ProPublica Exposed: A Pseudo Alternative with $26 Million Dollars in Secret Mega-Donors Funding
by alethoBy Sibel Edmonds | Boiling Frogs | September 8, 2013
On September 7, 2013, the daring website, Cryptome, published and publicized the tax reports filed by one of the dime-a-dozen pseudo alternative online publications-ProPublica.
The stunning IRS 990 forms filed by this new flashy tax-exempt online
news organization expose a secretive operation funded by millions of
dollars received from secret entities:
ProPublica Tax Report for 2011 lists $10,000,000 (Ten Million Dollars) private funding from Anonymous (Secret) Donors: Click HereProPublica Tax Report for 2010 lists $10,000,000 (Ten Million Dollars) private funding from Anonymous (Secret) Donors: Click HereProPublica Tax Report for 2009 lists $ 6,000,000 (Six Millions Dollars) private funding from Anonymous (Secret) Donors: Click Here
That
is correct. ProPublica, in the first three years of its existence and
operation, has received $26,000,000 (26 Million Dollars) funding from
secret donors.
The tax-exempt, 501 (C) (3) NGO was established and began operation
in June 2008. When you look at the established date of their operation,
and their first 990 tax form filed in 2009, you see that, right from
the start, before even establishing any track record, their
founders-operators were able to collect $6,000,000.
Well, if you look at ProPublica’s founders and operators the above facts will start making sense:
- ProPublica was founded by Paul Steiger, the former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal
- Propublica is managed and led by Stephen Engelberg, the former investigative editor of The New York Times
- Propublica is run and directed by Richard Tofel, the former assistant publisher of The Wall Street Journal
Let’s
sum it up: Three individuals, major participants and players from the
US mainstream media, from entities long known as intimate propaganda
arms of the US government, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times,
got together and said: The alternative media is taking off with the
public, so let’s set up shop and pose as one. After all, the
establishment is smart enough to not put all its eggs in one basket-in
this case, the mainstream outlet.
With
their established record as mainstream players who understood the
importance of government-imposed propaganda and the role of controlled
opposition fronts, the trio set up shop with window-dressing that
distorted them and made them look like a Watch-Dog Independent
Alternative media outlet – in a posh office with an Uber Expensive
Manhattan address.
Right
from the start, with the government and the establishment’s backing
they positioned them in the forefront as a major player by: 1-quickly
securing $6,000,000 upfront seed money from secret donors; 2-smoothly
establishing their shop-business as a tax-exempt 501 (C) (3) NGO with
the US government
Isn’t
it amazing how a supposedly alternative watchdog that is supposedly
working to expose dark secret deals for greater transparency and public
awareness happens to be a mega-funded business with secret mega-donors?!
I tried my best to comb through their site, hoping to get a glimpse of these generous funders who have given ProPublica
$26,000,000. But, no such luck. If I were a betting woman, I’d put my
money on the same-o-same-o mega corporate foundations- the 1%: Soros,
Rockefellers, Carnegie, Ford … You know who we’re looking at and talking
about here, no?
I would say that even more appalling than having $26,000,000 from secret donors is the fact that ProPublica
wants much more: They want uninformed and gullible individuals, our
average hard-working Janes & Johns, to dish out donations and
recurring subscriptions, and enrich the already very rich operators of
this so-called alternative business. How bold and daring of ProPublica !
Think
about it, during these tough economic times, while even the mainstream
is struggling to make ends meet (despite backing from billionaires,
government and corporate advertisers), ProPublica has received
$26, 000,000 and more from its secret admirers within the
mega-billionaire circle. Why? Since when do the Uber Corporate players
and their foundations have a desire for transparency-seeking and Pro-Public
media sources? Obviously, they don’t want any transparency when it
comes to their money and where their mega-dollars go. Otherwise, why
remain so very anonymous and secret? Right?
~
Aletho News adds that ProPublica seems to have a thing about Iran and Hezbollah:
- The Terror Threat and Iran’s Inroads in Latin America
- U.S. Sues To Recover $446 Million From Hezbollah-Connected Firms
- Government Says Hezbollah Profits From U.S. Cocaine Market Via Link to Mexican Cartel
- Before Deadly Bulgaria Bombing, Tracks of a Resurgent Iran-Hezbollah Threat
- Shadow War: Hezbollah’s Hand Seen In Bombing of Israeli Bus
- How Hezbollah Trained an Operative to Spy on Israeli Tourists
Salting
"public interest" news and commentary with warmongering pieces
furthering Israel's aggressive aims deserves exposure and LobeLog has done just that. In July, Jim Lobe deconstructed the ProPublica piece, The Terror Threat and Iran’s Inroads in Latin America. His take on ProPublica's smear Iran pieces:
What virtually all of them have in common is the heavy reliance on anonymous intelligence sources; a mixture of limited original reporting combined with lots of recycled news; a proclivity for citing highly ideological, often staunchly hawkish neoconservative “experts” on Middle East issues from such think tanks as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) without identifying them as such; a surprising deference (considering his status as an investigative reporter) toward “official” accounts or reports by friendly security agencies, some of which work very closely with their Israeli counterpart...
Lobe's article, ProPublica and the Fear Campaign Against Iran is worth reading in its entirety.
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