Wisconsin Reporter

The Wisconsin Reporter is an online state news website funded by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. The site launched in January 2011 as a division of StateHouseNews. The Franklin Center funds reporters in over 40 states. Despite their non-partisan description, many of the websites funded by the Franklin Center have received criticism for their conservative bias.

In August 2011, the Wisconsin Reporter was accused by State Democratic Party Spokesperson Graeme Zielinski of using off-record comments, butchering quotes and not correcting the record when it was called to its attention. The questionable quotation came from Zielinski as a response to Governor Scott Walker’s claim that the state had added more than half of the jobs created in the nation in June 2011. The article had supported this claim, but not the statement from the Democratic spokesperson.

In February 2011, the outlet supported a poll that claimed 71% of Wisconsin residents thought Walker's budget proposal to cut the collective bargaining rights of most of the state's public sector workers was 'fair.' The suspiciously high percentage caused some to question the source of the poll.

As part of the application process to land a job at the Wisconsin Reporter, applicants must answer questions like: “How do free markets help the poor?” and “do higher taxes lead to balanced budgets?”

An ALEC Ally
The Wisconsin Reporter is a vehicle for promoting ideologically-based wire stories about state legislation and politics, and is a division of StateHouse News, a product of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. The Franklin Center is an ALEC member, sponsor, and exhibitor. The Franklin Center’s stated mission is "networking and training independent investigative reporters, as well as journalists from state based news organizations, public-policy institutions & watchdog groups."

The Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University wrote in 2010 that “critics have accused the Franklin Center, and its array of state-based websites, of purposefully half-reporting stories for a conservative gain.” Its bureaus, including the Wisconsin Reporter, function as a news wire service, and local newspapers across Wisconsin have reprinted the free Wisconsin Reporter wire news stories with no notice of their ideological slant.

During the Wisconsin protests over Walker’s budget in early 2011, the Wisconsin Reporter sponsored a questionable poll asserting that 71 percent of state residents thought the budget proposal to cut the collective bargaining rights of most of the state's public sector workers was “fair.” The result was a statistical outlier, leading some to question the source. The same month, We Ask America, largely owned by the business organization Illinois Manufacturing Association, conducted a similar poll surveying 2,400 Wisconsin residents and found that 52 percent opposed Walker's plan.

The Franklin Center was a “Vice-Chairman”-level sponsor of ALEC’s 2011 Annual Conference – which in 2010 equated to a $25,000 sponsorship fee – and was one of about 60 entities with booths in ALEC’s conference exhibition hall.

The Franklin Center receives part of its funding from the Bradley Foundation, which also has funded ALEC.

Franklin Center Funding
The Franklin Center was launched by the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance (SAM), a 501(c)(3) devoted to pushing free-market ideals. SAM gets funding from the State Policy Network, which is partially funded by The Claude R. Lambe Foundation. Charles Koch, one of the billionaire brothers who co-own Koch Industries, sits on the board of this foundation. SAM also receives funding from the Rodney Fund. The Franklin Center also receives funding from the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a conservative grant-making organization.

Franklin Center Director of Communications Michael Moroney told the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) in 2013 that the source of the Franklin Center's funding "is 100 percent anonymous." But 95 percent of its 2011 funding came from DonorsTrust, a spin-off of the Philanthropy Roundtable that functions as a large "donor-advised fund," cloaking the identity of donors to right-wing causes across the country (CPI did a review of Franklin's Internal Revenue Service records). Mother Jones called DonorsTrust "the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement" in a February 2013 article. Franklin received DonorTrust's second-largest donation in 2011.

One of the major contributors to Donors Trust is the Knowledge and Progress Fund founded and run by Charles Koch. The foundation gave almost $8 million to DonorsTrust (DT) between 2005 and 2011. The fund began its contributions to DT in 2005, with a $390,000 contribution. In both 2007 and 2008, the foundation gave $1.25 million per year to DT and another $2 million in 2010.

Staff

 * M.D. Kittle, Bureau Chief
 * Kirsten Adshead, Investigative Reporter
 * Alissa Smith, Reporter

Contact Information
Wisconsin Reporter 502 E. Main St., LL B Madison, WI 53703 Phone: (608) 467-4109 Email: info@wisconsinreporter.com