Articles on McConnell stir debate

WASHINGTON - Marilyn W. Thompson, then editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader, faced a problem last year that is afflicting more and more newspaper editors across the country: She wanted to initiate a major reporting project but lacked sufficient resources to finance it.

Thompson, who wanted the paper to take a deep look at Mitch McConnell, Kentucky's senior senator, came up with an answer. She would seek support from the Center for Investigative Reporting, a California-based non-profit group that has financed or conducted groundbreaking work in television and print journalism.

The idea was approved by Thompson's bosses at Knight Ridder, which owned the Herald-Leader. The center approved a $37,500 grant, and reporter John Cheves went to work.

But this week, with Cheves winding up a six-month examination of McConnell, and the senator's staff raising questions about the unusual grant, the Herald-Leader's new owner, McClatchy Co., came to a different conclusion.

Howard Weaver, vice president for news, announced that McClatchy would reimburse the Center for Investigative Reporting for the grant.

"If we want one of our staff members to do a report for one of our papers, we should pay for it," Weaver said.

The Herald-Leader said the four-part series would be published as planned, beginning tomorrow.

The newspaper's report comes on the eve of an election that could make McConnell majority leader of the United States Senate.

First elected to the Senate in 1984, McConnell has risen to the post of majority whip, making him the No. 2 Republican in the chamber.

McConnell drew national attention for his outspoken opposition to a bipartisan campaign-finance bill that President Bush signed into law in 2002. He was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the measure, which the Supreme Court upheld in December 2003.

McConnell's stance "begged the question" of how he himself had become such a prodigious political fund-raiser, said Thompson, who left the Herald-Leader in July to become national investigations editor for the Los Angeles Times.

Cheves, 34, was assigned to answer that question. He has worked for the Herald-Leader since 1997, examining political campaign finances of Democrats and Republicans alike in local, state and federal elections.

The decision to find outside funding put the Herald Leader on the cutting edge of an industry-wide wave of change as cash-strapped newspapers, facing increased Internet competition, explore new revenue sources beyond the traditional advertising and circulation streams.

"The old business model of just having advertisers and readers fund journalism is giving way to a new model where news organizations go to philanthropic and other groups to subsidize watchdog projects," said Tom Rosenstiel, a former Los Angeles Times reporter who founded the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research center that monitors the performance of the press.

Public TV and radio networks have long used money from a broad array of foundations to finance their documentaries and other news reports, but the practice is more recent in print journalism.

"It would be better if it didn't happen, but the old model does seem to be giving way," Rosenstiel said.

Money from a foundation

As the Herald-Leader prepares to publish the series, McConnell is trying to turn the tables on the paper.

In a series of e-mails and phone calls to Herald-Leader editors, McConnell's top aides accused the Center for Investigative Reporting of liberal bias.

Don Stewart, McConnell's communications director, said a search of campaign contributions by members of the center's board of directors and staff members revealed donations only to Democratic candidates or affiliated groups.

McConnell's aides delved further: Cheves' work on McConnell had been funded by the Deer Creek Foundation, a St. Louis organization that is giving the Center for Investigative Reporting $300,000 over three years to pay for an in-depth look at campaign financing by both parties.