Commentary Was Misguided

To the Editor:

Concerning Rick Edmonds’s report for the Poynter Institute that is the basis for his commentary, “Foundations and Journalism: an Awkward Fit” (May 31):

To borrow from Robert Frost, soured partnerships make for bad case studies of journalism ethics.

In Mr. Edmonds’s Poynter Report, Rick Tulsky’s experience at the Center for Investigative Reporting is used to highlight how foundation or corporate sponsors of journalism may have an ax to grind.

While the larger point is a valid one, I beg to differ with any impression that Mr. Tulsky departed from the Center for Investigative Reporting over ethical concerns and disagreements. As far as the center is concerned, he left because of differences over management and performance. I am sure he sees it differently, but that is the nature of soured relationships.

The bottom line for the center is that we don’t bend good journalism to foundation ax-grinding (we don’t receive corporate sponsorship). Any suggestion that we do is incorrect, or at most, the opinion of someone who left the organization on less-than-cordial terms.

In addition, I would point out that Mr. Edmonds’s commentary for The Chronicle does not include a response from someone at the Center for Investigative Reporting who worked on the mining documentary in question to give another perspective. This is basic and fair reporting.

Since I worked full time on the mining program, and later co-authored a follow-up story for The New York Times, I can assure Chronicle readers that I, as well as other key people at the Center for Investigative Reporting who worked on the mining program more closely than Rick Tulsky, did not feel “like a paid hand of the foundation, producing fodder for Jones’s environmental agenda.” In fact, the producer of the documentary in question, Stephen Talbot, had almost no sense that W. Alton Jones and four other funders provided additional support for the documentary. I hope readers of Mr. Edmonds’s commentary will understand there is another viewpoint to the events he describes.

Dan Noyes
Editorial Director and Co-Founder
Center for Investigative Reporting
San Francisco