Research Cited

Charity Doubles as a Profit Stream at the Daily Caller News Foundation

Source: The Washington Post | Published: 6/2/2017

The mission of the Daily Caller News Foundation, according to IRS filings, is “to train up-and-coming reporters and editors, to carry out investigative reporting, and to perform deep policy reporting with a purpose of consumer awareness and education.”

To evaluate the fulfillment of those goals, the Center for Media and Democracy, which first alerted The Fix to the Daily Caller’s business construct, analyzed the foundation’s output for two separate weeks, one in January and one in March. The watchdog found that only 39 percent of the articles represented original reporting; the rest hardly qualified as “investigative reporting” or “deep policy reporting.”

Fox News Host Exposed as Running a Scam Charity That Received Funding from Trump

Economy

Source: Daily Kos | Published: 6/2/2017

Now it has come to light that Carlson is more than just a terrible TV host. The Center for Media and Democracy conducted an exhaustive investigation into the stewardship of his website, The Daily Caller (TDC). Carlson launched the site six years ago and it quickly became a staple of wingnut propaganda. The Washington Post published CMD’s findings with this summary of the scam:

Tucker Carlson Running Actual Scam Charitable Foundation, Unlike Hill…OH, FFS!

Economy

Source: Wonkette | Published: 6/2/2017

You already know that Tucker Carlson is a garbage human and DailyCaller.com is a pile of garbage pixels that will burn your retinas. But today we found out that The Daily Caller is actually a giant tax scam pretending to be a rightwing bullshit factory. Thanks, Center for Media and Democracy! Let’s Scamsplore!!!!

Muscular Right-Wing Foundation Vows to Rebuild National Conservative Infrastructure

Bradley Files

Source: Truthout | Published: 5/31/2017

Since its founding in the early 1940s, the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation has been a mainstay in funding and building conservative institutions, and supporting right-wing projects. A new report by The Center for Media and Democracy’s “Exposed” project, dives into a new “national effort funded by the … foundation to assess and expand right-wing ‘infrastructure’ [in order] to influence policies and politicians in statehouses nationwide.”

BREAKING: Wisconsin May Bring the Koch Brothers One State Closer To Rewriting the Constitution

Democracy, Koch

Source: In These Times | Published: 5/31/2017

Wisconsin, in particular, has been a beachhead of rightwing state takeovers. The Koch brothers and other right-wing interests contributed handsomely to Gov. Scott Walker’s 2010 election campaign—an attempt to turn the traditionally progressive state into a laboratory for free market policies. Following suit, the language around Article V in Wisconsin suggests the state will use the convention to propose “amendments relating to a balanced budget.”

…

“I really see it as a return to the Confederacy,” Arn Pearson, of Wisconsin’s Center for Media and Democracy, has said. “They want the ability for states to override Supreme Court rulings and any federal law they don’t like.”

To Make Your Conspiracy Theory Legit, Just Find an ‘Expert’

Democracy

Source: WIRED | Published: 5/31/2017

But even if an expert’s credentials seem to check out, they might still be bogus. “There’s a lot of false credentialing going on, especially at PR firms masquerading as think tanks that aren’t subject to peer review,” says Lisa Graves, executive director for the Center of Media and Democracy. Take, for example, the employees of the Center for Immigration Studies: you’d expect them to be immigration policy experts, right? Trouble is, CIS is actually a xenophobic hate group, founded by a longtime nativist. And these days, you don’t even have to be part of an organization to build an expert-sounding resume: many online journals will publish your research, valid or not, as long as you pay them first.

Three Women Who Are Fighting for Social Justice and Changing the World

ALEC, Democracy, Trump

Source: Bust Magazine | Published: 5/31/2017

Lisa Graves: The Dark Money Diviner

“I don’t know what Donald Trump thinks, aside from what he tweets, but I think he is deeply deceitful and deceptive. Throughout the campaign, he talked about draining the swamp, and instead, he’s stocking the swamp and locating it in the Rose Garden, just outside the White House,” says Lisa Graves. And she would know. Graves is the Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a watchdog group with a nose for sniffing out corporate bad guys, enlisting whistleblowers, and shedding light on secretive, misleading campaign contributions, known as “dark money.” She’s the country’s foremost expert on big-money political shenanigans, with decades of experience in government.

Foundation Uses Tax-Exempt Status to Fund Anti-Union Efforts

Bradley Files

Source: Canton Daily Ledger | Published: 5/30/2017

At the center of such efforts is the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (the Bradley Foundation), which has led a national effort to de-fund and destroy labor unions, according to the Madison, Wis., Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a nonprofit advocacy group that uncovered key documents.

Join the Intercept in Documenting the Conflicts of Interest of Hundreds of Trump Appointees

Trump

Source: The Intercept | Published: 5/25/2017

To shed light on these appointees’ backgrounds, The Intercept and the Center for Media and Democracy have requested the Office of Government Ethics Form 278, the standard financial disclosure document, for hundreds of Trump officials. We have now received over 150 of them and compiled them in a public Google Documents table, and will be adding more as they arrive.

The Other Special Prosecutor We Need

Democracy, Trump

Source: Moyers & Company | Published: 5/25/2017

Meanwhile, another scandal is brewing in the White House that demands equal attention — Trump, his family and his inner circle cashing in on the presidency for personal profit.

Let’s face it, Trump and his close associates have turned their backs on ethical norms and the anti-corruption protections written into the US Constitution and federal law in a way we haven’t seen in modern times.