A $1 million grant from the Craig Newmark Foundation, the charitable organization established by Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark, to the Poynter Institute addresses one of the thornier dilemmas arising from the recent election—how newsrooms should identify and respond to "fake news."
The gift supports a five-year program at Poynter that focuses on "verification, fact-checking and accountability in journalism." It also funds a faculty chair, dubbed the Newmark Chair, to expand on Poynter's teaching in journalism ethics and develop certification programs for journalists that commit to ethical decision making practices. The faculty member will also organize an annual conference on ethics issues at Poynter and be a regular contributor to Poynter.org.
It's the largest donation the St. Petersburg, Florida-based Poynter has ever received from an individual foundation.
Now, I know what you're thinking. The Poynter Institute is a nonprofit journalism school. (It also owns the Tampa Bay Times newspaper.) Shouldn't it already be up to speed in terms of journalism ethics? Continue…