Investigating Power
With a national agenda and a state-by-state focus, NACL is emulating the American Legislative Exchange Council. An infamous corporate front group, ALEC pioneered the strategy of pushing for national political goals by advancing carbon-copy bills through state legislatures. But where ALEC serves far-right billionaire masters and polluting special interests, NACL sees itself as serving the […]
The center sued in December 2020, arguing Yost had violated his duty of disclosure. In its lawsuit, CMD described RAGA and RLDF as “extremely influential pressure groups whose shared mission is to advance the interests of their corporate patrons.” RAGA’s funders include a political organization backed by conservative billionaire Leonard Leo, according to CMD and […]
ALEC, Climate, Democracy, Economy, Environment, RAGA, SFOF
To coordinate messaging among treasurers and comptrollers, SFOF has contracted with CRC Advisors, a for-profit PR shop part-owned by right-wing legal crusader and Federalist Society guru Leonard Leo. Legal entrepreneurs and ESG opponents have found common cause elsewhere, too. The Center for Media and Democracy—a watchdog group that has tracked state-level anti-ESG efforts since their […]
Campaign Finance, Democracy, Elections, SPN
According to a Center for Media and Democracy investigation in 2018, People United for Privacy is a “front group” for the State Policy Network, a web of right-wing think tanks, advocacy groups, and other nonprofits that “provide academic legitimacy for policy ideas through right-wing reports, testimony at legislative hearings, and the media.”
ALEC has existed since the 1970s but rose to prominence in the Obama era for drafting model bills that were increasingly being introduced — sometimes verbatim — in Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country. The organization’s imprint has been clear: In 2015, the progressive Center for Media and Democracy revealed that Wisconsin’s ”right-to-work” bill was almost a word-for-word copy […]
Bradley Files, Democracy, Elections
According to an article published in the New Yorker by journalist Jane Mayer in 2021, the Bradley Foundation has been instrumental in funding voter suppression efforts and 2020 election conspiracy theories. Documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy show that Kelly received payments in 2022 from the Bradley Foundation and affiliated organizations.
Democracy, Education, Extremism, Koch
The Center for Media and Democracy’s research is cited multiple times in this important publication
In August, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reported that Koch-funded organizations spent over $1.1 billion in the 2020 election cycle.
Meckler denies that COSA has ever accepted Koch money, but he is certainly getting money from somewhere. The three nonprofits associated with the Convention of States movement, all headed by Meckler, had a combined revenue of $11.9 million in 2020. Investigative reporting by the Center for Media and Democracy found that one of them, once […]
Part of the foundation’s stated mission is to train young reporters, but its staff also generates content, which the Daily Caller then gets to post to its site for free. And while this content is nominally available to any publication, The Washington Post reported that it’s rarely used by anyone beyond the Daily Caller. A […]