IP: Dan Morgan: Think Tanks: Corporations' Quiet Weapon

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 15:24:06 -0500
> From: James Love <love () cptech org>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <roundtable () cni org>
>
> Nice piece of reporting on corporate use of DC "think tanks" to lobby,
> focusing on Citizens for Sound Economy (CSE).  Includes a brief mention
> about Microsoft, plus lots of others.   Jamie
>
> --
> James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
> v. 1.202.387.8030, fax 1.202.234.5176
> love () cptech org, http://www.cptech.org/
>
> ------- message forwarded by James Love <love () cptech org> -------
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46598-2000Jan28.html
>
> Think Tanks: Corporations' Quiet Weapon
>
> By Dan Morgan
>  Washington Post Staff Writer
>  Saturday, January   29, 2000; Page A1
>
> Derailing a multibillion-dollar federal plan to restore the Florida
> Everglades is just the kind of cause that suits Citizens for a Sound
> Economy, a conservative think tank that fights for smaller government.
>
> But soon after the group took on the Everglades project in 1998, the
> Washington-based nonprofit got an incentive that went beyond the purely
> philosophical. It received $700,000 in contributions from Florida's
> three biggest sugar enterprises, which stand to lose thousands of acres
> of cane-growing land to reclamation if the Army Corps of Engineers plan
> goes into effect.
>
> The sugar contributions were never disclosed publicly but were outlined
> in internal CSE documents that detail how various corporate interests
> donated millions to the group to bankroll its efforts on issues of
> direct interest to them, from global warming to Florida tort reform.
>
> Along with those earmarked contributions, from companies such as
> Exxon Corp. and Hertz Corp., the organization received more than
> $1 million from Philip Morris Cos. at a time when CSE was opposing
> cigarette taxes.  Phone company US West Inc. gave $1 million as CSE
> pushed deregulation that would let US West offer long-distance service.
>
> The documents, obtained by The Washington Post, provide a rare look at
> think tanks' often hidden role as a weapon in the modern corporate
> political arsenal. The groups provide analyses, TV advertising, polling
> and academic studies that add an air of authority to corporate
> arguments--in many cases while maintaining the corporate donors'
> anonymity.
>
> "Corporations have discovered that funding of research, publications,
> media campaigns and other forms of advocacy on policy issues can serve
> as an adjunct to traditional corporate lobbying and political
> contributions," said James Allen Smith, author of a book about think
> tanks.
>
> Others use harsher terms. "It's part of a rent-a-mouthpiece phenomenon,"
> said Gary Ruskin of the Congressional Accountability Project. "There are
> mercenary groups that function as surrogates when industry feels it's
> not advantageous for it to speak directly."
>
>
>   [snip]
>
> Several months after Microsoft Corp. committed $380,000 to CSE's
> tax-exempt foundation last May, CSE officials lobbied in Congress to
> limit the Justice Department's budget for antitrust enforcement. CSE
> officials say their opposition to Justice's antitrust suit against
> Microsoft long predated the company's contribution.
>
>   [snip]
>
> ------- end forwarded message -------