Investigating Power
Democracy, Extremism, Media, Trump
The project comes with real money. Turning Point’s 2021 investor prospectus set the budget for its media branch (which handles influencer outreach) at over $7.2 million. The organization has onboarded and trained over 400 creators as brand ambassadors, a number verified on social media and in a Turning Point Quizlet account that was taken down […]
ALEC, Democracy, Economy, Extremism, Koch
“How The Koch Network Hijacked The War On COVID.” That’s the headline to a new report looking at how a right-wing network linked to billionaire Charles Koch has played a key role in fighting public health measures put in place by governments during the pandemic, including mask and vaccine mandates, contact tracing and lockdowns. The […]
The three men appointed to spearhead the operation, Scott W. Atlas, M.D., of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, also known as Trump’s guy, Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., of Stanford University, and Martin Kulldorff, Ph.D., of the Brownstone Institute, “are connected to right-wing dark money attacking public health measures,” according to Walker Bragman and Alex Kotch, writing […]
ALEC, Climate, Democracy, Environment
In an email obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, a top executive for a state-level group that pushed the anti-divestment bill in Texas wrote that “at the ALEC Committee meetings you’ll have the opportunity to push back against woke financial institutions that are colluding against American energy producers.”
In 2016, FPL infamously backed a wildly deceptive campaign that attempted to trick Floridians into voting for Amendment 1, an anti-rooftop solar measure dressed up as pro-solar policy. Investor-owned utilities spent over $20 million pushing a ballot initiative that would have allowed the utilities to add fees to rooftop solar customers, killing the industry. Consultants […]
The 85 Fund also donated $750,000 to RealClearFoundation, a conservative nonprofit tied to the political news aggregator RealClearPolitics.
ALEC, Climate, Democracy, Economy, Environment, Koch
Not long ago, the Center for Media and Democracy’s Alex Kotch reported on an ominous development in the fight to prevent climate disaster. Emails show that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Koch brothers’ venture that writes legislation for state and federal government on behalf of corporate interests, approved a new model bill to […]
ALEC, Bradley Files, Democracy, Trump
At an Alec meeting on 1 December in California, Mitchell helped lead a secretive “process working group” session devoted to election and voting law changes and related matters that included several top legal allies such as Adams and Von Spakovsky, according to reports from the Center for Media and Democracy…”
ALEC, Climate, Democracy, Economy, Environment
On December 3rd, the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the American Legislative Exchange Council voted to support two pieces of model legislation attacking fossil fuel divestment titled the “Energy Discrimination Elimination Act” and “Resolution Opposing Securities and Exchange Commission and White House Mandates on Climate-Related Financial Matters.”
ALEC, Climate, Democracy, Environment
An email sent by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and obtained and first reported by Center for Media and Democracy investigative reporter Alex Kotch sheds some light on the draft legislation’s backstory, describing how the policy was constructed to “fight back against woke capitalism” by protecting the fossil fuel industry.