The Center for Public Integrity is a left-of-center investigative journalism group headquartered in Washington, D.C. While the organization is ostensibly nonpartisan for tax purposes, a majority of its investigations center around sensationalizing activity of Republicans and conservatives both inside and outside of government.
The group publishes news articles and has published dozens of books since its founding in 1989 by journalist Charles Lewis. Current investigations led by the Center for Public Integrity center around money in politics, sensationalizing the policy work of libertarian philanthropists Charles and David Koch. It has been highly critical of the Trump administration and has asked supporters to “Scour our searchable, sortable and public database of Trump administration financial disclosures to probe the mysterious companies contained within.”2
Funding
The Center for Public Integrity has received contributions from a number of left-leaning foundation funders including the Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network Fund, Foundation to Promote Open Society, Knight Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation.3 The foundation has stated that it no longer accepts corporate gifts, but it takes money from the private foundations of many of the richest Americans including actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Overview
The Center for Public Integrity was founded by Charles Lewis, a former news producer, in 1989. Lewis led the organization from its founding until 2005. During the years Lewis ran the group it authored 14 books and 250 investigative reports.
The Center has had 6 different CEOs since founder Charles Lewis left the organization. In the aftermath of his departure, two succeeding CEOs, Bill Buzenberg and Roberta Baskin, publicly quibbled about the cause of poor fundraising efforts by the center in the time since Lewis left the organization.6
Criticism
Much of the operations of the center have led many to question the stated nonpartisan mission of the Center for Public Integrity. The center bills itself as nonpartisan yet often reserves its most intricate opposition research for free market organizations and Republican politicians. Critics have charged the Center for engaging in “activist journalism.” 0){
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