Attorney general makes a second contribution after Mazzei campaign criticizes his 2024 donation to the nonprofit newsroom.
OKLAHOMA CITY – The campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei is questioning the editorial independence of nonprofit news organization Oklahoma Watch after Attorney General Gentner Drummond made a $500 donation to the organization in 2024.
Drummond responded Tuesday by making another $500 contribution to Oklahoma Watch.
“If supporting independent journalism is now considered controversial, here’s today’s receipt,” Drummond said in a message to Oklahoma Politics Today. His campaign provided a screenshot confirming the contribution was made Tuesday.
The dispute began with a Facebook post from the Mazzei campaign highlighting Drummond’s name on Oklahoma Watch’s publicly available 2024 donor list and arguing that the contribution raised questions about the nonprofit newsroom’s editorial independence. The campaign did not cite any specific news story as evidence that Drummond’s donation influenced Oklahoma Watch’s coverage. Instead, the post characterized the nonprofit newsroom as “left-wing” and “liberal” while questioning its independence.
Drummond’s original $500 contribution placed him in Oklahoma Watch’s “Watchdog” donor category, which recognizes donors who contributed between $300 and $999 in 2024.
The organization’s publicly available donor list includes contributors from different political perspectives, as well as business and civic leaders from across Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Watch’s published editorial independence policy states that the organization maintains “a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue.” It also says financial support “does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions” and that news judgments are made independently of donor support.
Oklahoma Watch Executive Director Ted Streuli said the campaign’s criticism overlooked the fact that the donor list cited in the Facebook post was published by Oklahoma Watch itself.
“Isn’t it ironic that someone used a screenshot of the donor list on Oklahoma Watch’s website to suggest that Oklahoma Watch is not sufficiently transparent about our donors?”
— Ted Streuli, executive director, Oklahoma Watch
“We’re an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit newsroom,” Streuli said. “We welcome donations from all who support the First Amendment and believe in the importance of a free press.”
Asked whether any donor—including Drummond—had ever received advance review of, provided input into or exercised influence over an Oklahoma Watch story, Streuli said, “No donor, no board member, no person or organization outside this newsroom neither has nor will influence our reporting.”
Drummond also rejected the Mazzei campaign’s criticism.
“This is a desperate attempt to manufacture a controversy where none exists,” Drummond said. “Supporting a news organization through a donation or membership is no different than subscribing to a newspaper, paying for a magazine, or contributing to your local public radio station. It doesn’t buy coverage, and it doesn’t dictate editorial decisions.”
