Internews, USAID, and Arcata: A Quiet Office Sparks a National Firestorm

The home of Internews and the North Coast Small Business Development Center on 7th Street in Arcata. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]

Much thanks for all the assistance in reporting from Lisa Music and Ryan Hutson.

A small office on 7th Street in Arcata has been thrust into the national spotlight as Wikileaks, as well as conservative news outlets and social media personalities scrutinize Internews’ funding—over $800 million dollars of government money since 2008.*

Information from Internews’ 990 forms.

For years, the nonprofit which operated out of 876 7th St. stated that its mission was supporting independent journalism. But critics argue that its reliance on large amounts of money from the U.S. government and alleged role in shaping media narratives are cause for serious concerns. Now, as the organization faces growing scrutiny, Arcata is being swept into the disapproval being leveled at Internews. The building housing the non-profit was vandalized and employees at the other business on site have been told to stay home as heated social media attention soars.

According to USAspending.gov, direct grants and contracts to Internews total 472.6 million since 2008. However, sub-awards may not be included in the total amount awarded the nonprofit. 

Founded in 1982, Internews presents itself as a champion of independent journalism and media development across the globe. With operations in over 30 countries, the organization claims to strengthen local media outlets around the world, train journalists, and support access to information in regions where press freedom faces restrictions. But they do have some activities in the United States, in 2019, Internews and Access Humboldt surveyed local residents, as well as interviewed this reporter and others in this area and produced an assessment of the availability of news sources in our county

However, recent scrutiny of the organization’s funding and alleged role in shaping media narratives have drawn intense scrutiny, particularly from Wikileaks which called the organization “secretive” and said that Internews has also “supported social media censorship initiatives.”

A former employee who worked in the Arcata office from 1993 to 1995, Shaun Walker, scoffed at the term ‘secretive’,

“They (well, mostly private contractors and consultants) just did all of their actual project work overseas and not in the U.S., so almost nobody would ever hear about them, just like with many other NGOs that help out all over the world but only have administrative offices in the USA.”

Trouble in Humboldt:

The fallout from the national scrutiny of Internews has rippled into Arcata, where there are safety concerns for those associated with them. Employees of the North Coast Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which shares a building with Internews’s office on 7th Street, were advised to stay home due to fears of possible repercussions.

The building formerly occupied by Internews has recently been vandalized. The motive, and type of damage caused in the vandalism is, however, unclear. It is unknown whether the incident is tied to the national controversy surrounding Internews or if it was an unrelated act of vandalism.

While Internews has historically operated with little local attention, the recent controversy has put it under a much brighter spotlight.

Funding Ties to the U.S. Government

According to Wikileaks’ tweets on X about Internews’ financial backing, over 95% of its funding originates from the U.S. government, particularly through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). While our analysis of the nonprofit’s tax returns revealed the majority of its funding came from government grants and contracts, from 2008 to 2023, government funding accounted for 82% of Internews’ funding. A 2020 audit of Internews’ finances conducted by Gelman Rosenberg & Freedman (GRF) and transmitted by the USAID Office of Inspector General revealed “GRF reported that it did not find any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting and internal control over major programs. Finally, GRF did not identify any audit findings required to be reported… .”

Nonetheless, critics believe that the scale of this funding is concerning. They argue that Internews, while officially an independent nonprofit, may be funneling money to the media in order to influence what stories are covered and how they are covered. Some analysts argue that so much funding from the U.S. government means that it’s likely that Internews is actually an extension of U.S. foreign policy.

Walker, the former employee, said that during his time working there in the nineties, the media outlets, mainly in ‘emerging democracies’ in other countries, provided most of the content. He explained, 

“Internews and its employees back then and for many years later almost never produced any programming. That was all done by the newly trained people in former Soviet and Eastern European countries and beyond that had recently gotten away from communist government and dictator controlled state media. The decisions and control and reporting were all done by…reporters, anchors, news directors who were independent and had their own stations and networks, funded and trained by Internews project contractors but controlled locally, not by Internews.”

Expansive Media Reach

Internews says it has worked with over 4,000 media outlets, has offices in over 30 countries, provided training to thousands of journalists, and helped produce thousands of hours of broadcast content worldwide. According to the Internews website, they “train journalists, advance internet freedom, and help media outlets become financially sustainable – so that everyone has trustworthy information to make informed decisions and hold power to account.” Their influence stretches across traditional media and social platforms. If these claims are true, those activities would likely take millions of dollars to fund. 

Walker told us, 

[I]t’s expensive to create things like an entirely new and independent TV network in a place like Russia, with many time zones, satellite equipment and channel space rental, transmission towers, video and audio gear, vehicles, buildings, staff, etc. But would you rather have hundreds of millions of people still relying primarily on their governments for their news?

Still critics are unconvinced the money was spent honestly, many implying that the organization might not only have been funneling money into private pockets  but also a Democratic scheme to control the United States media, though much of the money appears on the surface at least to have been allocated to support media in countries other than the United States and good amount of the time goes to fund information about global health issues such as Ebola, AIDS, etc.

It is worth pointing out that the previous Trump Administration also awarded money to Internews. For instance, according to USASpending.gov in 2018, when Trump was the 45th president, USAID granted $15 million to Internews Network’s Arcata office “to develop a more balanced information environment in Central Asia to increase openness among youth and adults for different ideas, opinions, and perspectives and in turn increase their engagement in civic participation.“ In total, during the former Trump presidency, over $100 million was allocated to Internews.

Supporters say Internews helps strengthen journalism in fragile democracies, but critics argue that with such a large percentage of its funding coming from the US government and its alleged role in content moderation, there must be corruption. In any case, with Internews originally based in Arcata, now the community is caught up in a controversy it never expected.

Attempts to contact Internews’s Arcata and Washington, D.C offices and their employees listed on the web on a Saturday unsurprisingly have not been answered.

*Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Internews received “over 800 billion” in funding. The correct amount is over 800 million. We regret the error.