posted on: Thursday, March 12, 2009

By Gary Snyder

I received a call from a student in a Master’s program in journalism at a prestigious university. She saw several articles that I had written. They peaked her interest. We spent a protracted period of time discussing my background, her interests and her needs to complete her project on investigative journalism. I sent her some background material.

Her call was similar to many that I have received from students, journalists and other media, over the years. Many resulted in inaction. Most were dissuaded or stopped in their attempt to tackle the unlawful acts in the charitable sector.I suggested that her professor would probably not let her engage in a topic that was as controversial as nonprofit malfeasance.

A journalist future career is plagued by uncertainty in the face of the declining readership. She is faced with personal obstacles as well as the challenges of the current climate of nonprofit investigative journalism.

For decades we have taken newspaper investigations as a way of life. Large newspapers such as the Washington Post and the New York Times have exposed major corruption in the charitable world. Regional and smaller newspapers like the San Jose Mercury News, Palm Beach Post, The Sun News (South Carolina), Atlanta Journal Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Virgin Islands Daily News, St. Petersburg Times are just a few gutsy newspapers that I have worked with that are willing to stand up against considerable pressure and publish stories that that have resulted in indictments and convictions.

Newspapers are in danger. Our flagships dailies---New York Times and the Washington Post--- are in trouble. The Tribune Co. (Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun) is cutting staff. The growing list of papers shutting down, or about to, are the Rocky Mountain News, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Miami Herald. Unfortunately, these are just the tip of the iceberg.

With the U.S. newspaper industry has entered a period of precipitous decline, the public good is going to suffer. With the retrenchment at the newspapers comes the reduction of journalists that are assigned to charitable investigative reporting. Fewer journalists have the unique skills to plow through the piles of documents to decipher nonprofit corruption. With the loss of the reporters, sources that enable journalist to break great stories are gone

An article in the New York Times highlighted the corruption in the charitable world and generated national and provocative responses. With denial from the nonprofit leadership there was virtually no follow-up, which precluded thoughtful and substantive debate. With the shrinkage of hard media journalists this creates an environment rife for charitable abuse.

Pablo Eisenberg of Georgetown University has suggested buying and stabilizing newspapers as a “contribution to the health of our democratic society.” Others have suggested that capital from philanthropists or foundations pay for the training and salaries may be the answer.

Without courageous newspapers and journalists and the alarms that they generate, charity misbehaving will increasingly become the norm.



Gary R. Snyder is the author of Nonprofits: On the Brink. He is a frequent lecturer and author of articles in numerous publications and blogs. His email is http://gary.r.snyder@gmail.com; website: http://garyrsnyder.com, phone: 248.324.3700.