The Mills Administration has taken the unusual step of channeling $117,300 in taxpayer dollars to the Maine Trust for Local News, the operator of Maine’s most sympathetic far-left content publishers.
These payments were not delivered in an envelope stuffed with cash at a smoky bar but via a no-bid contract, as disclosed on the state’s website. The details were discovered and reported exclusively by the Maine Wire’s Edward Tomic. In exchange for doling out taxpayer money, the Mills Administration receives what can only be described as paid applause for its education policies, a self-congratulatory attempt to convince readers that Maine’s low-ranking schools are actually thriving.
For those unfamiliar with their work (likely most Mainers), the Maine Trust for Local News (METLN) is a subsidiary of the National Trust for Local News. This nonprofit owns PressHerald.com, SunJournal.com, CentralMaine.com, and a handful of other outlets. Although the METLN initially promised transparency regarding the deep pockets who financed the purchase of the papers, they have not honored that promise. Mainers are left to wonder who now funds the majority of Maine’s newspapers — and why CEO & Publisher Lisa Desoto thinks that’s a secret worth keeping.
Lest there be any doubt, the financiers were George Soros, Hansjorg Wyss, and a handful of other left-wing mega donors. Meaning the Mills Administration has given taxpayer dollars to a nationwide leftist crusade to take over local news via the National Trust for Local News. The payoff no-bid contract amounts to a subsidy for the websites that have been most favorable to Mills during her gubernatorial tenure (excluding Maine Public, which we already knew was a sycophantic outlet for government propaganda).
This questionable contract raises numerous ethical concerns—both for state government and the so-called journalists employed by these outlets.
This is clearly a grotesque misuse of taxpayer funds. While the Mills Administration has every right to defend its policies, the six articles—also funded by the taxpayers—could easily have been posted on the Governor’s Facebook page, in a press release, or in the Maine Department of Education’s newsletter. Instead, the administration chose to leverage the Trusts’ “authority” (their word, not mine) to lend credence to the turgid state-sponsored propaganda.
The process is also suspect. Why was this payment made through a no-bid contract rather than through competitive bidding? In a “Procurement Justification Form,” the Mills Administration claimed bypassing competitive bidding was necessary because the METLN brands like the Portland Press Herald and the Lewiston Sun Journal are uniquely positioned to provide glowing, fawning, uncritical coverage of the state’s Democratic education agenda.
Mills may have a point there.
But if the goal was to get attention and persuade those who disagree with her education policies, both the Maine Wire and the Bangor Daily News would have been better options. Here’s my offer: The Maine Wire will promote all of the Maine Department of Education’s content for $0. All we ask in return is that Governor Mills agree to a 60-minute, on-camera interview where she defends her education policies, among others.
We could do it in Corinna.
Ethically, these payments also raise questions about campaign finance disclosures. It’s obvious that Democratic candidates are benefiting from this paid propaganda. Shouldn’t it be disclosed as an in-kind contribution to Democrats, or at least reported as an independent expenditure? The Maine Ethics Commission will likely feign helplessness, as it was designed to do, but Democrats should ask themselves how they’ll respond when a future Republican governor wants to run a six-part paid series on the crimes of illegal immigrants or pay-to-publish the audits every 501(c)(3) nonprofit that feeds off taxpayers’ money.
We expect such rank chicanery from politicians, but the Trust and its journalists also have questions to answer. For instance, did reporters fact-check the state-sponsored media? Were they allowed to? Will the Trust’s journalists be permitted to report on the controversy surrounding this marketing contract? While it’s unlikely any of them will resign over this embarrassment, perhaps the more conscientious journalists will at least demand answers from the Trust’s leadership. Or better yet, they can start leaking to the Maine Wire, as some already have.
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