Northampton Information Hub's backing and content draw scrutiny
The four founders have disclosed ties to the mayor's political faction, and the organization has declined to name its financial backers.
The Northampton Information Hub, a newly created nonprofit operating mainly on Facebook, has drawn criticism for promoting the policy preferences of Mayor Gina Louise Sciarra and her political allies while declining to publicly disclose its financial backers.
The hub emerged this spring amid lingering tensions from Northampton's contentious fall election cycle, in which Sciarra won re-election by just 79 votes. The organization positions itself as a source of neutral information, posting infographics and summaries of city governance to cut through what it describes as misinformation and "strong feelings." But critics say its content systematically favors the mayor's positions on major issues, including the Picture Main Street downtown redesign and a fiscal stability plan.
The four founders—Abby Spector, Jessica Dawson, Jennifer Nery, and Joshua Silver—all have public ties to the mayor's political faction. Nery served as treasurer for City Councilor Laurie Loisel's successful campaign to oust a prominent critic of Sciarra. "This is not an unbiased nonprofit," said Ian Goodman, a critic of the hub. "This is the mouthpiece for an administration."
When asked about funding sources, the hub's organizers refused to disclose donors. Silver said a donor list would appear in the organization's form 990, the tax filing required of nonprofits receiving over $50,000 annually, though donor information is not included in the publicly available IRS records for such filings.
Spector, who is paid by the organization to create social media content, said she uses generative AI to assist in summarizing city council meetings and generating data visualizations. She reviews lengthy governance meetings and distills them into key points, typically posting summaries within days of each meeting.
Dan Kennedy, a professor at Northeastern University who studies journalism ethics and local news, said that while politically active people can provide reliable information to the public as local news outlets shrink, transparency about their ties is essential. "At a time when there's such a shortage of reliable local nodes, I don't think any of us should have a problem with politically active people, even local officials, getting good reliable news out to the public," Kennedy told The Shoestring. "But they need to disclose what their ties are."
The hub has over 450 followers on Facebook as of early July and generates consistent engagement in comment sections. Other political factions in Northampton, including Support Our Schools and Public Comment Northampton, have similarly organized on social media.