Elke van Cassel documents many connections that The Reporter had to the American intelligence establishment and believes that there is circumstantial evidence that the magazine was funded by the CIA. She notes that The Reporter was created at around the same time that the CIA began funding pro-American artists and journalists, including such similar magazines as Partisan Review and New Leader, and folded around the time that these kinds of clandestine activities were beginning to draw public scrutiny.
Elke van Cassel argues that The Reporter had ties to the American intelligence establishment and suggests that it was funded by the CIA. She notes that The Reporter's creation coincided with the CIA's funding of pro-American artists and journalists, including publications like Partisan Review and New Leader, and its closure occurred during a period when these covert operations were becoming more widely known.