Fake 'Think Tanks' Funded by $83M Right-Wing War Chest Have Vast Reach and Impact - REPORT

Stink Tanks: The State Policy Network (SPN) runs an $83 million dollar lobbying operation using fake "think tanks" backed and controlled by the Koch Brothers, Coors Family, ALEC, AT&T, Facebook, Time Warner, and others.

By Ronald Jackson
Twelve new reports from the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Progress Now show that fake "think tanks" are being funded by an $83 million dollar right-wing war chest closely associated with the Koch brothers and the secretive group of right-wing millionaires called ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council).

Koch Brothers: their tentacles reach everywhere (Illustration: DonkeyHotey)

Big time lobbyists "skirt the law" by operating as non-profits, according to the reports, often running the "think tanks" straight out of their own law or PR offices. These "think tanks" usually have no authentic scholarly staff to speak of but churn out fudged research and editorial opinion, targeted at media, politicians, and government officials.

The fake think tanks pretend to be independent, objective, and unaffiliated with any interest groups, but are in fact thoroughly controlled by a "right-wing network of funders."

The massive propaganda operation is being funded by a group of global corporations, including Reynolds American, Altria, the e-cigarette company NJOY, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, Facebook, the for-profit online education company K12 Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Kraft Foods, Express Scripts, Comcast, Time Warner, and other individuals and organizations including the Koch brothers, the Waltons (owners of Walmart), the Bradley Foundation, the Roe Foundation, and the Coors family (owners of Coors Brewing Company).

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Excerpts From the Press Release:

Twelve new reports released today expose the State Policy Network (SPN), an $83 million web of right-wing "think tanks" in every state across the country. Although SPN's member organizations claim to be nonpartisan and independent, an in-depth investigation reveals that SPN and its state affiliates are major drivers of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-backed corporate agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders. The reports show how these groups masquerade as "think tanks," and describe how some of them may be skirting tax laws while really orchestrating extensive lobbying and political operations to peddle their legislative agenda to state legislators, all while reporting little or
 no lobbying activities.

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The Coors family is one of the major funders of SPN. The family has a long history of sponsoring right-wing causes.
Bill Coors resisted the Civil Rights Act and once said blacks "lacked intellectual capacity." Joe Coors started the
right wing Heritage Foundation. The Coors family has been able to create a friendly image of itself through its beer commercials. Wonder if Ice Cube knows that? (Photo by Daniel Spiess)

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"The 'experts' of State Policy Network groups get quoted on TV, in the papers, or in the legislature as if they were nonpartisan, objective scholars on issues of public policy," said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). "But in reality, SPN is a front for corporate interests with an extreme national policy agenda tied to some of the most retrograde special interests in the country, including the billionaire Koch brothers, the Waltons, the Bradley Foundation, the Roe Foundation, and the Coors family."

A NEW GENERATION GETS IN ON THE ACT: Mark Zuckerberg:
Chairman and CEO of Facebook, one of the funders of SPN.
(Photo: Kris Krüg)

Denise Cardinal, executive director of Progress Now, added, "The bottom line is these organizations of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich are representing themselves as groups that are looking out for the best interests of everyday, working class Americans and it's just a blatant lie. What we're doing is trying to bring some transparency to the damaging work they're doing on a daily basis. From policies that promote polluting the air and water to the destruction of our public education system and a tax system that benefits their rich donors, what these organizations are doing is shameful and it's time that someone brought this to light."

Key findings of the report include:

• Although SPN's affiliates are registered as educational nonprofits, several appear to orchestrate extensive lobbying and political operations to peddle their legislative agenda to state legislators, despite the IRS's regulations on nonprofit political and lobbying activities.
  
• SPN and its affiliates push an extreme right-wing agenda that aims to privatize education, block healthcare reform, restrict workers' rights, roll back environmental protections, and create a tax system that benefits most those at the very top level of income.
  
• SPN and many of its affiliates are some of the most active members and largest sponsors of the controversial ALEC, where special interest groups and state politicians vote behind closed doors on "model" legislation to change Americans' rights, through ALEC's task forces. SPN has close ties to, and works with, other national right-wing organizations like the Franklin Center and David Koch's Americans for Prosperity.
  

You can see the reports -- a nationally-focused report written by CMD and eleven state-focused reports written by Progress Now member groups and CMD -- at www.StinkTanks.org as well as detailed information documented at SourceWatch.org.

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For more information, contact:  Rebekah Wilce, (608) 260-9713, rebekah@prwatch.org

You can read and download the full report here.