(3/20)

[5]:

Organization overview

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Funding

MMfA started with the help of $2 million in donations. According to Byron York, additional funding came from MoveOn.org and the New Democrat Network.[15][16][17]

In 2004, MMfA received the endorsement of the Democracy Alliance, a partnership of wealthy and politically active progressive donors. The Alliance itself does not fund endorsees, but many wealthy Alliance members acted on the endorsement and donated directly to MMfA.[18][19][20]

Media Matters has a policy of not comprehensively listing donors. In 2010, six years after the Democracy Alliance initially endorsed MMfA, financier George Soros — a founding and continuing member of the Alliance — announced that he was donating $1 million to MMfA. Soros said his concern over "recent evidence suggesting that the incendiary rhetoric of Fox News hosts may incite violence" had moved him to donate to MMfA.[21][22] During a 2014 CNN interview, David Brock stated that Soros' contributions were "less than 10 percent" of Media Matters' budget.[23] According to Politico: "Media Matters, however has received funding from or formed partnerships with several groups that Soros funds or has funded. These include the Tides Foundation, Democracy Alliance, Moveon.org and the Center for American Progress.”[24]

Personnel

John Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, provided office space for Media Matters early in its formation at the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank which Podesta established in 2002.[25] Hillary Clinton advised Media Matters in its early stages out of a belief that progressives should follow conservatives in forming think tanks and advocacy groups to support their political goals.[25][26] According to The New York Times, Media Matters "helped lay the groundwork" for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.[27]

Media Matters has hired numerous political professionals who had worked for Democratic politicians and for other progressive groups.[17][28] In 2004, National Review referred to MMfA staffers who had recently worked on the presidential campaigns of John Edwards and Wesley Clark, for Congressman Barney Frank, and for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.[17]

Eric E. Burns served as MMFA's president until 2011.[29] Burns was succeeded by Matt Butler, and then, in 2013, by Bradley Beychok.[30] In late 2016, Angelo Carusone replaced Bradley Beychok as MMFA's president. Under Carusone, the organization's focus has shifted toward focusing on the alt-right, conspiracy theories, and fake news.[31]

In 2014, the staff of Media Matters voted to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Media Matters management had declined to recognize the union through a card check process, instead exercising its right to force a union election.[32][33][34]

[6. wiki: Center for American Progress]:

The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. According to CAP, the center is "dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action."[2] The Center presents a liberal[3] viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The president and chief executive officer of CAP is Neera Tanden, who worked for the Obama and Clinton administrations and for Hillary Clinton's campaigns.[4] The first president and CEO was John Podesta, who has served as White House Chief of Staff to U.S. President Bill Clinton and as the chairman of the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.[5] Podesta remained with the organization as chairman of the board until he joined the Obama White House staff in December 2013. Tom Daschle is the current chairman.[6]

The Center for American Progress has a youth-engagement organization, Generation Progress, and a sister advocacy organization, the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF). Citing Podesta's influence in the formation of the Obama Administration, a November 2008 article in Time stated that "not since the Heritage Foundation helped guide Ronald Reagan's transition in 1981 has a single outside group held so much sway".[7]

History and mission

The Center for American Progress was created in 2003 as a left-leaning alternative to think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.[8]

Since its inception, the center has assembled a group of high-profile senior fellows, including Lawrence Korb, Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan; Gene Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; Ruy Teixeira, political scientist and author of The Emerging Democratic Majority; and, most recently, former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and Elizabeth Edwards, late wife of former presidential candidate and former U.S. Senator from North Carolina John Edwards. Sarah Rosen Wartell, a co-founder and executive vice-president of the center, has been named President of the Urban Institute[9]

The center helped Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) develop "strategic redeployment",[10] a comprehensive plan for the Iraq War that included a timetable and troop withdrawals

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Criticism

Lack of transparency for funding sources

Some open government groups, such as the Sunlight Foundation and the Campaign Legal Center, criticize the Center's failure to disclose its contributors, particularly since it is so influential in appointments to the Obama administration.[23][24]

Wikileaks 2016 Hillary Clinton Campaign Controversy

The Center for American Progress attracted controversy for email chains "attacking two major faith groups--evangelicals and Catholics"[25] during the Wikileaks hack of 2011 emails.[26] The email chains were between Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and John Halpin from the Center for American Progress.[27][28][29][30][31] Podesta did not respond in the email thread.[30]

In one of these emails, "Many of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic (many converts) from the SC and think tanks to the media and social groups. It's an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy. I imagine they think [Catholicism] is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn't understand if they became evangelicals." Palmieri was reportedly referring to Rupert Murdoch raising his children as Catholics.[27][29][30][31][32][33]

A leaked email revealed that Judd Legum, the editor of ThinkProgress, a site that’s part of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, had taken credit for preventing further writings by Roger Pielke Jr. on Climate Change dissent from appearing on the web site FiveThirtyEight.[34][35]

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Funding

The Center for American Progress is a 501(c)(3) organization under U.S. Internal Revenue Code.[16] In 2014, CAP received $45 million from a variety of sources, including individuals, foundations, labor unions, and corporations.[44] From 2003 to 2007, CAP received about $15 million in grants from 58 foundations.[45] Major individual donors include George Soros, Peter Lewis, Steve Bing, and Herb and Marion Sandler. The Center receives undisclosed sums from corporate donors.[46] In December 2013, the organization released a list of its corporate donors, which include Walmart, CitiGroup, Wells Fargo, defense contractor Northrop Grumman, America's Health Insurance Plans, and Eli Lilly and Company.[47]

In 2015, CAP released a partial list of its donors, which included 28 anonymous donors accounting for at least $5 million in contributions. Named donors included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, which each gave between $500,000 and $999,999. CAP’s top donors include Walmart and Citigroup, each of which have given between $100,000 and $499,000.[48][49]

2015 Donors (excluding anonymous)[50]	Level
Ford Foundation	$1,000,000+
The Hutchins Family Foundation	$1,000,000+
Sandler Foundation	$1,000,000+
TomKat Charitable Trust	$1,000,000+
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation	$500,000 to $999,999
Joyce Foundation	$500,000 to $999,999
Not On Our Watch	$500,000 to $999,999
Open Square Charitable Gift Fund	$500,000 to $999,999
Embassy of United Arab Emirates	$500,000 to $999,999
Walton Family Foundation	$500,000 to $999,999
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation	$500,000 to $999,999

Let's pull it back to David Brock, ahead in comment 4...