This is not the first time that journalistic entities have accepted donations from Mr. Newmark. According to the New York Times Mr. Newmark gave $1 million to ProPublica, $500,000 to Columbia Journalism, $1 million to Data and Society ( A research Institute) and $560,000 to the International Center for Journalists.  In 2016 He donated $10,000 for the CUNY election coverage and on February 2017 he donated $1.5 million for a research grant which led CUNY to raise $14 million. The Craigslist founder as well as CUNY must be suffering from amnesia because  it’s almost as if those online ads never existed and Craigslist always operated with the utmost integrity.  I have worked on a campaign that called on Craigslist to shut down these forums that literally propagated sex trafficking. The online chat rooms where men where able to talk about their experiences with young girls were horrifying. One man spoke about how he paid for an extremely young girl who was cowering in the corner and crying. He began to explain how he had to coerce her out of the corner and after that she was “Fine”. He went on to give other men tips on what to do in a similar situation. And that’s was the most benign post on there.

The tone deaf and demeaning decision to accept a $20 million dollar donation from the founder of Craigslist just goes to show how academic organizations care little about doing what’s right. If you are a graduate journalism school you should be teaching young journalists about speaking truth to power, not power to truth which in this case there are a lot of lies surround this decision. Craig Newmark was FORCED to cooperate with the FBI to shut down the personal ads, this was not him trying to be a hero.  Let’s be clear about that, although he does try and come across as a champion of the Free Press.

He’s quoted in the New York Times as stating the following:

“Sometimes rich people want to do fancy stuff in terms of endowments: Ivy League schools, the opera, the ballet,” Mr. Newmark said. “Me? I want to help out people who, much like me, really needed a hand. If you’re lucky enough to do well, then I feel the right thing is to give people a hand, and the best way for me to do that is to help out journalism.”

This move by CUNY Graduate School of Journalism is a slap in the face to all female journalists who deal with sexual harassment and assault within the industry. This sends a clear message that the institution that educated them cares nothing for their well being or the fact that funding comes from an entity that has promoted sex trafficking. Journalism schools must do better to protect the truth and and always look to the facts, not acquiesce to the allure of rich men’s money. In a very insightful yet draw your own conclusion article written by Maxwell Strachan from HUFFPOST, Sarah Barlett is quoted as saying about the critical reaction surrounding this decision that the school “hadn’t necessarily interpreted all the subtleties” of it and that many of the concerns revolve around issues that are “not primary” or are “very old.” Meaning that it was a long time ago, it’s done, now move on.  So I guess if she’s okay with it, we should all be.

There is no doubt that the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism will experience some if not a lot of backlash. Only time will tell. However, in this #Metoo climate I hardly think this will go away quietly. CUNY may have rationalized this to make it seem innocent and good for journalism but in fact it is a dark day when young journalists are told to look the other way when human atrocities are paying their tuition.

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Samantha Inesta

Founder/Executive Director