But Lisa Graves, a progressive activist and president of the board of the Center for Media and Democracy, said Amazon should stick to advertising. Her group runs PR Watch, which has long documented the practice and newsrooms’ publishing of video news releases. “It’s understandable that Amazon wants to tout its efforts in this pandemic, but […]
Research Cited
Captured Courts: The GOP’s Big Money Assault On The Constitution, Our Independent Judiciary, And The Rule of Law
Under the Trump Administration, the Mitch McConnell-led Senate has produced few significant legislative accomplishments. Instead, it has prioritized packing the judiciary with far-right extremists, who then enjoy life tenure as federal judges. Working hand- in-hand with the administration and anonymously-funded outside groups, the Senate has confirmed 200 new life-tenured federal judges to aggressively remake the […]
The Wealthy Bosses and Right-Wing Ideologues Behind the Rush to “Reopen”
According to documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, ALEC hosted a call on April 22 on the need to reopen the economy with Vice President Mike Pence and 300 state legislators and corporate lobbyists—with promises of future calls with Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Pro-Trump Doctors to Promote Reopening States Despite CDC Warnings
Republican political operatives have begun recruiting pro-Trump doctors to make TV and radio appearances to promote the case for reopening states’ economies, even where they’ve failed to meet safety benchmarks set by the CDC. This is Republican Party strategist Nancy Schulze, speaking in leaked audio of a conference call obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy.
Republican Group Is Recruiting Pro-Trump Doctors to Make Case for Swift Reopening of Economy
“There is a coalition of doctors who are extremely pro-Trump that have been preparing and coming together for the war ahead in the campaign on health care,” Schulze said on the call. “And we have doctors that are … in the trenches, that are saying ‘It’s time to reopen.'”
Trump campaign senior adviser Mercedes Schlapp backed the idea, saying in the call: “Those are the types of guys that we should want to get out on TV and radio to help push out the message.”
“They’ve already been vetted. But they need to be put on the screens,” she added in the leaked call given to the AP by the Center for Media and Democracy, a progressive group.
Tim Murtaugh, Trump campaign communications director told the AP a campaign to recruit doctors to support efforts was taking place but would not specify any timeline.The news of such an effort to recruit medics came in a leaked recording of a conference call from May 11 organized by CNP Action, which is part of the Save Our Country Coalition, a group pushing to end state lockdowns.
GOP fronts ‘pro-Trump’ doctors to prescribe rapid reopening
Republican political operatives are recruiting “extremely pro-Trump” doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
The plan was discussed in a May 11 conference call with a senior staffer for the Trump reelection campaign organized by CNP Action, an affiliate of the GOP-aligned Council for National Policy. A leaked recording of the hourlong call was provided to The Associated Press by the Center for Media and Democracy, a progressive watchdog group.
Tea Party 2.0: What the ‘Reopen’ Protests Have in Common With the Tea Party
Lisa Graves: I know from the research that I did with my team when I was at the Center for Media and Democracy back in 2015, 2016 that COS expressly recruits from gun shows. And it’s consistent with the other things we were seeing at the time in 2015, 2016, 2017 about that being a target audience for these efforts to have these constitutional conventions. One of the other groups, co-sponsored by the Koch-aligned ALEC, even held a machine gun shoot to raise money, and they were targeting gun rights activists, saying they were the caretakers of our government and a Constitution they “will” keep—which was underscored with a blood-red line. At their event at a shooting range, they auctioned off a rapid firing assault weapon, and some of them even sang a song calling their opponents socialists. This was very anti-Obama stuff.
How ALEC Is Leading Anti-Lockdown Protests
Anti-lockdown protesters across the US are largely white, conservative, pro-gun, and Trump loving. They have another thing in common – their actions are spurred by the American Legislative Exchange Council – a notorious rightwing organization that for years has coordinated state-by-state actions to promote a far-right agenda.
Now, my guest David Armiak, research director with the Center for Media and Democracy points out that ALEC has its fingerprints all over the anti-lockdown protests as well.
Amazon and other platforms allowing payments to far-right groups
Dozens of hate groups and racist media outlets are receiving income via mainstream payment processors such as Amazon, Stripe and DonorBox, according to a new report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).
The groups still receiving donations and sales via such platforms include promoters of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that motivated the Christchurch shooter, an organization cited as an inspiration by mass shooter Dylan Roof, and several groups that participated in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville that ended in the killing of a protester.
The CMD report – called Funding Hate – finds that despite previous, widely publicized crackdowns, and explicit policies forbidding racist far-right groups from their services, companies are still allowing income to flow to white nationalist, neo-Confederate and neo-Nazi hate groups.
To Protect the Environment, We Must First Protect the Constitution
There are no rules outlined in the Constitution for how the process of a convention would unfold. We must consider the agenda of those who are lobbying so hard for this convention and how they would seek to gain influence. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been the driving force. Though ALEC does not disclose its funding sources, a study by the Center for Media and Democracy found that about 98% of its funding comes from corporations like ExxonMobil, corporate foundations like the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, and trade associations like the American Petroleum Institute. ALEC’s priorities include weakening air and water pollution standards, eviscerating the Endangered Species Act, expanding offshore drilling for oil and gas, giving states power to condemn federal lands containing fossil fuels, and opposing federal and state efforts to combat climate change and shift to cleaner sources of energy and transportation, despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that urgent action is needed to avoid the grave consequences for human health and safety that are on the horizon.