Investigating Power
The Center for Media and Democracy noted the brief and followed up with a more robust analysis—indeed a stunning analysis—finding that “sixteen right-wing foundations gave nearly $69 million to groups urging the Supreme Court to abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since 2014” and that the same sixteen foundations had given over $33 million to […]
A 2013 study by the Center for Media and Democracy found that 139 bills or state budget provisions resembling ALEC’s education policy were introduced in 43 states, with 31 becoming law. Versions of ALEC’s virtual schools bill have been introduced in state legislatures in Alabama, Illinois, Maine, Mississippi and Missouri, and versions of the bill have […]
The DCNF says it licenses content to any media outlet for free, so it is not an exclusive private content producer for The Daily Caller. But other outlets rarely pick up DCNF content. The Daily Caller, however, leans heavily on that content. The IRS complaint points to snapshots of the outlet’s website, which suggest that […]
ALEC, Climate, Democracy, Environment
Of the 22 anti-protest laws passed over the last four years, 12 designated fossil fuel sites as “critical infrastructure” and ramped up penalties for trespassing or tampering with the equipment there. The statutes, promoted in state legislatures by the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council following the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests, typically elevated low-level misdemeanor […]
The lawsuit was criticized as an effort at voter suppression intended to help Republican candidates. A review by the Center for Media and Democracy showed that, after Wisconsin joined ERIC in 2016, “significantly more voters were purged from the rolls in Democratic-leaning counties than Republican-leaning counties.”
But Lisa Graves, a progressive activist and president of the board of the Center for Media and Democracy, said Amazon should stick to advertising. Her group runs PR Watch, which has long documented the practice and newsrooms’ publishing of video news releases. “It’s understandable that Amazon wants to tout its efforts in this pandemic, but […]
Under the Trump Administration, the Mitch McConnell-led Senate has produced few significant legislative accomplishments. Instead, it has prioritized packing the judiciary with far-right extremists, who then enjoy life tenure as federal judges. Working hand- in-hand with the administration and anonymously-funded outside groups, the Senate has confirmed 200 new life-tenured federal judges to aggressively remake the […]
ALEC, Democracy, Economy, SPN, Trump
According to documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, ALEC hosted a call on April 22 on the need to reopen the economy with Vice President Mike Pence and 300 state legislators and corporate lobbyists—with promises of future calls with Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Republican political operatives have begun recruiting pro-Trump doctors to make TV and radio appearances to promote the case for reopening states’ economies, even where they’ve failed to meet safety benchmarks set by the CDC. This is Republican Party strategist Nancy Schulze, speaking in leaked audio of a conference call obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy.
“There is a coalition of doctors who are extremely pro-Trump that have been preparing and coming together for the war ahead in the campaign on health care,” Schulze said on the call. “And we have doctors that are … in the trenches, that are saying ‘It’s time to reopen.'”
Trump campaign senior adviser Mercedes Schlapp backed the idea, saying in the call: “Those are the types of guys that we should want to get out on TV and radio to help push out the message.”
“They’ve already been vetted. But they need to be put on the screens,” she added in the leaked call given to the AP by the Center for Media and Democracy, a progressive group.
Tim Murtaugh, Trump campaign communications director told the AP a campaign to recruit doctors to support efforts was taking place but would not specify any timeline.The news of such an effort to recruit medics came in a leaked recording of a conference call from May 11 organized by CNP Action, which is part of the Save Our Country Coalition, a group pushing to end state lockdowns.