Lisa Graves's News Articles

Editorial

A CMD Special Report on ALEC's Funding and Spending

by Lisa Graves — July 13, 2011 - 7:54am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Democracy, Lobbying, Politics

    • This CMD Special Report cuts through the PR spin and exposes the funding and spending of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Almost 98% of ALEC's funding comes from corporations like Exxon Mobil, corporate "foundations" like the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, or trade associations like the pharmaceutical industry's PhRMA and sources other than "legislative dues." Those funds help subsidize legislators' trips to ALEC meetings, where they are wined, dined, and handed "model" legislation to make law in their state. Through ALEC, corporations vote on "model" legislation with politicians behind closed doors. The special report focuses on ALEC's funding. Learn more at ALEC Exposed.

    News

    A Comparison of ALEC and NCSL

    by Lisa Graves — July 13, 2011 - 7:53am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Democracy, Politics, U.S. Government

    • The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) may appear on the surface to mimic the bipartisan educational archetype of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), but ALEC's corporate governance structure, near total reliance on corporate funding, and strong ties to legislators from predominantly one political party make it distinctly different.

    Editorial

    Don't Be Duped by the Sewage Sludge Industry's "Compost"

    by Lisa Graves — May 3, 2011 - 3:32pm
  • Topics: Environment

    • Tell Hollywood it's not green to "greenwash" sewage sludge with "organic" school gardens!

    Some of Hollywood's "green" celebrities -- Rosario Dawson and a bevy of starlets -- thought they were promoting organic school gardens for inner-city kids. But the Environmental Media Association (EMA) teamed them up with a secretive corporation, Kellogg Garden Products, whose main business is selling Los Angeles sewage sludge products!

    That company calls its Kellogg brand "quality organics" and deceptively labels bags sold at the garden store as "garden soil" made from "compost" -- with no mention which are made from industrial and human waste that contains tens of thousands of contaminants. That's why federal law bars the use of sewage sludge-based products in organic gardens.

    So when news broke that Kellogg Garden Products provided sewage sludge products to EMA's "organic" school gardens -- and its spokesperson even posed with sewage sludge-derived products at the gardens -- you'd think EMA and its stars would cut all ties to the sludge industry.

    News

    Group Called "Citizens for a Strong America" Operates out of a UPS Mail Drop but Runs Expensive Ads in Supreme Court Race?

    by Lisa Graves — April 2, 2011 - 6:37pm
  • Topics: Democracy, Wisconsin Protests

    • MADISON--A new special interest group has purchased an expensive TV ad campaign in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race but operates out of a UPS store. The self-named "Citizens for a Strong America" (CSA) advertises its address as "834 Park Avenue #306" in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, but this address is nothing more than a box at a UPS Store. The TV ad campaign attacks Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg for an ad that was not created by her campaign. The ad CSA is complaining about argues that Supreme Court candidate Justice David Prosser failed to prosecute a priest who young boys said had molested them. (CMD does not endorse or oppose either candidate; CMD reports on front groups, PR campaigns, and spin, with a particular focus on corporate-funded spin.)

    Op-Ed

    Is Your Underwear Undermining Your Values? What Is Jockey's CEO Doing at a Tea Partiers' Convention and with David Koch?

    by Lisa Graves — March 29, 2011 - 11:12am
  • Topics: Right Wing, Corporations, Democracy, Wisconsin Protests

    • MADISON--Is your underwear undermining your values? The new scrutiny of CEOs that has been ignited by the historic Wisconsin labor protests has turned up concerns close to home, very close to home--for the vast majority of people who wear underwear. To take a page from the ubiquitous Capitol One ad campaign, what's in your blue jeans? Is your underwear choice unwittingly paying the salary of a CEO who shares your values or who actively works against them?

    News

    A CMD Special Report: Who Are the Headliners at Koch-Funded AFP Conventions?

    by Lisa Graves — March 29, 2011 - 10:57am
  • Topics: Right Wing, Corporations, Democracy, Politics, Wisconsin Protests

    • MADISON -- In the midst of the controversy of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's ties to David Koch and Koch Industries, the Center for Media and Democracy has conducted an analysis of the headliners at Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) conventions in the state in the past two years. The events featured select candidates who were running for office, including gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker, Attorney General candidate J.B. Van Hollen, judicial candidate David T. Prosser, Jr., and Congressman James Sensenbrenner. The AFP events also featured an array of national speakers who have supported AFP and its "Tea Party" related activities.

    Since our founding in 1994, the Center's mission has been to research and expose corporate- and CEO-funded PR activities and special interest groups, like AFP. The Center also profiles who's who at key meetings, such as David Koch's posh strategy sessions in Palm Springs and Aspen as well as at events funded by Koch and other petro-chemical industrialists trying to influence pollution policies, such as meetings of the Heartland Institute. This report on AFP Wisconsin is part of that continuing reporting on groups attempting to influence elections and public policies. Because many of the headliners were the same at both the 2009 and 2010 AFP events in the state, this article provides a guide to both of the most recent annual events.

    Op-Ed

    Get Ready, Washington -- a Little Bit of Wisconsin Is Coming to DC!

    by Lisa Graves — March 15, 2011 - 1:22pm
  • Topics: Democracy, Wisconsin Protests

    • Some of the Wisconsin politicians who just voted to destroy worker's rights are headed to Washington, D.C., to be showered in money from lobbyists for some of the biggest national and international corporations and banks.

    News

    CMD Volunteers to "Clean Up" Capitol (and the Spin Over Clean-Up Costs)

    by Lisa Graves — March 5, 2011 - 1:10pm
  • Topics: Democracy, Wisconsin Protests

    • (Updated 3/6/11)  MADISON--Responding to claims by the Walker Department of Administration that the cost to clean up the tape from citizens' signs in the Capitol would be $7.5 million, the Center for Media and Democracy today announced that it was willing to clean up the tape on the capitol's walls for a much lower bid, $75,000, although the actual cost for acetone and cotton balls and a little bit of elbow grease could be much closer to $7,500 or less.

    News

    The "League of American Voters" Makes Misleading Robo-Calls

    by Lisa Graves — March 4, 2011 - 4:16pm
  • Topics: Astroturf, Right Wing, Front Groups, Propaganda

    • MADISON--Citizens from across Wisconsin have been calling the Center for Media and Democracy to complain about robo-calls they received pushing Scott Walker's agenda against public workers. The robo-calls have been bought and paid for by a shadowy Washington, DC-based group that calls itself the "League of American Voters" (LAV).

    As the Center has reported previously, LAV has one employee, a failed politician from West Virginian named Bob Adams, and is the pet project of FOX "analyst" Dick Morris, a pollster who was fired in disgrace in 1996 for conducting phone calls with the President while conducting business with a prostitute serving his foot fetish at DC's Mayflower Hotel. After Morris' falling out with Democrats in the aftermath of the scandal, he became a frequent talking head on FOX and a serial author of books bashing Democrats. The latest book he is pushing is one that praises the reactionary positions of some of the politicians elected last year, like Walker: "Revolt! How the Governors Are Changing American Politics ... Permanently." His pulp pieces are peddled on LAV's website as rewards for donations.

    A CMD Special Report: Who Is the League of American Voters?

    by Lisa Graves — March 2, 2011 - 11:20pm
  • Topics: Democracy, Wisconsin Protests

    • MADISON--A Special Report from the Center for Media Democracy, part one of a new series. A gaggle of secretly funded DC groups has launched an expensive PR blitz in Wisconsin in support of Scott Walker's controversial efforts to undermine union rights, part of a national assault on worker rights. A few unions have also begun running public education ads, but their sources are not kept hidden from public view; union dues are used for collective bargaining and union members can choose to make a separate donation to a Committee on Public Education fund for advertising. The total amount of anti-union spending in the works by groups funded by corporations or corporate CEOs or their foundations is unknown. What is known is that many such groups hide behind tax provisions that allow them to keep the identities of their major funders secret, insulating from public scrutiny the wealthy financial interests they are fronting and that are largely bankrolling their general operations.

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