Welcome to SourceWatch, a Collaborative Project of the Center for Media and Democracy!
The Center for Media and Democracy publishes SourceWatch, this collaborative resource for citizens and journalists looking for documented information about the corporations, industries, and people trying to influence public policy and public opinion. We believe in telling the truth about the most powerful interests in society—not just relating their self-serving press releases or letting real facts be bleached away by spin. With the help of volunteer editors, SourceWatch focuses on the for-profit corporations, non-profit corporate front groups, PR teams, and so-called "experts" trying to influence public opinion on behalf of global corporations and the government agencies they have captured. We also profile some of the individuals and groups shining a light on these PR campaigns and also feature clearinghouses for information about select "hot topics" (to your left). Please check out our other sites: PRWatch, BanksterUSA, and ALECexposed. —Lisa Graves, Executive Director
Bill Moyers’ special "The United States of ALEC" aired nationwide this past weekend on his PBS show "Moyers & Company." The documentary threw a spotlight on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and featured the work of the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy and its award winning "ALECexposed" project.
In a modified "Wikileaks"-type operation, CMD’s small staff worked night and day to analyze over 800 ALEC bills, write articles about ALEC’s agenda and operations, and document over 1,000 politicians and 700 corporations connected to ALEC, and we did it on a shoestring. The resources and social media campaign we created to help reporters and others connect the dots has blown the lid off ALEC.
MADISON -- The Center for Media and Democracy and Common Cause filed suit today against five Wisconsin legislators who also are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) over their failure to provide ALEC-related records sought under Wisconsin's Open Records Law.
CMD and Common Cause submitted open records requests on September 11, 2012, to all known members of ALEC in the Wisconsin Legislature asking for ALEC-related emails. The request covered correspondence on official legislative email accounts, as well as "personal" email accounts that some members maintain on services like Gmail or Yahoo. The suit alleges those accounts are subject to the Open Records Law when used for official governmental business, such as correspondence related to the "model" legislation approved by ALEC member corporations and state legislators at ALEC meetings.
According to CMD and Common Cause, evidence strongly suggests that the legislators have shifted their ALEC correspondence to web-based "personal" email accounts to evade open records requests. Read the rest of this item here.
The company's decision was announced at a press conference by People for the American Way (PFAW) in New Jersey upon the release of the new report, "The Voice of Corporate Special Interest in the Halls of New Jersey's Legislature." (The Center for Media and Democracy/ALECexposed helped prepare that report, along with other organizations.) Jack Cox, Sanofi head of media relations, confirmed the news with CMD. Read the rest of this item here.
Officials in New York have indicated that the decision on whether to lift the moratorium on new "fracking" wells may be delayed. The hotly contested issue of whether to allow the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" to expand in New York has put substantial pressure on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration with thousands of concerned citizens publicly expressing their desire for a ban on fracking in the state. Many have even signed a pledge committing to engage in civil disobedience if Cuomo were to lift the moratorium he put in place for additional study. Read the rest of this item here.
A coalition of groups, including the Center for Media and Democracy, People For the American Way, Common Cause, and Progress Now, have released a report that details the American Legislative Exchange Council's influence in New Jersey.
Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. Just one look at the cover of the brochure for this year's annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) reveals where some of the corporate bill mill's loyalties lie: with the “natural” gas industry. The full-page ad on the brochure's cover -- paid for by the American Gas Association, a trade group for gas utilities companies -- identifies just one of the corporate underwriters that litter the pages of the conference booklet shared with all of the elected representatives and unelected corporate lobbyists who attended the convention at the luxurious Grand America resort.
The conference brochure listed some 15 corporations that stand to benefit from the expansion of fracking, including Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries. Read the rest of this item here.
As the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), a little-examined business lobbying group, floods millions of dollars into this year's elections, the Center for Media and Democracy is launching a new website (www.NFIBexposed.org) to shine a light on the group's secret funding and partisan efforts. NFIB, the leading plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act nicknamed "Obamacare," has received $3.7 million from Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS, and as disclosed on this new website, NFIB's legal arm received $1.15 million in 2010 from Donors Trust, a major donor to the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Read the rest of this item here.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is a lobbying group that calls itself "the voice of small business." However, the group has been shown to lobby on issues that favor large corporate interests and run counter to the interests of small businesses. NFIB is best known for its legal attack on the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") and for spearheading the opposition to President Clinton's health care reform package in 1993.
NFIB has a legal arm called the NFIB Small Business Legal Center (SBLC). The SBLC spearheads the NFIB's legal assault on the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"). It is one of its three 501(c)(3) foundation arms. Formed in January 1994 as the NFIB Legal Foundation, the litigation arm took years to get off the ground, possibly because of funding and turf issues.
For the past year, the Center for Media and Democracy has worked to unmask the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) through its award winning ALEC Exposed project. So far, 40 ALEC corporations, including Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Kraft, Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, General Motors, and more, have decided to listen to their customers and stop funding ALEC's extreme agenda.
Now, with one click, you can send a letter to the remaining ALEC corporate members or sponsors and tell them to do the same.
President Barack Obama rode into office in 2008 on a wave of small donations that some expected would change politics. The small-dollar strategy is still helping Obama fill his campaign accounts, but the electoral landscape has changed rapidly over the past four years and candidates' official campaigns are being overshadowed by unlimited spending from nominally "independent" groups funded by a handful of ultra-wealthy donors.
Obama and his supporters are scrambling to make up lost ground in the post-Citizens United world of Super PACs and dark money nonprofits, even as they criticize the current state of campaign finance law.
Wall Street gambling and greed collapsed the global economy, and we are still reeling. Politicians claim America is "broke" to justify layoffs and drastic cuts to critical services. But the country is not broke.
Robin knows where the money is. A tiny tax on Wall Street will generate billions to help Main Street get back on the road to recovery. It's not a tax on the people, it's a tax for the people.
September 28, 2012: Moyers & Company presents "United States of ALEC," a report on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has never heard of -- ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a "nonpartisan public-private partnership." But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.
"United States of ALEC" is a collaboration between Okapi Productions, LLC and the Schumann Media Center, headed by Bill Moyers, which supports independent journalism and public watchdogs including the Center for Media and Democracy, whose investigators are featured in the report.
Using interviews, documents, and field reporting, the episode explores ALEC's self-serving machine at work, acting in a way one Wisconsin politician describes as "a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests."
In state houses around the country, hundreds of pieces of boilerplate ALEC legislation are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote, and limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers -- each accomplished without the public ever knowing who's behind it.
"United States of ALEC" is a collaboration between Okapi Productions, LLC and the Schumann Media Center, headed by Bill Moyers, which supports independent journalism and public watchdogs including the Center for Media and Democracy, whose investigators are featured in the report.
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