Hummel on Hummel

Just had a chat with Jim Hummel, the former WLNE television reporter who announced today that he'll be teaming up with radio station WPRO and the Ocean State Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank, to launch a non-profit, web-based, investigative reporting effort: the Hummel Report.

The obvious question, of course, is about the objectivity of a report tied to a right-leaning non-profit and a conservative talk radio outlet. Hummel says he will maintain strict editorial independence. "My pieces will speak for themselves," he said, "as they have for 30 years." And he points to at least one left-leaning member of the board as evidence of balance.

Hummel will appear on WPRO, where he has filled in as a host for the last few years, to promote his stories on Thursdays. Audio from the pieces may make it on the air. But the central focus will be video reports appearing on the WPRO and Hummel web sites.

The project, which got seed funding from conservative businessman John Hazen White Jr., is essentially television on the Internet, Hummel said. We'll see how it fares. Hummel is banking on an emerging non-profit news model, the continued migration of news to the web, and the exposure that a mainstream outlet - like WPRO - can provide.

Succeed or fail, it should be interesting to watch. This is a significant new feature in Rhode Island's changing media landscape.