Think Tanks

Bill Kristol Is Going To Get His War

by John Stauber — March 10, 2003 - 11:00pm

"Five years ago ... The
Weekly Standard made the broad, seemingly preposterous
assertion that America was entitled and even compelled to
engineer regime change in Iraq. But under the current
administration, driven by 9/11, that contention has become
conventional wisdom. ... 'I am impressed by their success,' said Senator John
McCain, whom The Weekly Standard supported for the
presidency. ...

Main Source: 
New York Times, March 11, 2003

His Own Best Student

by Sheldon Rampton — January 31, 2003 - 11:00pm

For three years, John R. Lott Jr., the controversial American Enterprise Institute scholar and author of "More Guns, Less Crime," has used the pseudonym of "Mary Rosh" to post defenses of himself on the Internet. "Rosh" described Lott as a meticulous, non-ideological researcher, and even claimed to be one of his former students. "I have to say that he was the best professor I ever had," Rosh gushed in one Internet posting.

Main Source: 
Washington Post, February 1, 2003

Corporate-Friendly Researchers Fabricated Data

by Sheldon Rampton — October 27, 2002 - 11:00pm

A series of influential studies purporting to show that federal regulation is broadly irrational are based on data that is highly misleading and frequently manufactured to fit a preconceived point of view, according to an investigation by Richard Parker, a law professor at the University of Connecticut.

Main Source: 
OMB Watcher, October 28, 2002

Right-Wing Washington PR Team Retires

by Laura Miller — October 20, 2002 - 10:00pm

"This month marks the end of one of the most successful and respected conservative PR teams in Washington, as Herb Berkowitz and Hugh Newton retire from the Heritage Foundation," PR Week writes. "Heritage, a conservative think tank founded 25 years ago, became one of the foremost purveyors of right-wing public policy in Washington with Berkowitz and Newton at the PR helm. The two are credited with helping win credibility for conservative ideals among often-hostile liberal journalists in Washington."

Main Source: 
PR Week, October 21, 2002

Bashing The Traitorous, Peacenik News Media

by John Stauber — October 9, 2002 - 1:29pm

Does it seem that the corporate news media is filled with traitorous peaceniks who are coddling Saddam, bashing Bush, and opposing a first-strike attack on Iraq? No? Well, maybe you just aren't paying attention like target="_blank"> Brent Bozell III and his Media Research Center.

Main Source: 
http://www.mediaresearch.org/

Privatization, Before and After

by Sheldon Rampton — September 25, 2002 - 8:22am

Thanks to the internet archives, we can see what the Cato Institute's "Project on Social Security Privatization" looked like last year and compare that with its new look, now that the stock market crash has reminded the public about the reality of privatization. In the Orwellian new version, all references to "privatization" have been airbrushed out of history and replaced with the word "choice."

Bush's "Blueprint for US Global Domination"

by John Stauber — September 14, 2002 - 10:00pm

"A secret blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' even before he took power in January 2001. The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a 'global Pax Americana' was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice- president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), George W Bush's younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff).

Main Source: 
Sunday Herald (UK), September 15, 2002

US Think Tanks Make Foreign Policy

by Sheldon Rampton — August 18, 2002 - 10:00pm

Brian Whitaker profiles the "cosy and cleverly-constructed network of Middle East 'experts'" who "pop up as talking heads on US television, in newspapers, books, testimonies to congressional committees, and at lunchtime gatherings in Washington." Players include the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Institute and the Middle East Forum.

Main Source: 
The Guardian (UK), August 19, 2002

The Rah-Rah Boys

by Sheldon Rampton — August 17, 2002 - 10:00pm

Dot-com CEOs, day traders and other leading icons of the roaring 1990s are passing from the scene along with the economic bubble that created them, but Baffler editor Tom Frank notes that "one group remains untouched: the public intellectuals of the bull market. The writers of Dow-worshipping books and commentators who handed down daring pronunciamentos from the silicon heights are still cruising from one posh gig to the next.

Main Source: 
Los Angeles Times, August 18, 2002

Selective MEMRI

by Laura Miller — August 11, 2002 - 10:00pm

"For some time now, I have been receiving small gifts from a generous institute in the United States. The gifts are high-quality translations of articles from Arabic newspapers which the institute sends to me by email every few days, entirely free-of-charge," the Guardian's Brian Whitaker writes. The emails come from the Washington DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Main Source: 
The Guardian, August 12, 2002
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