Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Just what we didn't need...less trust

MTV has admitted to using Knight Foundation grant dollars to NOT pay the freelancers that it hired to do the work of its Street Team 08. Details are here and here, initial discussion from the freelancers is here and here. After some public tale-telling (just what you might expect from reporters, eh?), it appears that MTV will pay its bills on the grant.

Only sources I could find on this are various blogs that are linked in above paragraph; I found nothing noted about the whole issue on either MTV or Knight Foundation sites.

The drumbeat of bad news regarding trust, transparency, and accountability of institutions - commercial, public or philanthropic - seems to be getting louder and louder.

HT to @jefftrexler and uncivil society.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for blogging on this. I was the DC Rep on the Street Team. While MTV "felt terrible" about the late paychecks (and have since paid us) it is relevant to ask (1) why there was an issue in the first place and (2) how MTV and Knight will address similar problems in the future.