What an NC newspaper didn’t report in covering Chief Justice Newby’s election
Four days after N.C. Senior Associate Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby knocked Cheri Beasley out of the chief justice’s job in an election decided by 401 votes, the North State Journal published what it called an exclusive interview on his narrow win.
Newby, a Republican who had served 16 years as an associate justice, credited his wife, Macon, for campaigning with him and in separate events during the election.
“People ask me what kind of a judge I am, and I say, ‘Well, exhibit A is my wife. I’m a great judge because I made a good choice there,’” he told the weekly newspaper.
What the Journal — formed by officials from a prior Republican governor’s administration — didn’t report is that Macon Newby is also an investor in the five-year-old publication.
Justice Newby’s statements of economic interest going back to 2016 show an investment company owned by his wife, New Tuck LLC, had invested more than $10,000 in the Journal. That investment has remained on Newby’s statements through his most recent statement filed in 2020. The statements describe Macon Newby as a homemaker.
Paul Shumaker, a political consultant who has Newby among his clients, confirmed the investment. He said Newby’s wife comes from a wealthy family and the investment business is her own. He declined to say how much she had invested in the publication, saying the Newbys would stick with what they were required to report. The forms require any investments of more than $10,000 to be reported.
Shumaker said the Newbys declined to be interviewed for this story.
Two media ethics experts said in email responses to the N&O that the Journal should be disclosing in its coverage of Newby that his wife is an investor.
“It’s an absolutely clear ethical obligation for North State Media to make note of the investment by Justice Newby’s wife in every article it publishes that concerns him,” said Samuel Freedman, a journalist and professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. “Transparency is the gold standard here.
“By not being open with its readers about the investment, North State Media actually brings more suspicion on its coverage. It gives the impression, whether accurate or not, that something is being hidden.”
Kelly McBride, who teaches journalism ethics as a senior vice president for the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, said while news organizations aren’t required by law to disclose investors, they should.
“The more transparent news organizations are, the more their audience trusts them,” she said. “That said, right now this is only common among non-profit newsrooms.”
Journal publisher Neal Robbins, a former legislative liaison for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources under then-Gov. Pat McCrory, could not be reached for comment. The News & Observer left a voice message Monday for Robbins and sent him a direct message on Twitter.
When the Journal launched in 2016, Robbins declined to identify who put money into the newspaper.
“I’m not going to talk about who our investors are,” Robbins told the N&O. He also declined to say how much startup money had been raised. At that time, he reported a staff of 16 journalists and 10 business staff, and said he had plans to eventually publish five days a week.
A year later, he told Business North Carolina he had a reporting staff of 10 and was selling 3,000 papers as the Journal started publishing twice a week. It went back to weekly publication after a few months.
Other former McCrory staffers at the helm when the Journal began printing included a former state environmental department spokesman, a staff development specialist and a former senior economic adviser.
Robbins insisted then the newspaper would be nonpartisan and aim for objectivity.
Its coverage of the Beasley-Newby race was tougher on the incumbent. The Journal published a story in October critical of Beasley filming a campaign ad in the courthouse in August at a time when she had imposed limited access to the building during the pandemic.
Another story in July reported that two Mecklenburg County judges requested their colleagues shoot video of themselves speaking parts of a statement Beasley gave about a judicial system that she believes is much harsher on Black people. Beasley, who is Black, gave the statement during a press conference on June 2 after protests and rioting that followed the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
It also covered a judicial candidates’ forum sponsored by two chapters of the conservative Federalist Society in North Carolina that put Beasley on the defensive over her statement. Donna Martinez, vice president of marketing and communications for the conservative John Locke Foundation, moderated the forum.
The News & Observer didn’t find any stories produced by the Journal during the campaign challenging Newby’s positions or his record. None of the stories reflected his wife’s investment.
Newby’s wife is not the only investor with Republican ties. Then-Rep. Justin Burr’s economic interest statement in 2017 listed him as an owner of Triple B Investors LLC, which incorporation papers show was formed by Robbins. Burr, a Stanly County Republican and bail bondsman, listed Triple B as an investor in North State Media.
Burr lost reelection the following year in the Republican primary. He’s now the executive director of the NC Outdoor Heritage Advisory Council.
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 11:56 AM.