think tanks

Health Insurance Lobby Pushing to Amend States' Constitutions

Submitted by Anne Landman on 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

Submitted by Bob Burton on 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". Monckton, who was once an adviser to the former Conservative Party Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was speaking at a seminar by the mining and power generation industry funded think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs.

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

Conservative Transparency for the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Submitted by John Stauber on November 3, 2009 - 1:27pm

Conservative Transparency is a new website from the Media Matters Action Network of Media Matters for America. Although it is partisan, it serves as an excellent complement to the Front Groups portal and astroturf information on CMD's SourceWatch website. According to the Washington Post, Conservative Transparency "uses Internal Revenue Service filings to track the major financial backers and beneficiaries of conservative activist groups. ...

Main Source: 
Washington Post, November 3, 2009

"Death Panels" and Big Tobacco

Submitted by Lisa Graves on October 7, 2009 - 9:36am

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.

Among other things, the RS article excerpts a memo by Philip Morris describing how the company worked "off-the-record" with a right-wing "think" tank, the Manhattan Institute (MI), and author to manufacture an "exposé in The New Republic (TNR) on what the Clinton plan means to you." The TNR article, titled "No Exit," was the tip of the spear against health care reform in 1994, and was part of Big Tobacco's strategy to place stories opposing the health care plan with "friendly contacts in the media."

Think Tank Mentions Sink

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on 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). FAIR's annual look at think tank media mentions found that "the decline primarily hit conservative or right-leaning think tanks," while "progressive or left-leaning think tanks" were "the only group to actually see an increase in their total citations." FAIR attributes the decrease to the "changing media landscape. ....

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

Skeptic Overboard

Submitted by Bob Burton on July 9, 2009 - 4:33am

The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), an Australian corporate-funded think tank, has decided to dump its Senior Fellow, Jennifer Marohasy. Marohasy, a self-proclaimed global warming skeptic, has written that, after six years with the think tank, her contract "is not being renewed." During her time with the IPA, Marohasy was noted for contesting the severity of the problem with reduced water flows in the Murray-Darling river system.

Main Source: 
Jennifer Marohasy.com, July 6, 2009

Why Do We Need Health Care Reform? Don't Ask George Will

Submitted by Wendell Potter on July 3, 2009 - 6:04pm

One of the things I hope to do with my post is to call out misleading statements and statistics, outright lies and illogical assertions by opponents of meaningful health care reform—and to rat out the front groups that insurers and other special interests are funding to kill reform or, failing that, shape it to their benefit.

I'm starting with a biggie, conservative author and columnist George Will, who suggests in his June 28 column in The Washington Post that, because of the complexity and expense of reforming the American health care system, maybe we would be better off just leaving well enough alone.

Well enough? For him, maybe. He's got a great gig at the Post and as a TV network pundit, and he has sold lots of books, so he probably doesn't have to worry, as most other Americans do, about being just one layoff away from joining the 50 million other men, women and children in the ranks of the uninsured. And even if the Post gave him a pink slip this afternoon, chances are he has stashed enough away that he can afford to shell out the nearly $13,000 that the average annual premium for decent family coverage costs these days (and that was in 2007).

Rebranding Abstinence Only

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on June 24, 2009 - 10:11am

"Well aware that their cause is in trouble and unpopular, purity proponents are revamping their image to appear more mainstream," reports Jessica Valenti.

Main Source: 
The Nation, June 17, 2009

Behind Bate

Submitted by Bob Burton on June 8, 2009 - 5:12am

In a major article profiling Roger Bate, one of the leading think tank players, Adam Sarvana writes that Bate is "to the environmental movement what Bugs Bunny is to Elmer Fudd, a clever, slippery and often triumphant adversary. But unlike Bugs, who cuts a wide swath, Bate is unknown even to his favorite targets.

Main Source: 
Natural Resources News Service, May 28, 2009

The Heartland Institute's Quest for "Real Science" on Global Warming

Submitted by Bob Burton on June 2, 2009 - 5:51am

The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-headquartered think tank that has taken on the role of trying to coordinate the disparate global warming skeptics, has organized yet another conference to be held in Washington this week disputing the reality of global warming. "The real science and economics of climate change support the view that global warming is not a crisis and that immediate action to reduce emissions is not necessary," they claim.

Syndicate content