BREAKING: Koch Brothers $$’s Behind Caesar Rodney Institute Funding
People much cannier than I have been trying to unravel the money trail of the many dummy organizations used by the Koch Brothers to funnel money to propaganda machines.
Thanks to a state-by-state review of the Koch Brothers labyrinthine finances, we now know that the Koch Brothers have been the largest rainmaker for the Caesar Rodney Institute. Here’s the info on Delaware, and the literal money quote:
CRI is not required to disclose its donors to the public, and does not do so voluntarily. The two known CRI donors, though, are both secretive right-wing organizations based in Virginia. In just the two years of 2009 and 2010, CRI received $352,500 from the Koch-funded Donors Capital Fund – representing 61% of CRI’s total funding in those two years. Donors Capital Fund, known as the “dark money ATM of the conservative movement,” keeps its own funders anonymous, therefore adding another layer of secrecy. The only other known CRI funder is the State Policy Network (also a Koch-funded non-profit), which funneled $66,000 to the institute between 2008 and 2010.
Alert the media!: As I pointed out from its inception, CRI is nothing but a propaganda tool funded by the right-wing big money guys. The media should either cite the fact that CRI is underwritten by the Koch cabal, or stop using its stuff and stop providing a platform for its ‘experts’. Either identify them properly for who and what they are, or cross them off your e-rolodexes. Anything else is journalistic malpractice.
Tags: Caesar Rodney Institute, El Somnambulo, Koch Brothers, Steve Tanzer Delaware
CRI is the Delaware affiliate of the State Policy Network. SPN Associate Members in Delaware include the Bastiat Society of Wilmington and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
ALEC is also an Associate Member of SPN.
From NEA:
“In 1973, Paul Weyrich and Joseph Coors created The Heritage Foundation to develop public policy. Weyrich also established the Free Congress Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization created to disseminate public policy from the right. The Heritage Foundation, under Weyrich’s direction, then organized the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Washington-based association whose membership is made up primarily of conservative Republican state legislators. Together the three founded the State Policy Network to oversee an association of state-based think-tanks that function as Heritage-like organizations at the state level.”
I knew that development job they advertised a little while ago would have been the easiest fucking job in the world. I should have applied for that.
I’m more interested in finding why that money was so ineffective. CRI is a joke here. Even the News Journal thinks so… which means the CRI sucks a$$.. Was it because in Delaware, there was a counterforce? Do other states not have smart people?
Also- “Dr” John Stapleford is a pretty uniquely transparent and fraudulent fraud. Tarting up the wingnut talking points by putting them in the mouth of an alleged doctor doesn’t add the credibility they think it does.
As this point it is kind of like having Dr. Nick Riviera as a spokesperson.
The State Policy Network now also receives significant Koch funding.
Check out this interactive ‘Muckety’ map:
http://www.muckety.com/State-Policy-Network/5060648.muckety
“Was it because in Delaware, there was a counterforce?”
I’d like to think so….
” Do other states not have smart people?”
Yes, but WTF is the reason they can’t get traction?