship between Fresno State and the Bee, “The first executive director of the new institute will be former Fresno Bee executive editor Jim Boren.”

“Fresno State President Joseph Castro said the First Amendment will be at the center of the institute’s work,” the Bee reported. Notably, Fresno State President Joseph Castro has also contributed to the Institute for Media and Public Trust as one of the Founding Partners.

Is This Legal?

The Globe spoke with an attorney about the blending of the non-profit institute at Fresno State and the Bee. The attorney who asked that her/his name not be shared out of concern for retribution in the pages of the Bee. “Under the law, the tax-exempt status of a nonprofit is blown whenever a party that ultimately controls the nonprofit (i.e. the Bee) receives any kind of private inurement or benefit from the nonprofit’s operation,” the attorney said.

The Fresno Bee decided to spend most of its energy attacking Nunes—and has, through the parent company McClatchy, which dispatched the organization’s congressional correspondent Kate Irby to write an extraordinary amount of pieces about him, Breitbart found. Irby has written, since Aug. 1, a total of 35 articles. Seventeen of them, nearly half of the work she has done in the past couple months, have been about Nunes.

“Irby’s inaccurate story is not the only one the Fresno Bee ran making these false claims against Nunes. The newspaper actually ran an unsigned editorial by its ‘McClatchy California Opinion Editors’ that furthers the false smear against the congressman,” Breitbart said.

The Fresno Bee’s unsigned editorial also falsely includes Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), falsely claiming that McClintock was a member of the House Intelligence Committee. But that did not stop the Fresno Bee from inaccurately claiming that he sits on the committee. He does not.

This is stunning. As Breitbart notes, “McClatchy, the newspaper chain and media conglomerate, has been caught deliberately printing easy-to-prove-false fake news regarding a key GOP congressman at the center of the hoax investigations Democrats are using to target President Donald Trump, then turning around and using said false reports to financially boost the company amid serious concerns about the company’s falling stock price.”