Good News! Conservatives Have Their Own Tides Foundation

Mother Jones has a story this morning about Donor Trust, a group that collects and distributes money to conservative organizations including some that produce news. The splashy headline claims that Donor Trust distributed $96 million last year. A subhead reads “A big winner of last year’s conservative cash bonanza? Right-wing ‘journalism.'” That’s journalism in scare quotes.

But toward the end of the article you get this admission:

DonorsTrust isn’t the only donor-advised fund on the ideological
spectrum. On the left there’s the Tides Foundation, which also accepts
anonymous donations and gives out money to thousands of progressive
nonprofits each year (including Mother Jones’ parent nonprofit, the Foundation for National Progress).

So it seems Mother Jones isn’t against “dark money” funding journalism, or should I say “journalism.” It’s fine when they do it. But when the right does the same thing that’s different…or something.

Not mentioned in the Mother Jones story is that Tides gave out 91.4 million in 2012. Maybe that’s what has Mother Jones upset. The Tides Foundation is being beaten at their own game.