Media Transparency: The money behind conservative media                     USING THE SITERegister Only registered visitors are allowed to email content or post commentsSign inCursor, Inc.MediaTransparency.org sponsor SearchingMedia Transparency tracks the impact of conservative philanthropy on the media, both through a database of grant information and through original research.To search by purpose of a grant, click on Grants. Recipients yields the funding sources for a long list of recipients. Funders details grants given by listed funders. People contains information, stories, reports and links to funding sources for people in the conservative movement.The website search searches all pages for the text you type in.More information on searching >Advanced search >IssuesIssues lists the topics that conservative philanthropy considers important. Issue pages provide links to original Media Transparency reports, database research, and other stories from the web. Faith-based watch Social Security Privatization Neoconservatism Public School Privatization and Commercialization Tort Reform Law and Economics Movement Court Watch Arkansas Project Conservative PhilanthropyA discussion of the history and influence of conservative philanthropy on the shaping of public attitudes on a variety of subject areas; includes links to reports related to conservative philanthropy, and links to other significant commentary on the subject.ORIGINAL RESEARCHOriginal reports by Media Transparency staff or by experts in the field. Links to funding sources and other reports and stories expand the depth of coverage.MT authors include: Andrew J. Weaver &Nicole SeibertAndrew J. Weaver, et. al.Bill BerkowitzBryan G. PfeiferDave JohnsonDavid DomkeDavid NeiwertDavid RubensteinDennis RedovichEric AltermanJerry LandayMark & Louise ZwickMax BlumenthalMichael WinshipPhil WilaytoRev. Andrew J. Weaver, Ph.D.Rev. Andrew J. Weaver, Ph.D. and Lawrence H. McGaughey, Esq.Rob Levine Around the WebLinks to important stories from other sources. Also links to funding sources and other relevant stories and reports.Mobile versionUsing MT on a Palm, BlackBerry, or Windows CE device? Try our pda version of this website.advertisementsORIGINAL RESEARCH Bill BerkowitzJuly 11, 2008 A president desperately seeking a legacy George W. Bush goes back to touting 'compassionate conservatism' and the 'successes' of his faith-based initiative In 2004, at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, President Bush's contribution to the evening's entertainment was his narration of a slide show that pictured him looking around the Oval Office for weapons of mass destruction. In one of the shots, Bush is looking under some furniture and remarked: "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere."Flash forward four years: At this year's dinner, Bush played highlights from a number of his previous appearances. In a wise decision, he left the WMD skit -- which was roundly criticized for making fun of the issue that was the driving force behind the invasion of Iraq, which has led to deaths of thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis -- out of the highlight package.These days, Bush is no longer concerned about whether WMD existed in Iraq.Instead, he is desperately seeking a legacy; anything that he can latch onto that might trump the fact that a majority of Americans believe that he will go down as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. His search for a legacy could prove as futile as the search for WMD. At this point, it appears that it has landed him back he started a week after his inauguration in 2001; touting his faith-based initiative and "compassionate conservatism."On January 29, 2001, a little over a week after the start of his first term, Bush, surrounded by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim clergy, unveiled his faith-based initiative by issuing an executive order creating the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI). He followed that up with another executive order that eventually established Faith-Based and Community offices at 11 federal agencies.While Bush's faith-based initiative has spread its tentacles to a host of federal, state and local government agencies -- 35 governors and more than 70 mayors, both Democratic and Republican, have established programs modeled after the federal faith-based and community initiatives program – Congress has never even come close to passing legislation legally enacting it. Read the story > Bill BerkowitzJune 24, 2008 'Battling for America's Soul' The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property leaps headlong into the showdown over same-sex marriage in California They've been around for more than 30 years; trace their roots to a Brazilian anti-communist dissident Catholic; wear colorful outfits during their protests on college campuses; and apparently have enough spare change to fund three 4,000+ word simultaneously-placed advertisements in three national dailies.Of all the conservative organizations that will be getting involved in the same-sex marriage showdown in California, one of the least known is a Catholic outfit called the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). TPF isn't a fly-by-night letter-head-only group that suddenly formed to get in on what promises to be one heck of a battle.On June 5, in response to the California Supreme Court's ruling in support of same-sex marriage, TPF issued a press release announcing the publication of two-page advertisements critical of the decision, appearing "simultaneously" in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Times, costing the group perhaps as much as three-quarters of a million dollars.The ads, which explicitly called for civil disobedience, were titled "Battling for America's Soul: How Homosexual 'Marriage' Threatens Our Nation and Faith -- the TFP Urges Lawful and Conscientious Resistance." Read the story > Andrew J. Weaver, et. al.June 19, 2008 Karl Rove's Trojan Horse among the SMU Mustangs To obtain the George W. Bush presidential library, Southern Methodist University has been required to accept an autonomous partisan institute on campus. Karl Rove is in the middle of the planning of and fund-raising for this Trojan horse project. The institute will give Rove the resources he needs to try to re-write the narrative of the Bush presidency, as well promoting his larger vision -- the domination of the right-wing of the Republican Party in American politics. In July the United Methodist Church, which owns SMU "lock stock and barrel," has one last chance to stop Rove.On September. 2, 2007, U.S. News and World Report wrote that Bush's trickster, Karl Rove, "is planning to take charge...of the design, fundraising, and planning" of the Bush presidential complex at SMU. Benjamin Johnson, a history professor at SMU, attended the 2007 annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians. Several colleagues there reported that Karl Rove had been traveling around the country examining research facilities and discussing how to select Bush institute fellows (Johnson, 2007a). One prominent library director said, "Rove seems to know exactly what the square footage is of the building that will be at SMU and where it will be located on campus" (Johnson, 2007a).Mark Langdale, president of the Bush library foundation recently confirmed that Rove is advising the organization, stating that he is "a critical resource about what happened in the administration, and he has a lot of good ideas about programming and positioning" (Meyers, 2008). This hands-on involvement by Rove demonstrates the importance of the proposed think tank at SMU to Bush insiders.Unless the UMC takes a stand, neither SMU nor the UMC will have any say over the actions, agenda, or direction of an autonomous $500 million partisan-driven complex at one of its major universities. Karl Rove, who has a long history of hard-ball partisanship, will be in charge and he will roll out a giant Trojan horse and push it right through the front gate. The 99 year lease for a single dollar with a 249 year option (that the Bush foundation has required) means that after July, 2008 the next chance for the church to address the issue is the year 2357 (Peck, 2008). Read the story > Bill BerkowitzJune 6, 2008 John Hawkins: A strident right-wing voice in a crowded blogosphere Not in it for the money, Hawkins, a conservative columnist, blogger, YouTuber, and organizer, intends to make a lot of anti-Obama noise during Election 2008 Angry, pugnacious, sophomoric, bombastic, prolific, internet savvy, occasionally funny and under-funded, John Hawkins the founder of the blog, RightWingNews, is focused on bringing down Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee.While Hawkins, who calls himself a "mainstream conservative," is no big fan of Republican John McCain, he is certain that the Arizona Senator, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, would better serve America than Obama.Who is John Hawkins, and why should we care about what he thinks or does? He's no Matt Drudge and some would call him just another bleater in the crowded blogosphere, churning out items faster than a Land O' Lakes butter factory. While he isn't in the top echelon of conservative activists, stories that appear on RightWingNews reach thousands of people and are geared toward consolidating conservative discontent behind McCain.It is blogs like RightWingNews that float smarmy stories that the McCain campaign can benefit from, while at the same time distancing itself from them.Lurking behind whatever issues grab center stage in this year's presidential election is the specter of "swiftboating." Political junkies and casual observers alike want to know: When will the swiftboaters launch their attacks, and will they be successful? While "swiftboating" became a new buzz-phrase doing the 2004 presidential election, the use of political smears is as old as the country itself. However, not every smear works, nor is every one an example of swiftboating. Read the story > Bill BerkowitzMay 19, 2008 The ubiquitous Newt Gingrich slogs on Former House Speaker appeared in an Al Gore-sponsored anti-global warming ad with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but later backtracked He recently "counseled" Democrats and plugged his new novel about Pearl Harbor titled "Days of Infamy" on ABC's "The View" and "Good Morning America"; he appears regularly over at the Fox News Channel; he recently told the French Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that Obama "is a far left-wing politician, but with a beautiful smile"; he's got a website that's pretty cool; he co-authored another best selling book; he's listed at number 36 on the Daily Telegraph's list of the 50 most influential political pundits; and now that Sen. John McCain is the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, he no doubt regrets not having tossed his hat into the ring.Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is also appearing in a television advertising spot -- alongside current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) -- as part of Al Gore's $300 million campaign aimed at combating global warming, sponsored by the Alliance for Climate Protection.While the pairing of Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson surprised some and aggravated others, Gingrich's appearance with Pelosi has brought a string of critical commentaries from some of Gingrich's conservative colleagues.The San Francisco Chronicle's conservative columnist Debra J. Saunders wrote recently that "Gingrich's role confirms the suspicion of many Republicans that the Newter will say anything to get his face in the limelight." Read the story > Bill BerkowitzMay 5, 2008 Floyd Brown and David Bossie: Back in the Swift Boat captain's chairs Two longtime practitioners of negative campaigning are mainstreaming attacks on Clinton and Obama Floyd Brown and David Bossie have spent a good part of their political careers making life miserable for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Unlike Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire financier who was unremitting in his efforts to take the Clintons down during the latter part of the twentieth century and whose newspaper endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton prior to the Pennsylvania primary, neither Brown nor Bossie have had a pro-Hillary conversion.These days, however, Brown's new organization, The National Campaign Fund -- which launched a new website "ExposeObama.com" -- and Bossie's Citizens United have added Sen. Barack Obama to the mix.Brown recently told Time magazine that "he had established several other front groups to fund a long-range effort to erode Obama's support, including a second PAC, called The Legacy Committee, a 527 organization called Citizens for a Safe and Prosperous America and a so-called "social welfare" 501(c)4 nonprofit called the Policy Issues Institute."Bossie told Newsweek that he was "assembling material for TV spots about Obama's ties with [Bill] Ayers, a Chicago professor and unrepentant former member of the Weather Underground, a group that bombed several government buildings to protest the Vietnam War." Read the story > Bill BerkowitzApril 28, 2008 Nipping at AIPAC's heels 'J Street,' a new liberal Jewish organization, hopes to challenge AIPAC's influence over U.S.-Israeli affairs In its entry on the "The Little Engine That Could," Wikipedia notes that "the moralistic children's story ... is used to teach children the value of optimism." Like the little engine that could, "J Street," a new organization made up of prominent U.S. and Israeli Jews that hopes to shift the debate over the Middle East and U.S.-Israeli policy away from the conservative positions espoused by the mighty American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and towards a pro-peace position, must recognize that it has a huge hill to climb.And one part of climbing that hill will be to redefine what it means to be "pro-Israel," a term that conservative Jewish and evangelical Christian organizations have claimed for their own."For too long, the loudest American voices on Israel have come from the far right," noted Jeremy Ben-Ami, a founder and director of both J Street, chartered as a 501(c)(4) organization, and its political-action affiliate, JStreetPac, a political action committee focusing on campaign funding."Those voices have claimed that the only way to be pro-Israel is to support military responses to political problems, to refuse to engage one's adversaries in dialogue and to put off the day of reckoning when hard compromises will be required to achieve a peaceful and secure future for Israel and the entire Middle East," he told reporters via teleconference in mid-April."These are not the kind of smart, tough views that serve the long-term interests of the state of Israel, of the United States -- or frankly, the American Jewish community," Ben-Ami, until recently, senior vice president in the Washington office of Fenton Communications, added. Read the story > Bill BerkowitzApril 16, 2008 Ron Wexler's Ten Commandments Commission ready to roll House resolution congratulates the TCC and its supporters for their key role in promoting and ensuring recognition of the Ten Commandments as the "cornerstone of Western law" Did you know that for the past two years, Congress has designated the first weekend in May as "Ten Commandments Weekend (TCW)?" Most of us pay little attention to congressional resolutions. All sorts of resolutions are proposed; some pass, others are tabled, and still others are withdrawn.These days, two resolutions relating to the Ten Commandments are being considered by Congress; one will again designate the first weekend in May as "Ten Commandments Weekend," while the other aims to celebrate the Ten Commandments Commission (TCC), an organization led by a former veteran of the Israeli Armed Forces, and made up of a host longtime conservative evangelical Christian leaders.For months, Chris Rodda, a Senior Research Director for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), has been following developments surrounding the two Ten Commandments resolutions -- Senate Resolution 483 and House Resolution 598.The Senate Resolution, introduced by Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback -- with Connecticut Independent Joseph Lieberman as its co-sponsor -- aims to once again recognize the first weekend in May as "Ten Commandments Weekend."According to Rodda, the author of "Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History -- Volume I," Brownback's resolution comes packed with 10 Whereas' starting of with: "Whereas the Ten Commandments are precepts foundational to the faith of millions of Americans," "Whereas the Ten Commandments are a declaration of fundamental principles for a fair and just society," and "Whereas, from the founding of the United States, the Ten Commandments have been part of America's basic cultural fabric," followed by quotes from Presidents George Washington, John Quincy Adams, and Harry Truman. Read the story > Bill BerkowitzApril 3, 2008 Freedom's Watch: Right-wing juggernaut, or another 'rootless organization' Funded by wealthy Republican Party donors and former White House officials, the group may be accomplishing less than it claims The hiring of Carl Forti, the former political director for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's failed presidential run and hardball flinging spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), appeared to signal that Freedom's Watch is getting ready to gear up for Election 2008. However, will recent defections from the group, and reported questions about the actual existence of the $250 million war chest that Freedom's Watch's leaders have boasted about, slow its operation down?On top of these questions, two well-connected conservative insiders, commenting on the condition of anonymity, raised their own questions about whether Freedom's Watch's rhetoric might be outpacing its actual accomplishments.In late March, Freedom's Watch, the group founded by former White House staffers and funded by a host of very wealthy longtime Republican donors, announced that Forti, one of the GOP's premier hatchet men, will serve as its Executive Vice President and head up "the group's issue advocacy campaign in the fall."Earlier in the month, Bradley Blakeman, a co-founder of Freedom's Watch and a former deputy assistant to Bush, stepped down as president of the organization. Blakeman's departure came soon after he sent out an email fundraising appeal which in part claimed that Freedom's Watch was "the only group capable of going toe-to-toe with George Soros and this Left-Wing juggernaut."Blakeman boasted of Freedom's Watch's victory over MoveOn.org, allegedly beating them "at their own game (taking down The New York Times in the process!). In fact, we've been so successful that former Bill Clinton adviser James Carville proclaimed Freedom's Watch a grave danger to the Left's radical agenda. We'll take that as a compliment." Read the story > Bill BerkowitzMarch 27, 2008 For the Religious Right, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" The old guard is wondering if 'the younger generation will heed the call' while the young Turks have other things on their minds besides abortion and same-sex marriage During a recent appearance at the National Religious Broadcasters conference, Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, expressed deep concern about the future of the conservative Christian movement he helped build. "The question is," Dobson said, "will the younger generation heed the call? Who will defend the unborn child in the years to come? Who will plead for the Terri Schiavos of the world? Who's going to fight for the institution of marriage, which is on the ropes today?"Dobson pointed out that the deaths of such revered evangelical leaders including the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Dr. D. James Kennedy and Ruth Graham Bell "represent the end of an era." The radio talk show host "noted that others like Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson and Chuck Swindoll will also soon pass from the scene, and questioned the impact on the conservative Christian church," the Associated Press reported."Who in the next generation will be willing to take the heat, when it's so much safer and more comfortable to avoid controversial subjects?" Dobson said. "What will be the impact on the conservative Christian church when the patriarchs have passed?"In New York City on a recent mid-March weekend, The Nation magazine's "Left Forum 2008," featured a panel moderated by Esther Kaplan titled "Is the Christian Right Dead?" Promotional materials read: "The coalition between economic and social conservatives seems kind of rocky coming out of the Bush Presidency that brought them together. Is the Christian Right dead?" Read the story > Bill BerkowitzMarch 14, 2008 Future unclear for Bush's Faith-Based Initiative After seven years both Democratic presidential candidates express support for and reservations about Republican religious patronage system The seventh anniversary of President George W. Bush's Faith Based Initiative passed quietly. Unlike the much ballyhooed launching of his faith-based initiative in January 2001, when a string of religious officials witnessed Bush sign executive orders bringing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) into existence, this year the president was apparently occupied by more pressing matters; convincing the public that a recession wasn't looming, trumpeting so-called successes of the surge in Iraq, and no doubt wondering what else he's going to be doing until its time to scurry back to Texas next January.Interestingly enough, as Sarah Pulliam recently reported for Christianity Today, while none of the three major presidential candidates have "unveiled a specific plan for the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives," Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, and Democratic Party hopefuls Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama "have each voiced support for federal funding of faith-based social services."Obama told Christianity Today that he wants to take a look at the program before deciding how to deal with it: "One of the things that I think churches have to be mindful of is that if the federal government starts paying the piper, then they get to call the tune," Obama said. "I want to see how monies have been allocated through that office before I make a firm commitment [to] sustaining practices that may not have worked as well as they should have."Burns Strider, Clinton's director of faith-based outreach, "said that if she were elected, Clinton would continue funding faith-based organizations, but would seek to maintain an appropriate boundary between church and state," Christianity Today reported. "Clinton emphasizes a 'fair and level playing field' for faith-based and secular providers of social services, Strider said." Read the story > More Original Research View all current MT reports> AROUND THE WEB Salon.com April 2, 2008 Glenn Greenwald John Yoo's war crimes Yet again, the ACLU has performed the function which Congress and the media are intended to perform but do not. As the result of a FOIA lawsuit the ACLU filed and then prosecuted for several years, numerous documents relating to the Bush administration's torture regime that have long been baselessly kept secret were released yesterday, including an 81-page memorandum (.pdf) issued in 2003 by then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo (currently a Berkeley Law Professor) which asserted that the President's war powers entitle him to ignore multiple laws which criminalized the use of torture... Also see:  |
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