Research Cited

ALEC Joins Religious Right Activists at the Road to Majority Conference

Source: Right Wing Watch | Published: 6/15/2018

When asked by the CSM [Christian Science Monitor] if ALEC had been influential in the passage of the 2015 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in Indiana—a law signed by then-Gov. Mike Pence that would allow businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people before public pressure forced its amendment—Meierling responded, “We do not work on firearms, marriage equality, immigration, any of those things people frequently say are ours.” According to a Source Watch report, however, three of RFRA’s co-authors were ALEC Task Force committee chairs. Additionally, the Center for Media and Democracy’s acquisition of 800 ALEC-written bills has revealed extensive ALEC state legislation having to do with gun laws and immigration—namely due to their involvement with Stand Your Ground Laws and anti-immigration laws such as the “No Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants” Act.

Chamber of Commerce Ranked #2 on Top-30 Tort Reform Hypocrites List

ALEC, Chambers of Commerce

Source: Litigation Finance Journal | Published: 6/13/2018

The report cites the Chamber for its hypocrisy, and notes that the Chamber is a longtime member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)’s Civil Justice Task Force, an entity “devoted solely to weakening or eliminating corporate liability for wrongdoing.” An investigative report by the Center for Media and Democracy found that bills proposed by ALEC “make it harder for average Americans to access the civil justice system” and “provide relief and protections for the industries who wrote them.”

Is Harley-Davidson Sacrificing Its Workers for Excessive Corporate Profits?

Democracy, Economy

Source: Citizen Truth | Published: 6/10/2018

The PR Watch report stated that the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) showed the three top holders of Harley Davidson stock made “an additional $5 million above what they would have made last quarter without the tax cut, even as the 800 Kansas City machinists and steelworkers received pink slips.”

The Extremists’ Plot to Bust Unions

ALEC, Democracy, Economy, Koch, SPN

Source: Amsterdam News | Published: 6/7/2018

The In These Times article, written by Mary Bottari of the Center for Media Democracy, is entitled “Behind Janus: Documents Reveal Decade-Long Plot to Kill Public-Sector Unions.” Janus refers to the case currently before the Supreme Court, Janus v. AFSCME. The plaintiff challenges union security—the right of unions to collect “fair share” fees for collective bargaining from bargaining-unit workers who have chosen not to join the union. This opting out, known also as freeloading, means fewer union resources are available to unions to represent workers, file grievances and bargain with employers. Meanwhile, these workers benefit from wage gains, benefits and working conditions won by the union.

Margaret Krome: Hero Journalists Essential to Keep American Democracy Going

ALEC, Koch

Source: Madison.com | Published: 5/29/2018

In 2011, Madison’s own Center for Media and Democracy investigated the uncanny commonalities in radical state legislative proposals emerging across the nation and uncloaked the pernicious role that multibillionaire brothers Charles and David Koch had played in funding the American Legislative Exchange Council to formulate such proposals and strategies.

The Bipartisan War on Public Education: Barrington

Education

Source: Reno Gazette Journal | Published: 5/29/2018

Providing gifts to the charter school industry is expected from the secretary of education, regardless of who holds the position. Bryant mentions a report from the Center for Media and Democracy which “found that over the past 20 years the federal government has sent over $3.3 billion to the charter school industry with virtually no accountability.” The report states that “the federal government maintains no comprehensive list of the charter schools that have received and spent these funds or even a full list of the private or quasi-public entities that have been approved by states to ‘authorize’ charters that receive federal funds.”

Here’s What to Know Before Voting in the 2018 Midterm Elections

Democracy

Source: Alternet | Published: 5/22/2018

Each state has its own watchdog groups, and the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch has a handy directory you can use to start to look for information.

Long Before Scott Pruitt, EPA Colluded with Industry

Environment

Source: Salon | Published: 5/19/2018

I know this because in late 2017 my organization, the Bioscience Resource Project, collaborated with the Center for Media and Democracy to rescue and digitize the Poison Papers. These documents come mainly from the barn of longtime pesticide campaigner Carol Van Strum, whose homesteading family and their neighbors were repeatedly sprayed in the 1970s by what turned out to be Agent Orange.

Stefan Halper, Alleged ‘Informant’ in Trump’s Campaign, Outed Weeks Ago by News Outlet with Deep Ties to Trump

Trump

Source: The Inquisitr | Published: 5/19/2018

Donald Trump has had deep and sometimes secret ties with The Daily Caller. A 2017 report from the Center for Media and Democracy found that The Daily Caller received an undisclosed $150,000 payment from Donald Trump’s campaign for access to the site’s mailing list. In the final two months of the election, Trump’s campaign sent at least 25 emails to the mailing list, the report found.

Real Corruption: The Scott Pruitt Story

Climate, Environment

Source: Common Dreams | Published: 5/17/2018

Pruitt’s emails, which were revealed after a suit from the Center for Media and Democracy, expose his coziness and collusion with the fossil-fuel industry. He has insisted that climate change is a “hoax,” despite the overwhelming scientific consensus in its favor. And he has been an enormously destructive EPA administrator, gutting rules, budgets, and staff alike.