Research Cited

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

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.

The Truth Behind the Stand – Walter Carpenter

ALEC, Koch

Source: Caledonian Record | Published: 5/24/2017

According to the Center for Media and Democracy, “ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through the secretive meetings of ALEC, corporate lobbyists and state legislators vote as equals on “model bills” to change our rights that often benefit the corporations’ bottom line at public expense (www.alecexposed.org/wiki).” Member dues and donations, usually untraceable, from such conservative and libertarian groups as the Koch Brothers, fund ALEC. This group has been noted, for example, to be behind voter ID laws and other forms of voter suppression. It is hardly surprising that they rated Vermont as they did, using their “15 state policy variables,” created by their lobbyists and member legislators.

‘You Can’t Make This Up’: Comcast Threatens Legal Action Against Net Neutrality Proponents

Democracy, Trump

Source: Common Dreams | Published: 5/23/2017

Indeed, the fake comment scandal in addition to the FCC’s failure to process comments in favor of net neutrality drew sharp criticism in the wake of the FCC’s vote, and raised concern over how much influence the telecom industry holds over Pai, and now the FCC.

In case there was any question on that front, The Intercept’s Lee Fang and Nick Surgey reported on Tuesday on an internal email from GOP leadership instructing House Republicans on how best to defend the FCC’s decision.

Lawsuit Targets Trump’s Climate-Change Censorship

Climate, Environment, Trump

Source: Common Dreams | Published: 5/23/2017

On March 23 the [Center for Biological Diversity] joined conservation biologist Stuart Pimm and the Center for Media and Democracy in a separate Freedom of Information Act request to prevent the administration from removing hundreds of environmental data sets on government websites.

Cable Industry Lobbyists Write Republican Talking Points on Net Neutrality

Democracy, Trump

Source: The Intercept | Published: 5/23/2017

Following the vote last week by the Federal Communication Commission to unwind the net neutrality rules enacted during the Obama administration, House Republican lawmakers received an email from GOP leadership on how to defend the decision. The email was shared with The Intercept and the Center for Media and Democracy.

Pruitt’s ‘Political Ambition’ Could Imperil Overhaul — Ebell

SPN, Trump

Source: E&E News | Published: 5/22/2017

Speaking in a closed-door session at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy in Fairfax County, Ebell said the Trump administration has made a series of errors that could trip up efforts to cut red tape — chief among them delays in appointing key EPA officials.

“This is an impending disaster for the Trump administration,” Ebell said in the recording provided to the Center for Media and Democracy and shared with Reuters.