Actual Journalism Has No Place In Samuel Alito's America
The Supreme Court justice takes aim at ProPublica.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito is big mad. That’s actually the complete thought about this specific story and accurately characterizes his jurisprudence. This time he’s got all twisted about the excellent journalism being done by ProPublica as they do the work of financial disclosures that the justices themselves refuse to do.
The secret recordings documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor made during the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual dinner continue to pay dividends. In addition to admitting he won’t be compromising with anyone not committed to his vision of godliness, we now know about Alito’s beef with journalism.
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“Why,” [Windsor] asked, “do you think the Supreme Court is being so attacked and being so targeted by the media these days?”
“Well, I think it’s a simple reason,” Alito replied. “They don’t like our decisions, and they don’t like how they anticipate we may decide some cases that are coming up. That’s the beginning of the end of it, and there are, there are groups that are very well funded by ideological groups that have spearheaded these attacks. That’s what it is.”
“Like who?” she asked.
“ProPublica. ProPublica gets a lot of, you know, gets a lot of money, and they have spent a fortune investigating [Justice] Clarence Thomas, for example. You know everything he’s ever done in his entire life, and they’ve done some of that to me, too. But they, you know, they look for any little thing they can find, and they try to make something out of it. That’s, that’s what it is.”
I mean, I wouldn’t call $5.8 million in gifts “any little thing.”
Every accusation is an admission with these people — ProPublica isn’t bankrolled by a shadowy billionaire with an agenda. They’re a nonprofit with a disclosed list of major donors and a ton of small donors. And the 2024 Pulitzer Prize winners took umbrage at Alito’s attack and they came out swinging (and with a plea for donations, natch).
ProPublica journalists do not misrepresent themselves when conducting interviews. We adhere to a standard of “no surprises.” Anyone mentioned in a story is told what the story will say and given a chance to respond. I invite you to read our ethics policy if you’d like to learn more.
But we still want to address what Alito (whom we wrote about in 2023) said about ProPublica. We thought we’d take this opportunity to elaborate on how, exactly, ProPublica is funded, and clarify the relationship between our funders and our journalism.
As a nonprofit, ProPublica’s work is powered primarily through donations. We have a policy of transparent financial reporting, issuing three public reports each year that show the impact of our work, along with our annual financial statements. You can find a list of some of our larger donors on our website. You can also find our 990 tax forms dating back to 2007, with details like executive compensation, revenue, expenses and more, in Nonprofit Explorer, the research tool we created to ensure that the annual returns filed by tax-exempt organizations are public and accessible. Our advertising policy is clearly delineated.
And, my favorite, a lot of our funding comes from our members. Over 55,000 of you. Supported by the public, our newsroom works in the public interest. We are not beholden to individual benefactors. Funders have no say in what we cover. Our mission, above all else, is to expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.
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But, really, what has Alito miffed is the attention the Supreme Court is garnering. He’s not alone — other right-wing members of the Court have lamented that the work of taking away the rights of Americans can no longer be done in private. But the mission Alito fancies himself on — in his words, returning America to a place of “godliness” — has tremendous ramifications for the people of this country. The Court (and specifically Alito) has shown a willingness to ignore precedent to advance right-wing policy goals — never mind that it’s out of line with American values — using a bastardized version of originalism and sloppy historical analysis.
So, yes, when you’re trying to impose your vision for America onto the rest of us, people will start paying attention. I just hope it’s not too late.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
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