TYPE Media Center

TYPE Media Center, until 2019 known as The Nation Institute, is a 501(c)(3) “nonprofit media center”¹ that uses a variety of different programs to promote “progressive values across as range of media platforms.”² It is associated with the controversial left-wing magazine The Nation, which has been criticized for its posture of appeasement of communist regimes and the regime of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The Nation Institute “sponsors fellows, host forums, publishes, and is involved in awards for journalism.”³ The Nation Institute works on some programs in conjunction with the left-of-center magazine The Nation.⁴

In 2019, The Nation Institute rebranded as TYPE Media Center, ostensibly to illustrate its projects beyond The Nation magazine.⁵

Organizational Overview

TYPE Media Center was originally founded as a 501(c)(3) group, Nation Institute, in 1966, and operates as a nonprofit media center that seeks to promote progressive change through a wide variety of programs. The group is  located in New York City, New York.⁶

The Center is “associated with The Nation magazine.” ³  The Nation Institute’s Navasky Internship Program is offered “in conjunction with The Nation.”⁴

Additionally, both groups’ synergy results in overlapping activities among their various programs. For example, controversial Nation Institute Investigative Fund reporter Max Blumenthal⁷ also doubles as a Nation Magazine Contributor,⁷ has written a book published by NationBooks,⁸ which was then referenced in an article on the Nation Institute-associated blog TomDispatch.⁸

Programs

The Investigative Fund

The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund was created in 1996 ⁹ to “support the costs associated with investigative journalism.” ⁹ The Investigative Fund “incubates and supports important investigative stories with the potential for social impact” which support the Nation Institute’s liberal agenda. ⁹

The Investigative Fund publishes “work in a variety of print, broadcast, and electronic outlets.”¹⁰ Some notable liberal outlets include the Huffington Post (HuffPost), DemocracyNow.Org, Mother Jones, and Salon.¹¹ The Investigative Fund is also partnered with The Nation magazine and NationBooks. ¹¹

The Investigative Fund claims to produce “approximately seventy investigations each year.”⁹ In 2015, the Investigative Fund received $1,010,082, including grants of $567,771 from the Nation Institute,¹² a 403% increase from 2005 of $250,617, including grants of $101,714.¹³

The Investigative Fund has produced liberal pieces criticizing conservative viewpoints  such as:

• “The Stealth Attack on Abortion Access”– Meghan Winter asserts that “Public funds are supporting religious nonprofits that obstruct women’s access to health care.”¹⁴
• “Home is where the Hate Is”– The author, David Neiwert, asserts that “Trump’s fixation on demonizing Islam hides true homegrown US terror threats.”¹⁵
• “How Charter Schools Bust Unions”- Hella Winston, argues that many charter schools refuse to recognize teachers unions and are “fighting unionization at every turn.”¹⁶

TomDispatch.com

In November 2001 TomDispatch was launched by Tom Englehardt “as an e-mail publication offering commentary and collected articles from the world press.” In December 2002 it “became a project of The Nation Institute.”¹⁷

TomDispatch currently operates both a website and an email publication offering original commentaries and other works from a variety of liberal authors that seek to “[introduce] readers to voices and perspectives from elsewhere” by connecting “some of the global dots regularly left unconnected by the mainstream media.”¹⁷

On TomDispatch.com readers are able to access an archive of articles that endorse far-left views.

Internship Program

TYPE Media Center has “an internship program for journalists.”¹⁸ Interns are expected to “(work) full-time”¹⁹ in “conjunction with the Nation magazine.”²⁰

The Nation magazine has demanded that Wal-Mart pay its workers at least $12 an hour.²¹ In 2013, Wal-Mart called attention to the hypocritical fact that the Nation Institute had “been paying its full-time interns a weekly stipend of $150 per week—less than the current federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour”²¹ and only began paying their interns in the fall of 2013 after their interns wrote an letter to the editor in their own publication calling them out on their intern wages.²¹ Even then, the Nation Institute decided to only pay interns “the minimum wage… a rate that the Nation’s own business writer has said is “not enough to make rent in any state.”²²

Journalism Fellowships

The Center selects “up to 25 high-profile reporters every year” to be Nation Institute Fellows. Fellows “pursue book projects, write Op-Eds and appear as commentators, critics or analysts on radio and television.”²³ This fellowship model working in coordination with The Nation magazine “offers a way to pay with tax-exempt dollars those whose writing produces the for-profit Nation magazine.”²⁴

Nation Books

Nation Books was started in 2000 with a mission to “produce authoritative books that break new ground and shed light on current social and political issues.”²⁵ In 2003 Variety described Nation Books as among a group of small to mid-size presses that “ produce a regular stream of left-leaning books.”²⁶ Similarly, in 2008, Alan Bisbort wrote in his book Media Scandals that Nation Books was a stalwart among left-wing publishers.²⁷

Notable left-wing Nation Books publications include The Bush-Hater’s Handbook: A Guide to the Most Appalling Presidency of the Past 100 Years;²⁸ Calling All Radicals;²⁹ Angry White Men;³⁰ and Murdered By Capitalism.³¹

Puffin/Nation Institute Award

In coordination with the Puffin Foundation, the Center annually gives out a $100,000 award known as the Puffin/Nation Prize For Creative Citizenship.³²

In 2014, the prize was given to controversial left-wing professor Frances Fox Piven.³³

Previous winners of the award include former NAACP President Ben Jealous, playwright Tony Kushner, Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards, Green For All president and later CNN commentator Van Jones, and immigrant labor leader Delores Huerta.³²

Activities

In May 2024, TYPE Media Center and the Puffin Foundation held an event in New York City to discuss obstacles in increasing the youth vote in the city and how to address them. The event was attended by members of several advocacy groups including HeadCount, 18by Vote, and the New York Public Interest Research Group. ³⁴

Finances

In 2015, the organization spent half a million dollars more than it brought in.^{35  36}

The Center’s Investigative Fund has received contributions from a number of liberal foundations including; George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, Foundation for a Just Society, the Lear Foundation, Lannan Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, Park Foundation, Mai Family Foundation, the Irving Harris Foundation, Gill Foundation, the Larsen Foundation, and Maverick Lloyd Foundation.³⁷Funding

The left-of-center MacArthur Foundation has given the Center a total of $1,043,000, including a 2017 grant of $750,000.³⁸

According to Discover the Networks, the Center also has received funding from other liberal foundations, including the Public Welfare Foundation, the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, and the Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust.²⁴

Since 2014 the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation has given $110,000 to the organization.³⁹

People

Taya Kitman, executive director and CEO, “has been with the Center since 1997 and has held a number of positions during her tenure,” including “(managing) the Ridenhour and Puffin Prizes, (organizing) the Institute’s Annual Gala Dinner, and (supervising) the Journalism Fellowships and Internships programs.”¹

David R. Jones, board of trustees chair is the “President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS),” a “ not-for-profit organization that promotes economic advancement and full civic participation for low-income New Yorkers.”⁴⁰