Research Cited

Sanders’s Bill Electrifies Growing Single-Payer Movement

Source: Truthout | Published: 9/14/2017

One such group is the Koch-funded State Policy Network, which the Center for Media and Democracy describes as an “$83 million right-wing empire.” The State Policy Network has organizations in nearly every state that can react quickly — and with resources — to counter any policy they don’t like across the country. Other opponents, such as the American Medical Association, Third Way Democrats and right-wing think tanks and media, will also be militant in their opposition to the single-payer bill.

AFJ Nominee Report: Thomas Farr

Economy, Koch

Source: Alliance for Justice | Published: 9/12/2017

Farr also has fought vigorously against workers’ efforts to unionize. He was a staff attorney at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which has deep ties to the Koch brothers and was described by The Center for Media and Democracy as “a national leader in the effort to destroy public and private sector unions.”² Later, in private practice, he filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit challenging California’s State Employer-Employee Relations Act, which provided for collective bargaining for state employees. He did this even though he was a North Carolina resident and was not representing any party to the litigation. He also defended companies trying to deny recognition of unions and committing unfair labor practices.

Pruitt Declined to Prosecute Fraud Allegations as Okla. AG

Democracy, Environment

Source: E&E News | Published: 9/5/2017

Arn Pearson, who is suing Hunter’s office for records from Pruitt’s tenure, said officials should be able to release the audit with sensitive material blacked out.

“I’m very skeptical about how they’re using claims and exemptions to withhold records,” said Pearson, who is general counsel for the Center for Media and Democracy.

Who Exactly Is Paying for Neil Gorsuch to Speak at the Trump Tower This Month?

ALEC, Koch, SPN

Source: Rewire | Published: 9/5/2017

TFAS is an associate member of the State Policy Network (SPN). According to a 2013 report from the Center for Media and Democracy, the SPN is a “a web of right-wing ‘think tanks’ in every state across the country.” The report goes on to claim that although “many of SPN’s member organizations claim to be nonpartisan and independent … SPN and its member think tanks are major drivers of the right-wing, ALEC-backed agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders, all while reporting little or no lobbying activities.”

Letter: Climate Deniers Against Electric Vehicles

Climate, Koch

Source: tucson.com | Published: 8/31/2017

My suspicions were confirmed when I checked the Center for Media and Democracy’s website and found that the Heartland Institute is a right-wing libertarian think tank and and according to The Economist is one of the most active “climate denier” organizations in the U.S. which receives the bulk of its funding from the petroleum industry, the Koch brothers and other climate change denier groups. In essence the arguments put forth by Burnett are just reformatted and regurgitated arguments that argue that climate change isn’t real and that we don’t need to worry about it.

Daily Reads: As Harvey’s Death Toll Rises, Trump Touts Plan to Slash His Own Taxes

Democracy, SPN

Source: Moyers & Company | Published: 8/31/2017

A “mortal blow” against workers –> Ed Pilkington reports for The Guardian that “a network of conservative think tanks with outposts in all 50 states has embarked on a ‘breakthrough’ campaign designed to strike a ‘mortal blow’ against” public sector unions, as a “first step toward ensuring the permanent collapse of progressive politics.” (In 2013, BillMoyers.com interviewed Lisa Graves, director of the Center for Media and Democracy, about this shadowy network.)

Rightwing Alliance Plots Assault to ‘Defund and Defang’ America’s Unions

Democracy, SPN

Source: The Guardian | Published: 8/30/2017

Mary Bottari, deputy director of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) which tracks the rise of rightwing groups in America, said the fundraising letter and other SPN documents published by the Guardian cast light on the conservative game plan. “It’s very rare to catch conservative thinktanks talking so openly and blatantly about their long-term political aims. These documents reveal to us that SPN’s goals are entirely political – they have no concern for workers or union members, their only goal is winning elections to advance rightwing causes.”

Bottari added: “An $80m campaign to ‘defund and defang’ public sector unions is remarkable, both in its size and in its ambition.”

How an Eight-Page Memo Ruined Our Political System

ALEC, Democracy

Source: Bucks County Courier Times | Published: 8/30/2017

So what does ALEC stand for? According to Sourcewatch, the group seeks to “undermine environmental regulations and deny climate change; support school privatization; undercut health care reform; defund unions and limit their political influence; restrain legislatures’ abilities to raise revenue through taxes; mandate strict election laws that disenfranchise voters; (and) increase incarceration to benefit the private prison industry,” as well as “stand your ground” laws among many other issues (the group is most commonly aligned with the Republican Party).

Internal Documents Reveal Right-Wing Plan to Strike Public Unions With ‘Mortal Blow’

ALEC, SPN

Source: Common Dreams | Published: 8/30/2017

The State Policy Network (SPN) documents were obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy and first published by the Guardian.

Center for Media and Democracy describes the SPN, which kicked off its annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas on Tuesday, as “the tip of the spear of far-right, nationally funded policy agenda in the states that undergirds extremists in the Republican Party.”

The 66 think tanks (aka “stink tanks”) that make up the SPN, explains CMD, “operate as the policy, communications, and litigation arm of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), giving the cookie-cutter ALEC agenda a sheen of academic legitimacy and state-based support.”

Inside the Poison Papers

Environment

Source: American Free Press | Published: 8/25/2017

Published by the Center for Media and Democracy and the Bioscience Resource Project, the Poison Papers lay out “a 40-year history of deceit and collusion involving the chemical industry and the regulatory agencies that were supposed to be protecting human health and the environment,” according to Peter von Stackelberg, a journalist who helped establish the online collection, as reported by Sharon Lerner on the news website “TheIntercept.com.”