No strings attached? How US funding of international press may be buying influence | Reclaim the Media

Below the radar, another journalism scandal is brewing: the U.S. government is secretly funding foreign news outlets and journalists. Government bodies -- including the State Department, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and the U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP) -- support 'media development' in more than 70 countries. In These Times has found that these programs include funding hundreds of foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), journalists, policy-makers, journalist associations, media outlets, training institutes and academic journalism faculties. Grant sizes can range from a few thousand to millions of dollars. 'The bottom line is that we are teaching the mechanics of journalism, whether it be print, television or radio,' USAID spokesman Paul Koscak says. 'How to do a story, how to write with balance ... all of those types of things that you would expect in a professional piece that is published.'