Research Cited

Local news outlets subscribing to The Center Square’s wire service are pushing right-wing talking points on their readers

Source: Media Matters for America | Published: 6/20/2023

In 2019, Watchdog.org, an organization that propagated misinformation and lies that benefitted Republican politicians, rebranded as The Center Square. Since rebranding, the company has operated as a dark money-fueled conservative news wire service writing and distributing right-wing slanted news stories. Their publisher, Franklin News Foundation, has apparently continued to receive funding from the ultra-conservative Donors Trust.

The Constitutional Kamikaze

ALEC, Democracy, Extremism, Koch

Source: Intelligencer | Published: 6/13/2023

The Center for Media and Democracy tells me that it found that COS, through three of its nonprofits, drew in over $58 million in dark money between 2016 and 2021, including from funds tied to networks of the Kochs’ and of Trump’s “judge whisperer,” Leonard Leo.

Anti-ESG is third stage of climate denial – here’s how to fight back 

ALEC, Climate, Environment, RAGA, SFOF

Source: Green America | Published: 6/5/2023

Credits For more information about the anti-ESG campaign and the groups behind it, check out the work of these tireless research organizations: Center for Media and Democracy, especially its website sfofexposed.org, as well as its many articles on the State Financial Officers Foundation, American Legislative Exchange Council, Heartland Institute, Heritage Foundation, Republican Attorneys General Association, […]

Dark Money’s Behind The Debt Ceiling Plan To Punish The Poor

Democracy, Economy, SPN

Source: The Lever | Published: 5/24/2023

Uihlein’s foundation has contributed nearly $18 million to the FGA since 2014, according to data from the Center for Media and Democracy. Other major donors to the FGA have included the billionaire Scaife family, heirs to the Mellon aluminum and banking fortune, and DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund — or pass-through vehicle — long known as conservatives’ “dark money […]

Doctors Who Spread Medical Misinformation Should Lose Their Licenses. Why Don’t They?

Extremism

Source: Current Affairs | Published: 5/22/2023

Today’s misinformation doctors are often associated with larger right-wing moneyed efforts, as reported in December 2022 by the Center for Media and Democracy’s Walker Bragman: Throughout the pandemic, a number of doctors and other medical experts have leveraged their credentials to promote misinformation and build large social media followings, styling themselves as bold whistleblowers challenging a tyrannical […]

Secretly Funded Climate Obstruction Keeps the Fossil Fuel Fires Burning

ALEC, Climate, Democracy, Environment, Koch, SPN

Source: eco RI News | Published: 5/18/2023

SourceWatch outlines the organization’s strong ties to Koch-funded entities such as the Virginia-based State Policy Network — a group of free-market think tanks that support the work of many of the most vocal organizations when it comes to promoting climate change skepticism, including the Cato Institute, the Heartland Institute, and the Heritage Foundation — and the American Legislative Exchange […]

Who Is Leonard Leo’s Mysterious Dark Money King?

Democracy, Extremism, RAGA

Source: The New Republic | Published: 5/16/2023

RAGA coordinates Republican attorneys general in pro-corporate, anti-progressive legal action. Those include 19 attorneys general who are pressuring investors like BlackRock to abandon environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, investments aimed at curtailing climate pollution.

“Women’s Bill of Rights” created by secretive group that opposes women’s rights

Democracy, Extremism, Koch

Source: Popular Info | Published: 5/10/2023

The Center for Media and Democracy reports that “no fewer than half of the Independent Women’s Forum’s full-time staff previously worked directly for Koch-controlled groups or for entities that received Koch funding.” IWF’s current chairman, Higgins, is a longtime Koch operative. She was previously the director and secretary at the Koch-affiliated Center to Protect Patient Rights, and […]

How conservatives have moved to undermine federal authority

ALEC, Democracy, Extremism

Source: The Week | Published: 5/10/2023

Rick Santorum, a former GOP senator, can allegedly be heard pushing for a convention in audio obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, a progressive government watchdog. Two-thirds of U.S. states — 34 of them — would need to approve a convention, and Santorum reportedly pushed for red states to join him in the effort.

Hillsdale College: From 1990s Sex Scandal to Setting Educational Standards for Christ Nationalists

Education, Extremism

Source: Daily Kos | Published: 4/20/2023

The three men appointed to spearhead the operation, Scott W. Atlas, M.D., of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, also known as Trump’s COVID guy, Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., of Stanford University, and Martin Kulldorff, Ph.D., of the Brownstone Institute, “are connected to right-wing dark money attacking public health measures,” according to Walker Bragman and Alex Kotch, […]