A charity that opposes nuclear weapons is paying for the CNN reporter who covers nuclear issues.
The Outrider Foundation, a Madison, Wisconsin-based charity funded by Democratic donor Frank Burgess, describes itself as a “non-political, nonpartisan 501c3 organization that educates the public about nuclear security threats and climate issues.” Its website claims “it is possible to dismantle our nuclear weapons” and urges readers to act.
“The more people participate, the stronger and louder the movement will be. Think about getting involved as a volunteer, or consider donating money,” the Outrider Foundation website says. “Contact your representatives in Congress. Write them, call them, email them, fax them, tweet them… there are many ways to be heard. Many U.S. representatives receive donation money from powerful companies that make nuclear weapons, like Northrop Grumman and Boeing. Tell your official to represent your best interests, not those of nuclear lobbyists.”
A June 26, 2026, press release from CNN announced, “Davis Winkie has joined CNN as a Reporter and Senior Fellow covering national security and nuclear threats … Winkie’s work at CNN is supported by a partnership between the Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners … CNN retains full editorial control of all reporting.”
The news business has been financially challenging in recent years, so news organizations have taken to schnorring from charities to support news and editorial content. The New York Times is publishing anti-Israel content subsidized by a far-left nonprofit called the Pulitzer Center. The Associated Press’s climate coverage is paid for by left-wing foundations opposed to fossil fuels.
The situation shows the double standard when it comes to press bias. When Larry and David Ellison and Bari Weiss take over CBS News or try to buy CNN, the left-wing watchdogs whip themselves up into a frenzy over the possibility that they might exercise some editorial influence, or, worse yet, discover some cost efficiencies. Yet under the current management, CNN is cutting a variety of deals—with Qatar, with Turkey, with the Outrider Foundation, with the Rockefeller Foundation—that could erode whatever remains of the network’s reputation for impartiality.
A profile of Winkie on CNN’s website describes him as a current part‑time officer in the Air National Guard and as having played football and studied European history and classics at Vanderbilt University. The articles he writes for CNN are also being promoted on the Outrider Foundation website. A second left-wing nonprofit, Journalism Funding Partners, is also involved with the CNN fellowship. The Outrider tax return for 2025 shows a grant of $170,000 to Journalism Funding Partners for a journalism fellowship. The vice chair of Journalism Funding Partners is Sheila Solomon, a former consultant to the Democracy Fund, a far-left charity funded by anti-Israel billionaire Pierre Omidyar. The Democracy Fund gave Journalism Funding Partners $220,000 in 2024, tax records show.
Before joining CNN, Winkie and Outrider had a similar deal with USA Today, where he covered the White House and the Pentagon.
Winkie referred an inquiry to a CNN spokeswoman. The CNN spokeswoman referred to the disclaimer that CNN retains full editorial control of all reporting. An official of the Outrider Foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Washington Free Beacon.
A July 24, 2026 piece by Winkie and colleagues for CNN, headlined, “How Trump upended the Saudi nuclear deal less than 24 hours after its signing,” blamed “conservative media,” citing “skeptical coverage on his preferred channel, Fox News, and on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.” It attributed the failure of Biden administration efforts to reach a Saudi-Israel normalization deal to “Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel” and “Israel’s response, widely perceived as disproportionate in the Arab world.”
It’s highly situational, and illuminating, which nonprofit organizations are able to get away with these sorts of deals without generating an uproar from what remains of the journalistic “ethics” priesthood. If a low-tax nonprofit wanted to sponsor CNN’s tax reporter, or a pro-Israel nonprofit wanted to sponsor CNN’s Gaza reporting, it’d almost certainly be a nonstarter. But so many of the people running these news organizations are so left-wing that they either don’t perceive, or don’t care, that positions such as banning nuclear weapons or abolishing fossil fuels might make it harder than ever to maintain the pretense that the organizations are covering the news rather than engaging in left-wing activism.
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