GV Wire Columnist Questions Fresnoland Funding, Editorial Independence

GV Wire news director Bill McEwen leveled a pointed critique at Fresnoland on Thursday, arguing the nonprofit digital news operation conceals financial relationships with activist groups it regularly covers and tilts its journalism toward the policy preferences of former Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin.

Writing in an opinion column published March 13, McEwen took direct aim at Fresnoland's stated mission: "We make policy public and amplify our culture through fact-based journalism." That language, he wrote, obscures a reality he described as "as clear as San Joaquin River mud." In its place, McEwen proposed his own version of what Fresnoland's mission statement should say: "We aim to back all of the public policies — past and present — of former Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin with the stories we choose to cover and how we report them. We also go the extra mile to protect our funders."

The column's sharpest specific allegation was that Fresnoland never discloses in its stories that it shares funding ties with many of the activist nonprofits it covers. McEwen named two organizations explicitly: Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability and Fresno Building Healthy Communities. He labeled the arrangement under a section header that read "Fresnoland a Strand in Dark Money Spider Web." The column did not include dollar figures, dates, or documentary evidence such as tax filings to substantiate the funding connections, and no response from Fresnoland, Leadership Counsel, or Fresno Building Healthy Communities appeared in the piece.

McEwen used GV Wire's own disclosure practices as a contrast. GV Wire, he noted, is owned and published by Fresno developer Darius Assemi, and that connection appears in every story involving Assemi's Granville Homes, the AMOR nonprofit, and the Assemi-family-owned, for-profit California Health Sciences University. The publication also discloses Assemi's political donations in campaign and election coverage.

The column characterized Fresnoland's editorial worldview in blunt terms: "The essence of Fresnoland is that the Swearengin-favored form of development cures most all ills." McEwen did not dispute the goal of improving Fresno, but argued the path requires more than ideological alignment with one political figure's legacy. "Creating more prosperity requires capital, a commitment to doing better for everyone, and political muscle and expertise to execute that vision," he wrote. "It also requires honesty and transparency."

Because the piece ran as opinion, all allegations in it reflect McEwen's assertions and have not been independently verified. Fresnoland has not publicly responded to the column's claims.