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Joyce Foundation at it again

Editor and Publisher reports that newspapers in Iowa, Ohio and Nebraska (total circulation 5.8 million) have stopped running classified ads for guns, after all the newspapers in those states were petitioned to do so by "Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence." Iowans Against Gun Violence nows plans to expand its drive to all fifty states.

The Joyce connection? Joyce has for years been bankrolling Iowans Against Gun Violence and its drive to end classified ads. Here's the Joyce Foundation page on the project -- click on "Closing the newspaper loophole."

Joyce grantee, Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence (IPGV), has formed a coalition of state gun violence prevention advocates that are working to close the “newspaper loophole.” As part of their efforts, IPGV mailed letters last summer to 20 major newspapers across the country, asking them to stop accepting classified ads for guns. This initial request prompted the Chicago Tribune and the Philadelphia Inquirer to stop running gun ads. Follow-up letters convinced five metropolitan papers, including the Miami Herald, to change their gun ad policies.

Still more interesting according to its webpage, : Joyce pumped the "grassroots" Iowa group $250,000 in 2002 and the same sum in 2004. A check of IAGV's IRS reports, on guidestar.com, shows it reporting 2002 total contributions as $58,089 (a deficit) and 2003 (the latest) as $152,235. I assume the discrepancy is that the Joyce grants were spread over two years. In that event, however, it would appear that the "grassroots" group's entire contribution income and budget consists of the Joyce money. It is indeed a surrogate for the Foundation.

It appears to be one of many groups which are essentially Joyce Foundation surrogates (example: the Violence Policy Center, which got a million dollars in 2000, $800,000 in 2002, and $500,000 in 2003 and 2004).

My earlier posting on Joyce Foundation buying law reviews. · contemporary issues