This past Monday a Politico article entitled “Did CPI (Center for Public Integrity) Coordinate with Greenpeace?” appeared as another entry in the ongoing battle between Koch Industries and Greenpeace.
The flap described by the article was a controversy over an alleged coordination between a CPI and a Greenpeace report concerning Koch Industries. As a defense in this controversy, in the article Randy Barrett, a spokesman for CPI, differentiated the two organizations by describing Greenpeace as an advocacy group and characterizing CPI as “an official news organization.” That phrase piqued my interest.
CPI is listed on Guidestar.com, the Web site that offers information about non-profit groups (most of that information is free). In the Guidestar report about CPI, in the Mission Statement section, CPI states:
The mission of the Center for Public Integrity is to produce original, responsible investigative journalism to make institutional power more transparent and accountable. The Center: . . .
♦ Educates, engages, and empowers citizens with tools and skills they need to hold governments and institutions accountable.
Further in the Guidestar report about CPI, in the Impact Statement section, CPI states:
The Center for Public Integrity measures our impact using a variety of quantitative and qualitative assessments. . . . we provide for more continuous feedback on the relevance and helpfulness of our work as well as a means to monitor the way advocates, citizens, and policymakers use it to promote social change.
These goals and objectives that they list don’t seem to be consistent with those of a news organization, one that reports objectively and allows its audience to do what they please with the information. These goals and objectives that they list imply an agenda, one of social change.
Please. If you’re an advocacy group, why not just admit it?
