Right-Wing Megadonors Are Financing Media Operations to Promote Their Ideologies

[Newest Reality]

If you are really big on democracy for all, like myself, then this is important information and worth knowing.

For decades, Charles Koch has been committed to radically changing American society into a libertarian paradise, free from taxes and regulations, in which the wealthiest oligarchs, like himself, can destroy the environment, exploit their workers, and reap astonishing profits.

His “Structure of Social Change,” first introduced by his top strategist, Richard Fink in the late 1970s, was a plan to weaponize philanthropy by using three areas of influence that would, together, gradually push far-right economic ideas into the American mainstream. The strategy begins with the funding of free-market university programs, something the Charles Koch Foundation has done at hundreds of higher education institutions including George Mason University, Florida State, and Western Michigan University, to produce the “intellectual raw materials” for libertarian policies. Then, Koch and his wealthy allies fund think tanks and policy shops that would convert the academic literature into usable policy proposals, which, in the third stage, Koch-funded advocacy groups promote to government officials and the greater populace.

Koch’s strategy has been a wild success, but it may not have been as effective without another avenue of influence: favorable media.

A CMD investigation has found that the family foundations of Charles Koch and a number of similarly-minded right-wing megadonors, along with two donor-advised fund sponsors that they use to shepherd their charitable contributions and receive special tax breaks, have donated at over $109 million to media operations since 2015, nearly all of them conservative.

DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund (DCF), the connected donor-advised fund sponsors, have sent more than $45.7 million of their clients’ money to finance media nonprofits, including the Media Research Center, Real Clear Foundation, and the National Review Institute, since 2015.

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/01/27/right-wing-megadonors-financing-media-operations-promote-their-ideologies/

[defacto7]

1. K&R

Very important info.

[Midnight Writer]

2. RW hate radio stations in my area don't even run ads. Somebody is paying for 24/7 HateTalk.

During breaks in the shows, they run Public Service announcements or music snippets. This isn't one station, this is several.

I think the rational that the airwaves are Right Wing because of market forces is malarkey. The Hate Talkers are being propped up financially by oligarchs.

[Newest Reality]

3. Interesting.

Thanks for the info.

That may just be the case with radio because, gosh, most radio has a high percentage of advertising to the point that I can't listen to it anymore.

[Midnight Writer]

4. This is a rural area, sparsely populated, with nothing but Hate Radio across the AM dial.

[Newest Reality]

5. Wow.

Propaganda central, huh? Just what can we expect from that? Yikes!

[JHB]

7. Add to that conservative "Christian" stations whose whole purpose is to "spread the word"...

...including conservative agenda points. Tax-exempt, of course.

[rockfordfile]

6. Not surprised they did this in 2016

The gallup and CBS News crap push right-wing propaganda with their editorial polls. CBS just hired another former Fox News reporter.

Their goal is trying to suppress the vote.