The media landscape in Illinois in recent years has seen a reduction in the number of news organizations with reporters in Springfield, but also a proliferation of new sources of information, some of which have points of view.

In the past two years, the number of newspapers and/or websites linked to GOP political activist and Chicago radio talk show host Dan Proft has more than doubled, to 29, including the Sangamon Sun in the Springfield area.

On the other end of the political spectrum, a new outlet, One Illinois, was launched early this year by Chicago Ald. Ameya Pawar, who briefly was a Democratic candidate for governor. Its editor, Ted Cox, acknowledged the publication could be called progressive/liberal. It was started, he said, partly in response to the Proft-linked papers and to the Illinois News Network, which was launched in 2013 as an independent project of the Illinois Policy Institute and is now part of the Chicago-based Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity.

Both of the news services offer content to newspapers to use for free. (The State Journal-Register does not use either outlet's work on its news pages, but sometimes uses the groups' commentary pieces on its opinion pages.)

Charles N. Wheeler III, director of the public affairs reporting program at the University of Illinois Springfield, says that partisan-leaning groups have the right to publish, but that doesn’t speak to quality.

“I look at the whole stable of Proft newspapers as being partisan, ideological publications,” said Wheeler, who spent more than two decades reporting for the Chicago Sun-Times in Springfield before getting his current job in 1993. “It’s very much slanted to reflect the political and ideological views of Dan Proft, who is a conservative figure in Illinois politics.”

But he also said, when told of One Illinois, that he thinks newspapers shouldn't run its content on news pages, "but I understand the difficulty that newspapers have … because they have skeleton crews when they used to have robust reporting staffs.”

The number of reporters assigned to the Statehouse by newspapers and other outlets across the state has fallen in recent years as bureaus have been eliminated or cut back.

Wheeler is on the board of directors of the Illinois Press Foundation, which announced recently it is launching a Statehouse news service to provide year-round coverage of the legislature, governor and state agencies. The service will be supported by the press foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, and is designed to provide news to hundreds of outlets – many of them weekly publications – across the state.

Wheeler said the hope is to have the service up and running by the beginning of 2019, with a bureau chief and a reporter as well as an intern from the UIS public affairs reporting program. He said the idea will be to provide “unbiased, straight reporting” with state issues, such as corrections or the budget, being “localized” for audiences in various parts of the state.

Proft raises and spends millions of dollars backing Republican candidates through his Liberty Principles political action committee. The 29 papers are produced by a company called Local Government Information Services. Proft said via email that LGIS and Liberty Principles have nothing to do with each other.

“We believe in limited government, in the constructive role of the free market and in the rights of citizens to choose the size and scope of their government,” the Sangamon Sun’s website says. It also said funding “is provided, in part, by advocacy groups who share our beliefs in limited government.”

But some articles, Wheeler noted, have Republicans attack Democrats, with no chance to respond.

“It masquerades as legitimate news, but it’s not,” Wheeler said. “It’s propaganda.”

Among candidates backed by Proft’s Liberty Principles PAC was Seth McMillan of Taylorville, a Republican who lost on Nov. 6 to incumbent Democratic state Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill. In a Sept. 19 issue of the Proft publication South Central Reporter — but also available on the Sangamon Sun website — a story was headlined “McMillan accuses Manar of flip-flopping on term limits.”

There is no response from Manar or context concerning the ad. As The State Journal-Register reported, the McMillan ad has video of Manar from an SJ-R editorial board interview, but cut the tape short as Manar explained that he does support term limits for legislative leaders.

Some Proft website stories are merely headlines placed over meeting agendas or minutes. One example, featuring only meeting minutes, is a story headlined: “City of Lincoln Council Met November 5.”

A Nov. 19 story on an Illinois House hearing on financial troubles of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation is written by Kyla Asbury. A Kyla Asbury in a LinkedIn profile says she is a freelance content writer who lives in the Huntington, West Virginia area and writes five to 10 stories per day for various newspapers nationwide.

Proft said it doesn’t matter where reporters live — that quality is what matters.

Proft also alleged that “nearly every other reporter in Illinois covering politics” is “as liberal as I am conservative.” He noted that Wheeler voted in many Democratic primaries.

“Wheeler and the journalism establishment defers to government in their reporting,” Proft said. “Journalists should be angry that LGIS exposes their biases. …”

Wheeler voted in GOP primaries in 2016 and 2014; his record also shows votes in 12 Democratic primaries since 1992. He said he chooses interesting races, and always took Democratic ballots to vote against Rod Blagojevich for governor in primaries.

“I’m certainly more of a Democrat than I would be a Trump Republican,” he said. He also said he voted for Republicans, including former Govs. Jim Edgar and Jim Thompson.

Cox, the editor of One Illinois, acknowledged the Proft-linked papers influenced the formation of nonprofit. In its founding announcement, it said those sowing division in Illinois included “politically funded fake news distributed through social media and fake newspapers with the intent to inflame anger and vitriol. …”

Cox said One Illinois has grown to a staff of three augmented by use of freelancers since its April launch. He said its reporting is fair.

“We do feel there are things that are nonpartisan, that are part of our makeup – strong unions, the environment, working families,” Cox said.

“If they find it slanted, they don’t have to use it,” Cox said of editors considering stories from One Illinois.

Wheeler said he has no problem with content from opinionated sites running on opinion pages of regular newspapers.

Another site that has been providing content for free to news outlets across the state is the Illinois News Network. It was launched in 2013 as an independent project of the Illinois Policy Institute. And nearly three years ago, INN purchased the Illinois Radio Network.

INN is now a business unit of Franklin Center, a nonprofit that operates Watchdog.org nationally, said Chris Krug, publisher and general manager of INN and president of Franklin Center.

The Franklin Center and Watchdog.org are located at the same Chicago address as the Illinois Policy Institute.

Wheeler said he doesn’t regularly read INN stories, but stories he has seen feature voices of “the very conservative people in the legislature,” and do not seem to provide balance.

Krug called the claim of bias “pure nonsense.”

“Yes, we make sure the taxpayers’ perspective is present whenever it is relevant,” Krug said. “We give multiple sides the opportunity to comment for our stories, and oftentimes bring in sources that the Statehouse reporting corps ignores.”

Krug also said he is proud of INN’s past affiliation with the Illinois Policy Institute.

“They created and incubated the Illinois News Network,” Krug said. “They also saved the Illinois Radio Network, which has grown substantially under my team’s oversight.” He said a daily planning budget is sent to “220 editors and news decision-makers across Illinois each day,” and editors “have come to rely on our balanced and consistent coverage of the state. …”

He also said INN editorial decisions “are independent, have been independent and will remain independent.”

— Contact Bernard Schoenburg: bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com, 788-1540, twitter.com/bschoenburg.