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Posted: Mar 01, 2017 12:01 AM

The left plans a so-calledMarch for Scienceon Earth Day,April 22, as part of its national tantrum against the Trump Administration. But the more-important event has already taken place and liberals are far ahead of their opponents.

Its called the Dash for Cash.

That annual fundraising marathon is part of the lefts push to finance liberal journalism, while claiming its neutral and unbiased. 2017 has already been a banner year for left-wing charities. The ACLU raised more than $24 million online in just a few days. Thats nearly seven times as much raised online in 2015, roughly $3.5 million, a spokesman toldThe New York Times.

Nowhere is that financial success more important to the left than journalism. Liberals can already count on the traditional media to push their agenda, especially in Trumps America. But these politicized outlets operate under different rules. They build their operations with prominent left-wing funding and then pretend to produce neutral journalism -- working in concert with the traditional press. Viewers and readers never know the difference. And they need to learn.

The results of that reporting can be staggering as agenda-based outlets influence policy, attack companies and eviscerate people on a national level. The left used this strategy to push climate change alarmism, targetExxonMobiland undermine potential EPA nominees. The Media Research Center has been tracking those trends, as well as the money foundations donate to them on a website calledBuyingBias.org.

Its more important than ever. According to a newreportfrom the Center for International Media Assistance, half of all journalism donations studied were designed to directly or indirectly influence editorial agendas. That should make readers cautious about outfits that get liberal money and claim neutrality.

The liberal-founded and Soros-funded ProPublica is one outfit that requires close attention because it is doing especially well. Its one of the most visible left-wing journalism operations. Prior to this year, it had tons of industry status -- including three Pulitizers, two Emmys and a Peabody award. Now its got the anti-Trump Seal of Approval and journalists are thrilled. ProPublica also has139 big-namenews media partners, including all three broadcast networks and bothThe Washington PostandThe New York Times.

HBOs left-wing, sometime comedian John Oliver carried the outlet to the nextlevelsoon after the election. He urged viewers to donate to groups like ProPublica, a nonprofit group which does great investigative journalism, It was part of an episode-long rant against Trump where he advocated support for series of liberal groups including abortion giant Planned Parenthood and eco-extremists at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Angry liberals ate it up and the result has been stunning. ProPublica is flush with cash from public-spirited contributors looking to finance hard-hitting journalism, said the Poynter Institute, a journalism education organization. Thats an understatement. ProPublicas monthly recurring donations have skyrocketed from $4,500 in October before the rant to $104,000 in January -- 23 times higher. That works out to at least $1.2 million in a year. Other areas of the groups funding also saw huge spikes. It raised $17.2 million in 2016, a monstrous hike from recent years.

The result is ProPublicaaddingsomewhere between 15 and 25 journalists to its newsrooms in New York and Illinois. At least 10 are targeted for its new invasion of battleground state Illinois, as the left uses journalism to try to reverse GOP growth. The organization is getting seed funding for that new project from the liberal FordFoundation. ProPublica has a similar offshoot planned for New York.

ProPublica is staffed with top-flight journalists and has an Journalism Advisory Board filled with big names including: ABC Newss vice president for editorial quality Kerry Smith; former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson; and left-wing Univsions news and digital president Isaac Lee.

Its funding list features several top names from the liberal donor community: George Soross Foundation to Promote Open Society, eco-warrior Tom Steyer, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and the Google News Lab. No wonder it brought in more than $9 million in grants larger than $50,000.

Conservatives have nothing to compete with an outlet of that stature. That means it can set the agenda wherever it goes and be unchallenged. The right already has enough problems fending off the traditional media. Deep-pocketed outlets like ProPublica are a new threat and conservatives need to match it.

See the article here:

Liberal Journalism Is Flush With Cash And Conservatives Should Be Worried - Townhall