Chicago Sun-Times article on Illinois Policy Institute CEO riddled with errors, mischaracterizations
In a changing media landscape, it’s important that legacy media players like the Sun-Times live up to the tradition of journalistic excellence. Sadly, they failed in this article.
Following the release of the Chicago Sun-Times’ Feb. 11 story, “Small-government think tank yields big bucks for nonprofit’s leaders,” John Tillman conducted a full compliance review of his roles with all of the organizations with which he is affiliated. This included hiring outside counsel to conduct a review of the claims in the article as well as a general overview of financial and accounting practices.
The results of the review showed Tillman and those organizations have been fully in compliance with the letter and spirit of the law. Following that review, a thorough re-examination of the Sun-Times article reveals the following inaccuracies. The Sun-Times has refused to address its errors.
No. 1: A ‘no-interest loan’ was in fact a bookkeeping error, which was quickly corrected
The Sun-Times reported a so-called “no-interest loan” from 2015 involving Think Freely Media, or TFM. But this transaction was not a no-interest loan. At the time, TFM’s bookkeeping service (an outsourced accounting firm) mistakenly characterized the $49,400 transaction as a “no-interest loan.” The simplified version of what happened is that TFM’s bookkeeper double paid an invoice for $49,400. When this was discovered it was repaid. The actual time that the money was outstanding was two months (because of accrual accounting versus when cash is actually paid). This is the reason there was no promissory note nor interest paid – because it was a bookkeeping error that was later discovered and corrected.
No. 2: Outside commentary used to warp reality
The Sun-Times used “expert” commentary to distort reality and provide false context. The authors spoke with Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer of the University of Notre Dame Law School and wrote: “‘If this is basically seen as an indirect loan to the officer, that’s a flat-out violation of nonprofit law in Illinois,’ Mayer said.”
This quote describes loans to officers when it is crystal clear that the loans described by the Sun-Times were loans to businesses. The Sun-Times obviously used this quote to get the phrase “flat-out violation” into the article, even though the quote is not accurate or relevant to what actually happened, and is pure conjecture.
No. 3: False implication regarding donor dollars
The Sun-Times wrote that the Mercer Family Foundation “has contributed $1.1 million since 2009,” and thus implied they are still donors. In fact, they only gave from 2009-2014. By citing other recent political activity from the Mercer family, the Sun-Times framed their donation as a negative. (For the record, Tillman is grateful for the funding from the Mercers and respects their philanthropy and political activism.)
No. 4: Inaccurate reporting and missing context regarding compensation
The Sun-Times is factually wrong on Tillman’s pay. His Illinois Policy Institute/Government Accountability Alliance, or GAA, pay is at or below the peers cited by the Sun-Times. The Sun-Times purposely misled its readers by combining Tillman’s Institute and GAA pay with his outside income from TFM. It is fine, of course, to report the TFM pay, but to then combine it with Tillman’s pay from other organizations and compare that compensation to those who only run a single entity is unfair. Tillman’s 2016 pay was well below that of his peers, a fact the Sun-Times failed to note.
Further, the Sun-Times did not properly report the revenue for the nonprofits that are connected when contextualizing Tillman’s pay. They only reported the Institute revenue. To be correct and fair, the authors should have reported the revenue of the Institute, Illinois Policy and the Liberty Justice Center, or LJC. Total revenue for 2016 was $13.4 million.
In a changing media landscape, it’s important that legacy media players like the Sun-Times live up to the tradition of journalistic excellence. Sadly, they failed in this article.