Think Tanks

News

"Business Climate" Rankings Bogus Says New Report

by Nick Surgey — May 2, 2013 - 7:46am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Right Wing, Corporations, Think Tanks

    • Six influential state tax studies by anti-tax organizations including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), are "deeply flawed," include "highly inconsistent findings" and constitute "ideologically charged pseudo-social science published to further the interests of corporations and rich people," according to a major new report released by Good Jobs First, titled "Grading Places: What Do the Business Climate Rankings Really Tell Us?"

    News

    New Report Exposes Extreme ALEC Agenda in Arizona

    by Nick Surgey — April 4, 2013 - 10:08am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Think Tanks

    • Seventeen bills introduced in the Arizona legislature in 2013 can be tied to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and every member of the Republican leadership in the state are current or recent ALEC members, according to a new report from the Center for Media and Democracy and its allies "ALEC in Arizona: The Voice Of Corporate Special Interests In The Halls Of Arizona's Legislature."

    Special Report

    A Reporters' Guide to the "State Policy Network" -- the Right-Wing Think Tanks Spinning Disinformation and Pushing the ALEC Agenda in the States

    by Rebekah Wilce — April 4, 2013 - 6:41am
  • Topics: State Policy Network, ALEC Exposed, Right Wing, Think Tanks

    • New Resource Details "Think Tanks" Tanking Americans' Rights

    In this new online resource, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD, the publisher of the award-winning ALECexposed.org investigation) documents the more than $80 million that right-wing billionaires and corporations are spending each year to fuel Tracie Sharp's State Policy Network (SPN) and its 59 state "think tank" members, along with the controversial Heartland Institute, a SPN ally like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), that tries to change both state and federal law.

    News

    Taxpayer-Enriched Companies Back Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, its Buddy ALEC, and Their "Reforms"

    by Lisa Graves — November 28, 2012 - 4:04pm
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Right Wing, Front Groups, Third Party Technique, Children, Corporations, Democracy, Education, Lobbying, Think Tanks

    • This week in Washington, DC, Jeb Bush's "Foundation for Excellence in Education" (FEE) is meeting just five blocks away from the post-election conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the controversial corporate bill mill working on profitizing public education among other legislative changes, but the ties between the two groups are even closer.

    News

    Paul Weyrich's Troika Reunited: ALEC Partners with Republican Study Committee at Heritage Foundation

    by Brendan Fischer — September 12, 2012 - 7:44am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Right Wing, Front Groups, U.S. Congress, Think Tanks

    • Three right-wing organizations founded nearly forty years ago by conservative activist Paul Weyrich are rediscovering their shared origins. The Republican Study Committee, a caucus of 169 right-wing Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, is establishing a partnership with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the controversial "corporate bill mill" for state legislators, and their first meeting is scheduled at the Heritage Foundation headquarters. Each of those three organizations -- the RSC, ALEC, and the Heritage Foundation -- were founded in 1973 by Weyrich. (Weyrich passed away in 2008.)

    Health Insurance Lobby Pushing to Amend States' Constitutions

    by Anne Landman — December 30, 2009 - 3:41pm

    The health insurance lobby is laying the groundwork to block federal health care reform by working through think tanks to pass state laws invalidating federally-mandated reforms. Conservative and libertarian think tanks have started encouraging states to amend their constitutions to block federal health reform measures, including a mandate to purchase health insurance.

    Main Source: 
    Denver Post, December 30, 2009

    Conspiratorial Skeptic

    by Bob Burton — November 11, 2009 - 4:45am

    The British climate change skeptic, Christopher Monckton, warned those attending an Australian conservative think tank seminar that bureaucrats will mastermind a "coup d'etat" in the aftermath of the COP15 climate change negotiations and establish a "world dictatorship".

    Main Source: 
    The Age (Australia), November 11, 2009

    "Death Panels" and Big Tobacco

    by Lisa Graves — October 7, 2009 - 9:36am
  • Topics: Health, Think Tanks, Tobacco

    • This week's issue of Rolling Stone has an illuminating article, "The Lie Machine," by Tim Dickinson on anti-heath reform spin. Dickinson's article quotes internal corporate memos showing how Big Tobacco spun media stories about health care reform in 1994 and how its progeny are striking again.

    Think Tank Mentions Sink

    by Diane Farsetta — September 8, 2009 - 12:26pm

    Total media citations of think tanks were down for the fourth year in a row, according to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).

    Main Source: 
    Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, September 3, 2009
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