The Center Square is a Chicago-based media group that writes articles about state and local government news, offering them to local newspapers for free. Their website claims to have reporters nationwide and a desire to compete with the Associated Press as a wire service. During their 2019 launch, they described themselves as a “non-profit, non-partisan, non-political, no-nonsense organization.”
In reality, however, The Center Square is the latest iteration of a far-right propaganda operation run by the Franklin News Foundation (FNN), a group bankrolled by Koch funds and controlled by members of the State Policy Network.
Case in point is The Center Square’s Washington State government reporter Brett Davis. Once the Managing Editor for the extremist “Freedom” Foundation, Davis has been publishing articles that bear a striking resemblance to the articles written by his former employers, who are themselves an affiliate of the State Policy Network. Not to mention his articles are often published the next day after theirs.
As evidenced by Davis’ suspect work and a deeper look at the whole operation, it becomes quickly apparent that The Center Square is partisan propaganda dressed up as journalism.
Replacing traditional statehouse journalism
The Great Recession and growth of the internet were a hammer blow for the newspaper industry, with more than 1,400 U.S. towns and cities losing a newspaper since 2004. In addition, government and statehouse reporting took a sizable hit, with the Pew Center reporting a 35% loss of full-time reporters between 2003-2014.
Into that gap squeezed the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity (now known as Franklin News Foundation, umbrella organization to The Center Square), offering their twist on government news via “Watchdog.org” in multiple states. In 2019, Watchdog was rebranded as The Center Square.
Bankrolled by the radical rich
Franklin News Foundation has relied heavily on funding from regressive billionaires, radical foundations, and far-right anonymous donor channels. Two of its most significant funders have also bankrolled the “Freedom” Foundation and the Washington Policy Center:
- Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: The Wisconsin branch of Watchdog.org received “crucial funding,” $545,000, from the Bradley Foundation as it attacked Democratic voices in the state. Bradley staff explained that Watchdog.org is “such a valuable partner in the state’s conservative infrastructure.” In 2019, the foundation sent $250k to Franklin News Network, the umbrella organization of The Center Square. More recently, the Bradley Foundation tapped into its $900 million endowment to directly exacerbate the damage of the COVID-19 pandemic by funding a campaign to restrict access to food stamps and Medicaid, as well as discourage paid sick leave laws.
- DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund: Also known as the “dark money ATM of the Right,” these Koch funding channels have consistently bankrolled Franklin News Network, including $1.1 million in 2020. The two funds offer anonymity to far-right donors, who have also directed millions at denying climate science, attacking workers’ rights, and undercutting public education.
Controlled by State Policy Network veterans
The Center Square’s umbrella organization, Franklin News Network, has close ties to the Illinois Policy Institute, a far-right State Policy Network affiliate. John Tillman, the CEO of Illinois Policy Institute, is also the Chairman of the Board of Franklin News Network. Alongside Tillman on the FNN board sits Charles Mitchell, the CEO of Commonwealth Foundation, the Pennsylvania affiliate of the State Policy Network. The Center for Media and Democracy describes SPN as “the tip of the spear of far-right, nationally funded policy agenda in the states that undergirds extremists in the Republican Party.”
Pushing biased content
Not surprisingly then, some of The Center Square’s most frequent “news” articles spotlight the activities and opinions of State Policy Network affiliates. For instance, The Center Square reported on a paper released by former SPN associate Truth in Accounting, publishing what amounted to a press release attacking the pensions of Texas state employees, a popular target for State Policy Network groups.
The reporter now covering Washington State government for The Center Square is Brett Davis, a former employee of the “Freedom” Foundation – a Washington affiliate of the SPN. He, too, has written articles that bear a striking resemblance to articles written by SPN affiliates like the Washington Policy Center, who published a story, “Senate holds emergency powers work session,” on November 16, 2021. The next day, an article by Davis went up on The Center Square: “State Senate holds hearing on limiting Inslee’s emergency powers.” That article began with a quote from WPC staffer Jason Mercier.
And on November 10th, the “Freedom” Foundation published a self-congratulatory blog titled “Freedom Foundation Assists 100,000th Public Employee Leave Their Union.” The very next day, Davis published an article titled “Freedom Foundation Celebrates Milestone in Battle against Forced Public-Sector Union Dues.” Neither story referenced any documentation or proof that the claim is valid. Rather than neutral, fact-checked journalism, Davis’ writing often serves as cheerleading for his former employer and an amplifier of SPN-affiliate press releases.
Reporters trained by Charles Koch Institute
Davis’ predecessor at The Center Square was Tim Gruver, a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellow, offered workshop training, mentoring, and instruction from personnel funded by the Charles Koch Institute. Charles Koch is the 27th wealthiest person in the world. With his deceased brother David, he directed millions of dollars into the Tea Party, other anti-government groups and funded climate science denial operations.
Taking its place in the disinformation network
Former Reuters chief White House correspondent Gene Gibbons gave a public warning about The Center Square’s owners’ strategy a decade ago, warning they were “at the forefront of an effort to blur the distinction between statehouse reporting and political advocacy.” Now, The Center Square has taken its place in the right-wing disinformation infrastructure, alongside more flamboyant outlets such as Breitbart News, The Washington Examiner, and Daily Signal.
Far from being the neutral, non-partisan news source they claim, The Center Square is operated, funded, and born from a narrow and elitist political agenda. Small community newspapers re-publishing free content from The Center Square’s news wire should be aware of the unintentional role in fulfilling Franklin News Foundation’s political agenda.