Investigating Power
The liberal Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), which has done a series of investigative reports on the Bradley Foundation, recently reported that the Pope network has a history of trying to suppress voter rights.
Climate, Democracy, Environment, Koch
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) made nine open records requests to Pruitt’s office starting around January 2015. The requests sought Pruitt’s correspondence with 29 fossil fuel companies, including Murray Energy Corp., Devon Energy Corp. and Koch Industries Inc. (Climatewire, Feb. 15).
Plus, the union foes said on their website, they got Zimolong’s help for free, because the Center for Independent Employees “has agreed to pay for his legal fees.” CIE says it aids people “opposed to union oppression in their workplace.” It receives funding from a Koch brothers affiliate, according to Sourcewatch, run by the Center for Media and Democracy.
And while Trump may not have been their candidate, he’s an ideal cover. It’s a virtuous, or is that, vicious cycle. Anti-labor laws and declining membership don’t just boost corporate profits by suppressing wages. They also result in depleted Labor coffers and depress Democratic turnout. You can read more about the right’s weaponized philanthropy in a trove of documents turned up by PR Watch and the Center for Media and Democracy.
The Associated Press dug into that new batch of emails released by the Center for Media and Democracy. The reporters’ conclusion: the “emails underscore just how closely Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt coordinated with fossil fuel companies while serving as Oklahoma’s state attorney general.”
Democratic senators fought unsuccessfully to get copies of Pruitt’s emails from Oklahoma prior to his February confirmation vote. Shortly after Pruitt was sworn in as EPA administrator, an Oklahoma judge ruled that Pruitt had been violating the state’s public records law by withholding his correspondence for at least two years. The judge ordered their release following a lawsuit filed by the Center for Media and Democracy, a left-leaning advocacy group.
Ever since then, Oklahoma’s Office of the Attorney General has been tightfisted when it comes to open-records request. Following that reporting, the Center for Media and Democracy first submitted an open-records request in January 2015 for Pruitt’s records. It took over two years — and a judge’s order — for the office to cough up any documents to CMD.
A batch of emails recently acquired by a watchdog group, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), shows that Pruitt used two addresses out of the Oklahoma attorney general’s office: scott.pruitt@oag.ok.gov and esp@oag.ok.gov. Documents the nonprofit watchdog received through an open-records request show Pruitt’s name associated with both the “scott.pruitt” and “esp” handles, the latter being initials for the former Oklahoma attorney general’s full name, Edward Scott Pruitt.
According to the Center for Media and Democracy, Koch-linked groups have donated nearly $5.4 million to Citizens for Self-Government between 2011, when the group was founded, until 2015, the last year tax records are available. IRS filings show Citizens for Self-Government funding increased from $1.8 million to $5.7 million over that period.
“Convention of States is a much more radical approach to a constitutional convention” than earlier efforts, Arn Pearson, General Counsel at the Center for Media and Democracy, told Fusion. “Their budget has increased dramatically. This is their effort to push the state agenda as far as they can while they hold peak power.”