Mayer, Jane

=see ginni 1/22html 10:00:23bak=<div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">----</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/foxdominion-lawsuit/jane-mayer-rupert-murdochs-business-model-drive-fear-and-anger-working-class">https://www.mediamatters.org/foxdominion-lawsuit/jane-mayer-rupert-murdochs-business-model-drive-fear-and-anger-working-class</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">mma 3/9 23</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CHRIS HAYES (HOST): Jane, I thought of that piece you wrote because in the Dominion filings, what we see is that struggle for control laid bare. Right? Like the people inside Fox know that what Trump is saying are lies, possibly like lies that will expose them to litigation risk, right? Might endanger American democracy. But their audience likes Trump and wants to hear them and so they decide to go along. What do you think the state of that very fraught intense relationship is now?JANE MAYER (GUEST): I mean, I think it's more tense than ever, but it's actually been tense, if you go back, almost from the start. I mean when you really think of it, it's interesting. Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump have known each other, by my calculation, for 46 or 47 years. And they've had a kind of a -- sort of -- mutually beneficial, dysfunctional relationship, almost from the start. They were introduced by Roy Cohen, who's one the more iniquitous sort of fixers in the world of, you know, history of American politics, who'd worked for Joe McCarthy. And their original sort of deal that they struck up was, at the time, Murdoch-owned The New York Post and he wanted to sell newspapers, and Trump was a rising businessman who wanted to be a celebrity. And so if Trump could get publicity from Murdoch and Murdoch could sell papers by writing up the sort of antics of Donald Trump. And so one got fame, the other got money. One got influence, and the other, sort of you know, media empire. [and political pwr]And it kept expanding. And it became -- it went from The New York Post to then to Fox. And at that point it started, it widened the audience. And kind of, the business plan, though, for both of them was to drive fear and anger in the working class, class resentment, racial resentment and benefit from it. And, I think what you've seen, though, is that all the way through there's been some tensions. I mean, basically Murdoch, apparently, for years has wanted to have a president that he was close to. He's known every president since JFK, but he's never really had a close associate in the White House until Trump, someone he could call on the phone and he calls him "Donald" and they've known each other that long. And Trump got, out of Murdoch just an incredibly powerful, useful platform, given to him by the man who's arguably the most powerful media mogul in the world. </div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div>=<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie</a>=<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/21/aftermath-sixteen-writers-on-trumps-america">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/21/aftermath-sixteen-writers-on-trumps-america</a><p class="has-dropcap has-dropcaplead-standard-heading paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 32px; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">During the Presidential primaries, Donald Trump mocked his Republican rivals as “puppets” for flocking to a secretive fund-raising session sponsored by Charles and David Koch, the billionaire co-owners of the energy conglomerate Koch Industries. Affronted, the Koch brothers, whose political spending has made their name a shorthand for special-interest clout, withheld their financial support from Trump. But on Tuesday night David Koch was reportedly among the revellers at Trump’s victory party in a Hilton Hotel in New York.<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Trump campaigned by attacking the big donors, corporate lobbyists, and political-action committees as “very corrupt.” In a tweet on October 18th, he promised, “I will Make Our Government Honest Again—believe me. But first I’m going to have to #DrainTheSwamp.” His DrainTheSwamp hashtag became a rallying cry for supporters intent on ridding Washington of corruption. But Ann Ravel, a Democratic member of the Federal Elections Commission who has championed reform of political money, says that “the alligators are multiplying.”<div data-attr-viewport-monitor="inline-recirc" class="inline-recirc-wrapper inline-recirc-observer-target-8 viewport-monitor-anchor" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{" pattern="pattern" inlinerecirc="InlineRecirc" data-include-experiments="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Many of Trump’s transition-team members are the corporate insiders he vowed to disempower. On Friday, Vice-President-elect Mike Pence, the new transition-team chair, announced that Marc Short, who until recently ran Freedom Partners, the Kochs’ political-donors group, would serve as a “senior adviser.” The influence of the Kochs and their allies is particularly clear in the areas of energy and the environment. The few remarks Trump made on these issues during the campaign reflected the fondest hopes of the oil, gas, and coal producers. He vowed to withdraw from the international climate treaty negotiated last year in Paris, remove regulations that curb carbon emissions, legalize oil drilling and mining on federal lands and in seas, approve the Keystone XL pipeline, and weaken the Environmental Protection Agency.<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">For policy and personnel advice regarding the Department of Energy, Trump is relying on Michael McKenna, the president of the lobbying firm MWR Strategies. McKenna’s clients include Koch Companies Public Sector, a division of Koch Industries. According to Politico, McKenna also has ties to the American Energy Alliance and its affiliate, the Institute for Energy Research. These nonprofit groups purport to be grassroots organizations, but they run ads advocating corporate-friendly energy policies, without disclosing their financial backers. In 2012, Freedom Partners gave $1.5 million to the American Energy Alliance.<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Michael Catanzaro, a partner at the lobbying firm CGCN Group, is the head of Trump’s energy transition team, and has been mentioned as a possible energy czar. Among his clients are Koch Industries and Devon Energy Corporation, a gas-and-oil company that has made a fortune from vertical drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Another widely discussed candidate is Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of the shale-oil company Continental Resources, who is a major contributor to the Kochs’ fund-raising network. Wenona Hauter, of Food and Water Watch, says that Hamm has “done all he can to subvert the existing rules and regulations.”<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Myron Ebell, an outspoken climate-change skeptic, heads Trump’s transition team for the E.P.A. Ebell runs the energy-and-environmental program at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an anti-regulatory Washington think tank that hides its sources of financial support but has been funded by fossil-fuel companies, including Exxon-Mobil and Koch Industries. David Schnare, a self-described “free-market environmentalist” who has accused the E.P.A. of having “blood on its hands,” is a member of the E.P.A. working group. Schnare is the director of the Center for Energy and the Environment at the Thomas Jefferson Institute, part of a nationwide consortium of anti-government, pro-industry think tanks. He is also the general counsel at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, which has received funding from coal companies. In 2011, Schnare started hounding the climate scientist Michael Mann, who had been a professor at the University of Virginia, by filing public-records requests demanding to see his unpublished research and his private e-mails. The legal wrangling tied up Mann’s work until 2014, when the Virginia Supreme Court ordered Schnare to desist. The Union of Concerned Scientists has described these actions against climate scientists as “harassment.”<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Norman Eisen, who devised strict conflict-of-interest rules while acting as Obama’s ethics czar, says, “If you have people on the transition team with deep financial ties to the industries to be regulated, it raises questions about whether they are serving the public interest or their own interests.” He ruled out Obama transition-team members who would have had a conflict of interest in their assigned areas, or even the appearance of one. “We weren’t perfect,” he said. “But we tried to level the playing field because, let’s face it, in the Beltway nexus of corporations and dark money, lobbyists are the delivery mechanism for special-interest influence. ”<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Questions to Trump’s transition team about its conflict-of-interest rules went unanswered, as did questions to the lobbyists and industry heads involved. But the composition of the group runs counter to a set of anti-lobbyist proposals that Trump released in October, to be enacted in his first hundred days. It called for a five-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave public office, and a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying for a foreign government.<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The tenth item on the list of proposals is the Clean Up Corruption in Washington Act, which would implement “new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.” Trevor Potter, who served as the commissioner of the F.E.C. under George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and is now the president of the Campaign Legal Center, described Trump’s ethics proposals as “quite interesting, and quite helpful.” He was puzzled, though, by the vagueness of the “Drain the Swamp” act. “It’s a complete black box so far,” Potter said.<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Potter wondered if Trump’s lack of specificity reflected internal divisions. He noted that Don McGahn, who served as the Trump campaign’s attorney, is an opponent of almost all campaign-finance restrictions. “Many on the transition team are registered lobbyists who are deeply invested in the system Trump says he wants to change,” Potter said. “It looks like the lobbyists and special interests are already taking over.”=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/in-the-mueller-report-erik-prince-funds-a-covert-effort-to-obtain-clintons-e-mails-from-a-foreign-state<p class="has-dropcap has-dropcaplead-standard-heading" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater, a former private-security company embroiled in controversy surrounding its use of lethal force against civilians in Iraq, makes a strange cameo appearance in the redacted version of the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/tag/mueller-investigation" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; --colortoken-name:colors.interactive.base.light; transition: color 200ms ease 0s; line-height: inherit;">Mueller report</a>, which was released on Thursday morning. Prince, who is the brother of Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education, is described as having provided some funding for a secretive effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s private e-mails from shadowy operatives working on the so-called dark Web.<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">According to the report, Prince “provided funding to hire a tech advisor to ascertain the authenticity” of e-mails that conservative activists had obtained. Prince, who was interviewed by the special counsel’s team, said that the cache of e-mails in question turned out to be fakes.The report, however, details a strange effort by <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/tag/donald-trump" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; --colortoken-name:colors.interactive.base.light; transition: color 200ms ease 0s; line-height: inherit;">Trump</a>-campaign associates to hack into Clinton and the Democrats’ e-mail accounts that paralleled the Russian plot. According to Mueller, the effort began as early as December, 2015, and ramped up after Trump publicly declared, on July 27, 2016, that he hoped Russia would “find the thirty thousand e-mails that are missing” from Clinton’s private e-mail server. Mueller and his team <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/current/robert-mueller-let-donald-trump-duck-direct-questions-about-obstruction" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; --colortoken-name:colors.interactive.base.light; transition: color 200ms ease 0s; line-height: inherit;">never interviewed Trump</a>, but the retired lieutenant general <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/michael-flynn-general-chaos" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; --colortoken-name:colors.interactive.base.light; transition: color 200ms ease 0s; line-height: inherit;">Michael Flynn</a>, the campaign aide whom Trump later appointed his national-security adviser, told them that Trump repeatedly asked to get Clinton’s e-mails. According to the report, Flynn tried to do this by contacting multiple people who might be able to supply them, including two well-placed conservative operatives, Peter Smith and Barbara Ledeen.<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Smith, an investment banker and Republican donor, had helped finance an investigation of Bill Clinton’s sexual relationships in Arkansas, leading to the 1993 Troopergate scandal. Ledeen, a Republican Senate staffer, worked for Chuck Grassley. Grassley was then the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of the fiercest defenders of Trump and critics of the Russia investigation. Barbara Ledeen’s husband, Michael Ledeen, had co-authored a book with Flynn. A spokesman for Grassley’s office described Barbara Ledeen’s efforts as her private pursuit, rather than an official effort undertaken by the senator’s office.<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In December, 2015, Ledeen e-mailed Smith a proposal to obtain Clinton’s private e-mails, which, she claimed, “were classified” and had been “purloined by our enemies.” According to Mueller’s report, the proposal claimed that the “Clinton email server was, in all likelihood, breached long ago,’ and that the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian intelligence services could ‘re-assemble the server’s email content.’ ” In an account of Ledeen’s efforts, <a data-offer-url="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/13/michael-flynn-clinton-email-investigation-russia-dark-web" class="external-link" data-event-click="{" element="element" externallink="ExternalLink" outgoingurl="outgoingURL" https="https" www.theguardian.com="www.theguardian.com" us-news="us-news" oct="oct" michael-flynn-clinton-email-investigation-russia-dark-web="michael-flynn-clinton-email-investigation-russia-dark-web" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/13/michael-flynn-clinton-email-investigation-russia-dark-web" rel="nofollow noopener" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; --colortoken-name:colors.interactive.base.light; transition: color 200ms ease 0s; line-height: inherit;">the Guardian</a> cited notes by federal investigators that said her motive was concern for the well-being of her children, who have served in the U.S. military, and whose safety, she suggested, could have been undermined if Clinton’s e-mails had fallen into hostile governments’ hands. But, in her e-mails to Smith, as revealed by the Mueller report, Ledeen appears more focussed on partisan politics. She writes, “if even a single email was recovered and the providence [sic] of the email was a foreign service, it would be catastrophic to the Clinton campaign.”<div class="ConsumerMarketingUnitThemedWrapper-kkMeXf hBFNZw consumer-marketing-unit consumer-marketing-unit--article-mid-content" role="presentation" aria-hidden="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><div class="consumer-marketing-unitslot consumer-marketing-unitslot--article-mid-content consumer-marketing-unitslot--in-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="journey-unit" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The report shows that, though Smith declined to participate in the project at first, Ledeen went ahead and obtained a cache of e-mails. After Trump publicly called for help in getting Clinton’s e-mails, Smith initiated his own effort and circulated information about it to members of Trump’s campaign. According to Mueller’s report, in August, 2016, “Smith sent an email from an encrypted account with the subject ‘Sec Clinton’s unsecured private email server’ ” to recipients including the Trump-campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis. Smith reported that he was involved in efforts “to poke and probe on the above,” and that the Clinton’s server had been “hacked with ease by both State-related players and private mercenaries.”<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Smith set up an L.L.C. for the project and structured it as an “independent expenditure group” that, under campaign law, could not coördinate with the Trump campaign, yet Smith circulated e-mails saying that his initiative was “in coordination with” the Trump campaign “to the extent permitted” by the law. The New Yorker obtained a document from Smith, from September, 2016, in which he claimed that he was working with the Trump-campaign representatives <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/steve-bannons-roman-holiday" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; --colortoken-name:colors.interactive.base.light; transition: color 200ms ease 0s; line-height: inherit;">Steve Bannon</a>, Kellyanne Conway, Sam Clovis, and Michael Flynn, and also with the Republican National Committee, Judicial Watch, Citizens United, and the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/james-okeefe-accidentally-stings-himself" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; --colortoken-name:colors.interactive.base.light; transition: color 200ms ease 0s; line-height: inherit;">conservative activist James O’Keefe</a>. There is no evidence that any of these individuals were, in fact, working with Smith. But the Mueller report’s depiction of Smith, Ledeen, Flynn, and Prince’s efforts suggests that Trump and his immediate campaign orbit were deeply intent on obtaining Clinton’s private e-mails during the period when Russia was hacking into them.<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In September, 2016, Smith and Ledeen rejoined forces, at which point Prince provided some of the funding for the operation. Mueller’s team obtained files from Smith’s computer showing that Smith had documents that WikiLeaks had stolen from the computer of the Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, though Mueller found no conclusive evidence that Smith had obtained the stolen files prior to WikiLeaks’s public release of them. (Smith died in May, 2017, in what was ruled a suicide.)<p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TNYAdobeCaslonPro, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In his remarks prior to releasing the report, Attorney General William Barr stressed that it is not criminal to disseminate stolen information, such as the e-mails that the Russians hacked from the Democrats during the 2016 campaign, so long as those spreading the stolen information were not involved in the initial theft. It appears that the Attorney General’s definition of the criminal law was narrow and careful for a reason—many Trump-campaign supporters were involved in tiptoeing right up to the line.=an 821<div id="sPost_0_0_7_0_22_3_1_0_0_0_1_0" class="post-partial articlesplash-custom" style="overflow: hidden !important; margin-bottom: 40px; position: relative;"><div class="post-splash-custom clearfix" data-attr-layout_copylink="inactive" data-attr-show_around_the_web="true" data-attr-all_element_order="headline,photo_caption,photo_credit,author,date,post_shares,body,primary_tag,subheadline,section,tags,page_views,badges,badges_sponsored,snark_line,like_button,source_link,collection_button,community_comments,follow_button,main_author,community_name,all_sections,date_modified,custom_field_covid_guidelines,custom_field_covid_ann_location_name,custom_field_covid_ann_location_url,custom_field_covid_ann_location_address_more,custom_field_covid_tested_info_url,custom_field_covid_ann_location_address,custom_field_covid_prevention_info_url,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_url,custom_field_covid_expires,custom_field_hide_iterable_takeover,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_service_type_url,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_name,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_audience_name,custom_field_covid_travel_bans,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_provider_name,custom_field_covid_desease_statistics_url,custom_field_covid_covid_updates_guidelines,custom_field_covid_transport_closures,product_prices,product_vendor,product_buy_link,custom_field_is_survey_post,custom_field_survey_text_italic,custom_field_smart_news_headline,custom_field_wevegotissues,custom_field_survey_text_red" data-attr-layout_all_date_format="%B %d, %Y" data-attr-layout_whatsapp="active" data-attr-layout_separator="inactive" data-attr-layout_slack="inactive" data-attr-layout_flipboard="active" data-attr-show_more_button_text="Read More" data-attr-layout_photo_credit="over" data-attr-layout_linkedin="inactive" data-attr-layout_post_shares="bottom" data-attr-layout_pinterest="inactive" data-attr-layout_date="bottom" data-attr-layout_author="bottom" data-attr-show_full_post_body="true" data-attr-layout_photo_caption="over" data-attr-layout_reddit="inactive" data-attr-layout_body="bottom" data-attr-id="sPost_0_0_7_0_22_3_1_0_0_0_1_0" data-attr-all_share_buttons="Flipboard,Facebook,Twitter,Email,Linkedin,SMS,Separator,Slack,GooglePlus,Pinterest,Whatsapp,Reddit,CopyLink,Tumblr" data-attr-layout_headline="top" data-attr-format="splash-custom" data-attr-layout_tumblr="inactive" data-attr-layout_sms="active" data-attr-layout_all_image_crop="16x9" data-attr-layout_googleplus="inactive" data-attr-layout_quality="7" data-attr-header_template="jinja/post/custom-css.html" style="position: relative;"><article elid="2654464453" data-is-frozen="false" class="clearfix page-article sm-mb-1 quality-MD post-2654464453"><div class="row px10" style="margin-bottom: -40px; margin-left: -10px; margin-right: -10px; overflow: hidden;"><div id="col-center" class="col sm-mb-1" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 40px; float: left; box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; width: 838.688px;"><div class="widgetbody clearfix sm-mt-1" style="margin-bottom: 10px;"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2654464453" style="margin: auto; width: 654.938px; line-height: 31px;"><div class="body-description"><div> Mayer, author of the 2016 New York Times bestseller "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right," is shedding light on how dark money donated by ultrarich conservatives has contributed to the tactics used to magnify former President Donald Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud.</div>In a piece published by The New Yorker, Mayer <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">dissected the controversial election audit in Maricopa County, Ariz.</a>, as she explained why the effort is not as local as it may seem."Although the audit in Arizona may appear to be the product of local extremists, it has been fed by sophisticated, well-funded national organizations whose boards of directors include some of the country's wealthiest and highest-profile conservatives," Mayer wrote.She went on to discuss <a data-linked-post="2647364451" href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/dark-money-jane-mayer-on-how-the-koch-bros-and-billionaire-allies-funded-the-rise-of-the-far-right/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the uses of dark money</a> and how it has aided in promoting the falsehood of widespread voter fraud."Dark-money organizations, sustained by undisclosed donors, have relentlessly promoted the myth that American elections are rife with fraud, and, according to leaked records of their internal deliberations, they have drafted, supported, and in some cases taken credit for state laws that make it harder to vote," she wrote.Experts are expressing concern about the <a data-linked-post="2648656738" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/contemporary-democracy-and-the-sacred-rights-religion-and-ideology/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">efforts being made to upend election laws and dismantle the United States' democracy </a>While Mayer largely highlighted the election audit in Arizona, there are many different states across the country where Republican lawmakers are taking aim at voting practices and election laws.<div class="around-the-web"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.438px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/dark-money-jane-mayer-on-how-the-koch-bros-and-billionaire-allies-funded-the-rise-of-the-far-right/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; 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width: 654.938px;"><div class="mb-2 survey_post_promo" id="ssurvey_shared_element_0_0_19_0_0_0"><div class="posts-custom posts-custom-section section-holder clearfix" data-block="section_1" data-format="posts-custom" data-source="frontpage_parent_site_Poll" data-source-type="page" data-source-unique="true" data-section-id="528622410" data-is-reordable="true" data-using-stickers="true" data-has-more="true" data-attr-element_classes="survey_post_promo" data-attr-posts_id="ssurvey_shared_element_0_0_19_0_0_0" data-attr-source_site="parent_site" data-attr-layout_headline="bottom" data-attr-format="posts-custom" data-attr-all_element_order="headline,subheadline,section,author,community_name,date,date_modified,badges,badges_sponsored,photo_credit,photo_caption,body,snark_line,page_views,post_shares,follow_button,community_comments,like_button,source_link,collection_button,tags,primary_tag,main_author,all_sections,custom_field_is_survey_post,custom_field_survey_text_italic,custom_field_smart_news_feed_headline,custom_field_Send-alternative-headline-to-smartnews,custom_field_survey_text_red" data-attr-data-rm-advanced="true" data-attr-source_url="Poll" data-attr-section_url="Poll" data-attr-layout_all_headline_tag="h2" data-attr-layout_all_image_crop="original" data-attr-source_unique="true" data-attr-v="2" data-attr-limit="1" data-attr-node_id="/root/blocks/block[survey_shared_element]/abtests/abtest[1]/posts-" data-attr-without_current="true" data-attr-layout_quality="1" style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="posts-wrapper clearfix" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; line-height: 0;"><div class="widget" elid="2654254444" data-category="Poll" style="position: relative; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px; width: 654.938px; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; background: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><article elid="2654254444" data-is-frozen="false" class="clearfix page-article sm-mb-1 quality-HD post-2654254444" style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4;"><div class="row px10" style="margin-bottom: -40px; margin-left: -10px; margin-right: -10px; overflow: hidden;"><div id="col-center" class="col sm-mb-1" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 40px; float: left; box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; display: flex; width: 674.938px;"><div class="widgethead" style="margin: 0px; position: relative; width: 291.438px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/trump-influence-poll/" aria-label="Is Trump's influence diminishing?" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></div></div></div></article></div></div></div></div></div><div class="" id="sPost_0_0_7_0_22_3_1_0_0_1" style="margin: auto; width: 654.938px;"><div id="lightbox-inline-form-ae0a1a76-b06b-45e5-9d44-8cc41de9ef21" align="center"><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/trump-influence-poll/" aria-label="Is Trump's influence diminishing?" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word;"></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/mitch-mcconnell-is-still-refusing-to-rein-in-trump-and-americans-are-paying-the-price-new-yorker">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/mitch-mcconnell-is-still-refusing-to-rein-in-trump-and-americans-are-paying-the-price-new-yorker</a></div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div><div style="text-align: left;">no lnx</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Mitch McConnell is still refusing to rein in Trump — and Americans are paying the price: New Yorker</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Written by Sarah K. Burris / Raw Story April 13, 2020</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer explained that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is enabling President Donald Trump’s bad behavior at a time that Americans need a leader the most.</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">“On Thursday, March 12th, Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, could have insisted that he and his colleagues work through the weekend to hammer out an emergency aid package addressing the coronavirus pandemic,” she wrote. “Instead, he recessed the Senate for a long weekend and returned home to Louisville, Kentucky. McConnell, a seventy-eight-year-old Republican who is about to complete his sixth term as a senator, planned to attend a celebration for a protégé, Justin Walker, a federal judge who was once his Senate intern. McConnell has helped install nearly two hundred conservatives as judges; stocking the judiciary has been his legacy project.”</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Democrats were working with the White House’s Steve Mnuchin, and McConnell was needed for the next step. He was cracking jokes at an event halfway across the country during the crisis. It took McConnell 11 days to come up with a bill.</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">“McConnell, who is known as one of the wiliest politicians in Washington, soon reframed the narrative as a personal success story,” The New Yorker said. “In Kentucky, where he is running for reëlection, he launched a campaign ad about the bill’s passage, boasting, ‘One leader brought our divided country together.’ At the same time, he attacked the Democrats, telling a radio host that the impeachment of Trump had ‘diverted the attention of the government’ when the epidemic was in its early stages. In fact, several senators—including Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, and Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut—had raised alarms about the virus nearly two months before the Administration acted, whereas Trump had told reporters around the same time that he was “not concerned at all.” And on February 27th, some three weeks after the impeachment trial ended, McConnell had defended the Administration’s response, accusing Democrats of ‘performative outrage’ when they demanded more emergency funding.”</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The New Yorker explained that McConnell’s worship for Trump is really a kind of “cynical political genius.” He’s both protecting his caucus and covering himself in a deeply red state where Trump is more popular than even he is.</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">“When the pandemic took hold, the President’s standing initially rose in national polls, and McConnell and Trump will surely both take credit for the aid package in the coming months,” said the report. “Yet, as covid-19 decimates the economy and kills Americans across the nation, McConnell’s alliance with Trump is looking riskier. Indeed, some critics argue that McConnell bears a singular responsibility for the country’s predicament. They say that he knew from the start that Trump was unequipped to lead in a crisis, but because the President was beloved by the Republican base, McConnell protected him.”</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The report recalled that McConnell even blocked witnesses at the impeachment trial, which basically guaranteed that Trump would remain in office.’</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">“There are a lot of people disappointed in him. He could have mobilized the Senate. But the Republican Party changed underneath him, and he wanted to remain in power,”said David Hawpe, the former editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal.</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Columnist and journalism professor Al Cross called McConnell’s partnership with Trump “the most important political relationship in the country.”</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">According to The New Yorker, Cross “had hoped that McConnell would push back against Trump. After all, past Republicans have crossed party lines to defend democracy—from censuring Joe McCarthy to forcing the resignation of President Richard Nixon.”’</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">“But Trump and McConnell have come to understand each other,” Cross said. “The President needs him to govern. McConnell knows that if their relationship fell apart it would be a disaster for the Republican majority in the Senate. They’re very different in many ways, but fundamentally they’re about the same thing—winning.”</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The extensive piece goes on to explain even more ways in which McConnell has sold his soul in further efforts to protect himself in what will likely be one of the most difficult elections of his career. Democrats are still fighting it out in a primary election, but the race has already seen more donations than any other in the country. As the coronavirus creeps into the southern states, McConnell could end up in a desperate situation explaining why he hasn’t done enough while his state is suffering.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">---</div>1119<a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/11/12/elizabeth-warren-pregnancy-fired-america-rising/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://theintercept.com/2019/11/12/elizabeth-warren-pregnancy-fired-america-rising/</a>in oct documents surfaced that appeared to contradict a key story told by Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the campaign trail. In her telling, Warren’s “dream job” as a public school teacher ended in 1971 when the school principal noticed she was “visibly pregnant,” a form of employment discrimination that was legal and common during that era. On October 7, a conservative website presented archived documents that appeared to challenge that narrative, including the minutes of a meeting in which the school board had voted to extend Warren’s tenure and another in which the board notes that Warren herself resigned from the job.<div data-reactid="212" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The story spread like wildfire, moving from conservative publications to major newspapers. Even Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to President Donald Trump, <a href="https://twitter.com/KellyannePolls/status/1181314387048615936" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">weighed</a> in on the controversy to suggest that the Democratic candidate had lied about her life story. More records seeming to challenge Warren’s narrative emerged, including a <a href="http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people7/Warren/warren-con1.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">2007 interview</a> in Berkeley, California, in which Warren appeared to say that she left teaching on her own accord to raise her child and seek additional education credentials, as well as a contemporaneous newspaper story about Warren leaving the school “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elizabeth-warren-pregnancy-claim-democratic-presidential-candidate-stands-by-being-pushed-out-of-teaching-job/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">to raise a family</a>.”Warren has stood by her story that she was “shown the door” because of her pregnancy. “When I was 22 and finishing my first year of teaching, I had an experience millions of women will recognize. By June I was visibly pregnant — and the principal told me the job I’d already been promised for the next year would go to someone else,” Warren <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1181556990906118144" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">said</a> on Twitter last month.But how did these documents surface in the first place? According to the results of an open records request, an opposition research group known as America Rising had requested documents from the Riverdale Board of Education in New Jersey just weeks before the news appeared. It asked for “Warren’s employment records,” as well copies of other records requested from the school board from the previous two years.In response to the request, a school official provided America Rising with the school board minutes that became the basis for the story that erupted the following month, along with emails from a Wall Street Journal reporter, who had requested similar records in April.America Rising — which is <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">affiliated</a> with a political action committee, a public relations firm, and a for-profit research company, as well as several news websites — has been <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&committee_id=C00542902&two_year_transaction_period=2014&two_year_transaction_period=2016&two_year_transaction_period=2018&two_year_transaction_period=2020" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">backed</a> over the years by Republican donors, including hedge-fund billionaires Paul Singer and Ken Griffin, private equity investor John Childs, and banker Andrew Beal.America Rising did not respond to a request for comment. The organization did not claim direct responsibility for the Warren story, but <a href="https://americarisingpac.org/meeting-minutes-contradict-elizabeth-warrens-claim-of-being-fired-over-pregnancy/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">touted the documents</a> as soon as they appeared online via an allied conservative website called the Washington Free Beacon. Free Beacon is also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/us/politics/trump-dossier-paul-singer.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">funded by Singer</a>.America Rising is known for attempting to dig up dirt on politicians, journalists, and activists on behalf of donors’ interests. The group went after journalist <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/01/america-rising-pac-sets-sights-for-koch-chronicler-jane-mayer-218081" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Jane Mayer</a>, shopping negative information about the New Yorker writer following the publication of her book “Dark Money.” In 2016, America Rising focused on environmentalist Bill McKibben, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/opinion/sunday/embarrassing-photos-of-me-thanks-to-my-right-wing-stalkers.html?r=0&module=inline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">dispatching its team</a> to obtain thousands of documents from McKibben’s past and to follow the Vermont-based writer, filming him at public events, as well as while grocery shopping and sitting in a church pew. This year, Definers Public Affairs, an affiliate of America Rising that shares the same staff, decided to <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/04/definers-facebook-oppo-research-controversy-1480400" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">rebrand</a> following <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/15/definers-republican-firm-plan-defend-facebook-attack-rivals-soros" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">revelations</a> that the company had been retained by Facebook to orchestrate a campaign to smear its critics.</div><div id="third-party--article-mid" class="NewsletterEmbed-container" data-reactid="213" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px -20px 20px; width: auto; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><div class="Newsletter-shortcode Newsletter-shortcode-layout-full" data-reactid="214" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: fit-content; display: flex; margin-right: 0px;">
</div></div><div data-reactid="223" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;">The current America Rising research effort on Warren appears to be part of a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/15/gop-group-preps-opposition-research-blitz-against-mike-bloomberg.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">broader dive</a> into the Democratic field, which is being <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/18/trump-team-guns-for-2020-rivals-242781" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">coordinated</a> with America First Policies, the nonprofit arm of Trump’s Super PAC. The effort involves research on Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Michael Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, and other Democratic candidates....</div>The New York Times <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=fa40e68085e4854fa7e9ffd59919389e4b9908784629aeca08dc51cf987239038b0ac6ead899bc3f4310b52bbedd42e1609ab6093cfa74f5" title="again lifted up" style="" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" color="color" rgb="rgb">again lifted up</a> Breitbart's Peter Schweizer. Chris Hayes and The New Yorker's Jane Mayer <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=fa40e68085e4854f869a4e10392fa6a1659f6ea2c9a5ed8157a78b2423271e58e1a5b157b58221281b1999462554ec3a430d0a7c4eebf9bc" title="ripped" style="" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" color="color" rgb="rgb">ripped</a> mainstream outlets for enabling Schweizer's lies.=For nearly two years, conservative operatives have been trying to weaponize the Ukraine-based story that has led Trump to the brink of impeachment. A look back over the coverage of the story—a repeatedly discredited conspiracy theory involving Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s work in Ukraine—suggests that America’s news organizations continue to be just as susceptible to manipulation by political partisans pushing complicated and hard-to-check foreign narratives as they were in 2016. In fact, several of the same players are involved. “There’s no effective mechanism in this country for weeding disinformation out,” Paul Barrett, the deputy director of N.Y.U.’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, and the author of the recent study “<a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://issuu.com/nyusterncenterforbusinessandhumanri/docs/nyu_election_2020_report" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Disinformation and the 2020 Election</a>,” said. “We’re not doing anything about it at all.”Anyone trying to track the Ukrainian conspiracy stories that were eventually embraced by President Trump is likely to get mired in the same echo chamber of right-wing news purveyors that misinformed voters in 2016. A pivotal source of the allegations against the Bidens, for instance, is the Government Accountability Institute, a Florida-based opposition-research operation that was founded by the former Trump political adviser Stephen Bannon—the same conservative nonprofit that ginned up questionable stories about the Clintons during the last Presidential campaign. In both instances, much of the coverage of the scandal was kicked off by Peter Schweizer, a longtime conservative political writer who is an editor-at-large at Breitbart News and the president of the Government Accountability Institute. Since its founding, in 2012, the group has largely been funded with millions of dollars in tax-exempt donations from the family foundation of the New York hedge-fund magnate Robert Mercer, who was a major donor to Trump’s 2016 campaign. In the organization’s most recently available I.R.S. tax filings, for 2017, Mercer’s daughter Rebekah is listed as the board chairman.Asked about the Government Accountability Institute’s role in this year’s Biden scandal coverage, Bannon e-mailed to say, “It’s key. It was the predicate,” as it had been for much of the previous Clinton scandal coverage. As Joshua Green describes in “<a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0728KHFD5/?tag=thneyo0f-20" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Devil’s Bargain</a>,” his book, from 2017, about Bannon’s role in the Trump campaign, Bannon designed the organization as a means of transmitting partisan dirt-digging to the mainstream media. He realized that, though mainstream reporters were suspicious of partisan opinion, they were open to damning facts about public figures, regardless of the sourcing. He set out, with Schweizer, to produce material that would generate mainstream coverage, and right-wing outrage.Thus, during the last Presidential campaign, under the auspices of the Government Accountability Institute, Schweizer published the best-selling book “<a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062369296/?tag=thneyo0f-20" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Clinton Cash</a>.” In a novel arrangement, he doled out negative scoops about the Clintons from it in advance to a variety of mainstream news outlets, including the Times. The paper disclosed its exclusive deal with the book’s author to its readers, and maintained that it independently verified and expanded on the information. But when it ran a front-page <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">story</a> derived from the book on April 24, 2015, the Times stirred controversy and criticism, including from its own public editor.The story insinuated that, as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton had risked national security by facilitating the sale of American uranium mines to Russia in exchange for more than two million dollars in contributions to the Clinton Foundation from the businessmen behind the deal, who worked for a company called Uranium One. The story enabled Clinton’s opponents to frame her as greedy and corrupt. Even a year after she had lost the race, the Fox News host Sean Hannity was still invoking it on air, calling it “the biggest scandal ever involving Russia.”Yet <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">later</a> reporting poked holes in the story’s insinuation of corruption, revealing that multiple government agencies—not just Clinton’s State Department—had approved the deal, and that the amount of uranium involved was negligible. (Schweizer didn’t respond to phone calls from The New Yorker.) On Thursday, the Daily Beast <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/peter-schweizer-book-alleging-biden-corruption-in-ukraine-appears-to-have-lifted-passages-from-wikipedia" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">identified</a> what it said were over a dozen passages in his book, “<a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062569368/?tag=thneyo0f-20" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends</a>,” that were lifted from other sources, such as Wikipedia—a charge that his publisher, HarperCollins, denied amounted to a violation of fair use.For those who recall the “Clinton Cash” controversy, the baseless tales claiming that Biden corruptly intervened on behalf of his son’s Ukrainian business interests feel a lot like the movie “Groundhog Day.” In March of 2018, Schweizer and the Government Accountability Institute once again produced a book that was perfectly timed for the Presidential campaign. “Secret Empires” devoted a chapter to the subject of “Bidens in Ukraine,” which laid out the conflicts of interest posed by the wheeling and dealing of Biden’s son Hunter. (An additional chapter laid out Hunter Biden’s business deals in China.) As the book recounted, in 2014, Hunter Biden, a Washington lobbyist, took a profitable post on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company run by a shady oligarch, while his father, who was then the Vice-President, handled a drive to rid Ukraine of corruption. Other news organizations, including the Times and the Wall Street Journal, had already run stories on the same unethical-seeming morass. (In July, The New Yorker published a piece about the relationship between Joe and <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/08/will-hunter-biden-jeopardize-his-fathers-campaign" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Hunter Biden</a> that dismissed allegations of any illegality in the Ukraine matter but included some concerns from Obama Administration officials that Hunter could potentially undermine his father’s work.)
<div style="text-align: left;">=</div><div style="text-align: left;">...Jane Mayer of the<a title="" href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-invention-of-the-conspiracy-theory-on-biden-and-ukraine" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> New Yorker </a>explains how the “Biden/Ukraine” hoax was invented and spread by the same people who invented the “Uranium One” fiction which Fox News and other Republican sludge generators spawned in order to smear Hillary Clinton in the 2016. The cast of characters for both smears is remarkably similar.</div><div style="text-align: left;">...</div><div><div style="text-align: left;">no lnx</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The Invention of the Conspiracy Theory on Biden and Ukraine</div><div style="text-align: left;">How a conservative dark-money group that targeted Hillary Clinton in 2016 spread the discredited story that may lead to Donald Trump’s impeachment.</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">By Jane Mayer October 4, 2019</div></div>=cjp...<div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lee Fang, an investigative journalist at the Intercept, who has reported for a number of outlets about the sprawling political network funded by the conservative Koch brothers, said he suspects operatives working for the Kochs hacked his private account on the image hosting site Photobucket and circulated an image of him smoking marijuana as a teenager.</div><div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The image published by the conservative website the Washington Free Beacon, in a post titled "High Times at The Intercept" that mocked the publication's decision to hire Fang, was taken from a password protected account, Fang said. The Free Beacon was co-founded by Michael Goldfarb, who previously worked as a crisis communications consultant for the Kochs.</div><div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fang told CPJ he can't definitively prove who was behind the hack, but said that his reporting had been flagged by pro-Koch Brothers operatives before, including on a now-defunct website, KochFacts.com, that listed journalists writing critically on the Kochs' political activities.</div><div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</div><div style="text-align: left; ">In her book Dark Money, an investigation into the Koch's political network, New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer alleged that the brothers retained New York City Police Commissioner-turned private investigator Howard Safir to delve into her past. Mayer wrote that sources told her Goldfarb was involved in that work. She said she also discovered that a dossier erroneously accusing her of plagiarism was passed around conservative D.C. media circles--a reporter with the conservative Daily Caller website even contacted her editors at The New Yorker, accusing her of plagiarism. She was able to quickly refute the allegations before they were made public. The Koch Brothers have called Mayer's reporting inaccurate, but did not directly refute the accusations when contacted by The New York Times in 2016. </div><div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Safir did not respond to CPJ's request for comment. This kind of treatment can be particularly chilling for reporters without the institutional backing of a major publication. Roddy Boyd, the president of the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation, says that last year he was lured to London with a job offer, only to be pumped for information about his reporting on an insurance company AmTrust. "It was really shady," he told CPJ. "It makes you wonder; what won't they do." Some investigative campaigns however, have run into legal trouble. Back in 2006, the California Attorney General found that private investigators hired by Hewlett Packard to trace leaks to the press had targeted the phone records of nine journalists. Hewlett Packard's general counsel resigned and a court sentenced one of the investigators to three months in jail for identity theft. In the wake of the Weinstein scandal, his lawyer David Boies expressed some regret. He said that he did not select the private investigators that Weinstein hired, or direct their work--although his signature appears on the BlackCube contract. "It was not thought through," Boies wrote in a public statement explaining his decision to facilitate Weinstein and BlackCube's relationship. "And it was a mistake. I take responsibility for that." There's no indication he or BlackCube broke any laws or will face any censure (although, The New York Times reported that BlackCube lacked the proper license to do business in New York)</div><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house</a><div class="SectionBreak SectionBreaksectionBreak1ppA7" style="box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision;">In January, during the <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/tag/government-shutdown" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; background-attachment: initial, initial, initial; background-origin: initial, initial, initial; background-clip: initial, initial, initial; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">longest government shutdown</a> in America’s history, President Donald Trump rode in a motorcade through Hidalgo County, Texas, eventually stopping on a grassy bluff overlooking the Rio Grande. The White House wanted to dramatize what Trump was portraying as a national emergency: the need to build a wall along the Mexican border. The presence of armored vehicles, bales of confiscated marijuana, and federal agents in flak jackets underscored the message.But the photo op dramatized something else about the Administration. After members of the press pool got out of vans and headed over to where the President was about to speak, they noticed that <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/tag/sean-hannity" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; background-attachment: initial, initial, initial; background-origin: initial, initial, initial; background-clip: initial, initial, initial; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Sean Hannity</a>, the Fox News host, was already on location. Unlike them, he hadn’t been confined by the Secret Service, and was mingling with Administration officials, at one point hugging <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/tag/Kirstjen-Nielsen" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; background-attachment: initial, initial, initial; background-origin: initial, initial, initial; background-clip: initial, initial, initial; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Kirstjen Nielsen</a>, the Secretary of Homeland Security. The pool report noted that Hannity was seen “huddling” with the White House communications director, Bill Shine. After the photo op, Hannity had an exclusive on-air interview with Trump. Politico later <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/27/trump-kim-summit-2019-1193122" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; background-attachment: initial, initial, initial; background-origin: initial, initial, initial; background-clip: initial, initial, initial; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">reported</a> that it was Hannity’s seventh interview with the President, and Fox’s forty-second. Since then, Trump has given Fox two more. He has granted only ten to the three other main television networks combined, and none to CNN, which he denounces as “fake news.”Hannity was treated in Texas like a member of the Administration because he virtually is one. The same can be said of Fox’s chairman, <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/tag/rupert-murdoch" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; background-attachment: initial, initial, initial; background-origin: initial, initial, initial; background-clip: initial, initial, initial; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Rupert Murdoch</a>. Fox has long been a bane of liberals, but in the past two years many people who watch the network closely, including some Fox alumni, say that it has evolved into something that hasn’t existed before in the United States. Nicole Hemmer, an assistant professor of Presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center and the author of “Messengers of the Right,” a history of the conservative media’s impact on American politics, says of Fox, “It’s the closest we’ve come to having state TV.”Hemmer argues that Fox—which, as the most watched cable news network, generates about $2.7 billion a year for its parent company, 21st Century Fox—acts as a force multiplier for Trump, solidifying his hold over the Republican Party and intensifying his support. “Fox is not just taking the temperature of the base—it’s raising the temperature,” she says. “It’s a radicalization model.” For both Trump and Fox, “fear is a business strategy—it keeps people watching.” As the President has been beset by scandals, congressional hearings, and even talk of impeachment, Fox has been both his shield and his sword. The White House and Fox interact so seamlessly that it can be hard to determine, during a particular news cycle, which one is following the other’s lead. All day long, Trump retweets claims made on the network; his press secretary, <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/24/sarah-huckabee-sanders-trumps-battering-ram" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; background-attachment: initial, initial, initial; background-origin: initial, initial, initial; background-clip: initial, initial, initial; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Sarah Sanders</a>, has largely stopped holding press conferences, but she has made some thirty appearances on such shows as “<a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/how-fox-and-friends-rewrites-trumps-reality" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; background-attachment: initial, initial, initial; background-origin: initial, initial, initial; background-clip: initial, initial, initial; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Fox & Friends</a>” and “Hannity.” Trump, Hemmer says, has “almost become a programmer.”Fox’s defenders view such criticism as unfounded and politically biased. Ken LaCorte, who was in senior management at Fox News for nearly twenty years, until 2016, and recently started his own news service, told me, “The people at Fox said the same thing about the press and Obama.” Fox’s public-relations department offers numerous examples of its reporters and talk-show hosts challenging the Administration. Chris Wallace, a tough-minded and ecumenical interviewer, recently grilled <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/tag/stephen-miller" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; background-attachment: initial, initial, initial; background-origin: initial, initial, initial; background-clip: initial, initial, initial; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Stephen Miller</a>, a senior Trump adviser, on the need for a border wall, given that virtually all drugs seized at the border are discovered at checkpoints. Trump is not the first President to have a favorite media organization; James Madison and Andrew Jackson were each boosted by partisan newspapers. But many people who have watched and worked with Fox over the years, including some leading conservatives, regard Fox’s deepening Trump orthodoxy with alarm. <a class="ArticleBodylink1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/bill-kristol-wanders-the-wilderness-of-trump-world" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; background-attachment: initial, initial, initial; background-origin: initial, initial, initial; background-clip: initial, initial, initial; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Bill Kristol</a>, who was a paid contributor to Fox News until 2012 and is a prominent Never Trumper, said of the network, “It’s changed a lot. Before, it was conservative, but it wasn’t crazy. Now it’s just propaganda.” Joe Peyronnin, a professor of journalism at N.Y.U., was an early president of Fox News, in the mid-nineties. “I’ve never seen anything like it before,” he says of Fox. “It’s as if the President had his own press organization. It’s not healthy.”</div><div class="SectionBreak SectionBreaksectionBreak1ppA7" style="box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision;">Nothing has formalized the partnership between Fox and Trump more than the appointment, in July, 2018, of Bill Shine, the former co-president of Fox News, as director of communications and deputy chief of staff at the White House. Kristol says of Shine, “When I first met him, he was producing Hannity’s show at Fox, and the two were incredibly close.” Both come from white working-class families on Long Island, and they are so close to each other’s children that they are referred to as “Uncle Bill” and “Uncle Sean.” Another former colleague says, “They spend their vacations together.” A third recalls, “I was rarely in Shine’s office when Sean didn’t call. And I was in Shine’s office a lot. They talked all the time—many times a day.”Shine led Fox News’ programming division for a dozen years, overseeing the morning and evening opinion shows, which collectively get the biggest ratings and define the network’s conservative brand. Straight news was not within his purview. In July, 2016, <a class="ArticleBodylink_1FS03" href="https://www.newyorker.com/tag/roger-ailes" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255), rgb(255, 255, 255)), linear-gradient(rgb(0, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-position: 0px 87%, 100% 87%, 0px 92%; background-size: 0.05em 1px, 0.05em 1px, 1px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x; background-attachment: initial, initial, initial; background-origin: initial, initial, initial; background-clip: initial, initial, initial; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: geometricprecision; text-decoration-line: none; margin-left: 1px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 2px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 0px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -3px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;">Roger Ailes</a>, the co-founder and C.E.O. of Fox, was fired in the face of numerous allegations of chronic sexual harassment, and Shine became co-president. But within a year he, too, had been forced out, amid a second wave of sexual-harassment allegations, some of them against Fox’s biggest star at the time, Bill O’Reilly. Shine wasn’t personally accused of sexual harassment, but several lawsuits named him as complicit in a workplace culture of coverups, payoffs, and victim intimidation.Shine, who has denied any wrongdoing, has kept a low profile at the White House, and rejects interview requests, including one from this magazine. But Kristol contends that Shine’s White House appointment is a scandal. “It’s been wildly under-covered,” he said. “It’s astounding that Shine—the guy who covered up Ailes’s horrible behavior—is the deputy chief of staff!”...</div><div style="text-align: left;">=</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/here-are-5-of-the-craziest-revelations-from-the-new-yorkers-expose-of-fox-news-influence-on-trump/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/here-are-5-of-the-craziest-revelations-from-the-new-yorkers-expose-of-fox-news-influence-on-trump/</a></div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div>Monday, The New Yorker published Jane Mayer’s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house/amp?twitter_impression=true" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">stunning exposé</a> into how Fox News, always a right-wing network, has morphed into an overt propaganda instrument of President Donald Trump’s White House, and how the symbiotic relationship between the president and Fox’s billionaire international news mogul owner Rupert Murdoch has effectively created something that has never before existed in American politics.<div class="p1_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">To some degree, the article covers ground that has long been known or suspected — the way that Trump’s policy decisions on everything from the <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/why-fox-news-made-trump-shut-down-the-government.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">federal government shutdown</a> to the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/07/26/is-trumps-transgender-ban-linked-to-tucker-carlsons-spurious-claims-on-child-abuse/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">transgender military ban</a> are informed by his daily binge-watching of Fox talk shows; how former Fox executive Bill Shine has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/07/foxification-trump-white-house-visualized/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">blurred the Fox and White House payrolls</a> since being hired as Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff; and how Fox itself has discarded the few journalistic guardrails it had during President Barack Obama’s years, with hosts like Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs now free to openly join political rallies and offer advice to the president.<div class="p2_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But there are some new, mind-blowing revelations in Mayer’s article. Here are five of the most significant:<div class="p3_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Trump ranks reporters on a scale of 1 to 10 for their “loyalty” to him — and Steve Doocy is a 12.</li></ol>Trump is well known for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/reliable-source/wp/2017/09/25/from-angelina-jolie-to-kim-k-how-donald-trump-rates-women-in-new-howard-stern-tapes/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">assigning numbers to women</a> based on how attractive he thinks they are. But according to Mayer’s reporting, he does the same thing for reporters based on how loyal he thinks they are to him. “Bret Baier, Fox News’ chief political anchor, is a 6; Hannity a solid 10. Steve Doocy, the co-host of ‘Fox & Friends,’ is so adoring that Trump gives him a 12.”<div class="p4_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Needless to say, this is a dangerous development. Trump has a track record of rewarding and punishing reporters based on his whims. During the presidential transition, he <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/313898-ap-breitbart-had-front-row-seat-at-trump-presser" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reserved a seat at a press conference</a> for a Breitbart reporter. And last year, Trump <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/media/trump-cnn-press-conference/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">suspended</a> the press pass of CNN’s Jim Acosta after he challenged the president’s claims on special counsel Robert Mueller and the Honduran migrant caravan. He later relented after one of his own judicial appointees <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2018/11/judge-rules-white-house-must-reinstate-jim-acostas-press-pass-now/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">ordered</a> him to restore Acosta’s credentials.<div class="p5_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol start="2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Jared Kushner is effectively Rupert Murdoch’s direct pipeline to the White House.</li></ol>Despite having <a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/how-these-seemingly-unqualified-people-scored-powerful-jobs.html/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">essentially no qualifications</a> for any of it, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has worn numerous hats in the administration, from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/world/americas/kushner-mexico-president-diplomacy.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">meeting with foreign heads of state</a> to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-kushner-tries-to-win-support-for-peace-plan-in-arab-world-inflames-israeli-right-1.6980369" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">working on the Middle East peace plan</a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/28/15075416/kushner-solve-opioid-crisis" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">fixing the opioid epidemic</a> — and Trump trusts him enough to have <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/trump-reportedly-overruled-white-house-officials-to-grant-his-son-in-law-a-top-secret-clearance-and-tried-to-cover-it-up/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">overridden intelligence officials</a> to give him a top-secret security clearance.<div class="p6_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One other person who trusts him, according to Mayer’s article, is Murdoch. In fact, Kushner may be Murdoch’s most direct liaison with the Trump administration.<div class="p7_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sources told The New Yorker that Kushner routinely asks Murdoch for advice, has “assured Murdoch that the White House is a smooth-running operation, despite many reports suggesting that it is chaotic,” and that the two of them communicate “Like, every day.” Given that the White House has given Kushner such a massive portfolio of responsibility and trust, Murdoch’s relationship with Kushner is likely one of the biggest influences he has on the executive branch.<div class="p8_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol start="3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Roger Ailes allegedly fed Trump questions before the GOP debates.</li></ol>During the presidential election, it was reported that former Fox News host Megyn Kelly — who famously tried to question Trump on his treatment of women at the GOP debates only to have Trump <a href="https://nypost.com/2015/08/08/trump-megyn-kelly-had-blood-coming-out-of-her-wherever/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">dismiss her as on her period</a> — <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/305534-megyn-kelly-trump-got-debate-question-in-advance" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">asserted</a> that Trump had help with the debate questions ahead of time. She later denied saying or believing this — but Mayer’s reporting now backs up this idea:<div class="p9_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;">A pair of Fox insiders and a source close to Trump believe that Ailes informed the Trump campaign about Kelly’s question. Two of those sources say that they know of the tipoff from a purported eyewitness. In addition, a former Trump campaign aide says that a Fox contact gave him advance notice of a different debate question, which asked the candidates whether they would support the Republican nominee, regardless of who won.<div class="p10_20" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote>It is hard to know whether this claim is accurate, as Ailes is deceased and contemporary reporting suggested that Fox was not yet in Trump’s orbit at that point of the Republican cycle. But if true, this would be highly damning — especially considering Trump asserted that the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/donna-brazile-finally-admits-she-shared-debate-questions-with-clinton-campaign" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">incident</a> where former Democratic National Committee Chief Donna Brazile gave Hillary Clinton CNN questions ahead of time proved the network was “a total fake.”<div class="p11_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol start="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none;"><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Fox News uncovered the Stormy Daniels scandal during the election — but buried the story and retaliated against the reporter who found it.</li></ol>The revelation that Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen made an illegal hush payment to silence an affair between Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels, first reported in January 2018 by the Wall Street Journal, was a huge story that led to a massive federal investigation, jail time, and congressional investigations.<div class="p12_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But all of it could have come out much sooner — because as Mayer reports, Fox News had the story during the 2016 presidential election, killed it, and may have retaliated against Diana Falzone, the reporter who uncovered it:<div class="p13_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;">Falzone had worked on the story since March, and by October she had confirmed it with Daniels through her manager at the time, Gina Rodriguez, and with Daniels’s former husband, Mike Moz, who described multiple calls from Trump. Falzone had also amassed e-mails between Daniels’s attorney and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, detailing a proposed cash settlement, accompanied by a nondisclosure agreement. Falzone had even seen the contract.<div class="p14_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;">But Falzone’s story didn’t run—it kept being passed off from one editor to the next. After getting one noncommittal answer after another from her editors, Falzone at last heard from LaCorte, who was then the head of FoxNews.com. Falzone told colleagues that LaCorte said to her, “Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go.” LaCorte denies telling Falzone this, but one of Falzone’s colleagues confirms having heard her account at the time.<div class="p15_20" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote>According to The New Yorker, Fox then proceeded to demote Falzone, without explaining why. She later sued Fox, which settled the case and made her sign a nondisclosure agreement that prohibits her from discussing the details of her employment.<div class="p16_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol start="5" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Trump personally ordered an economic adviser to use antitrust lawsuits to attack Fox News’ competitors.</li></ol>The Justice Department’s opposition to the AT&T-Time Warner merger, which is cleared to go through after federal courts <a href="https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/u-s-appeals-court-rejects-justice-department-antitrust-challenge-to-at-t-time-warner-deal-11551194524" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">demolished</a> the antitrust lawsuit, has always seemed legally suspicious — indeed, one of the reasons judges rejected it is that AT&T put forward <a href="https://twitter.com/hadas_gold/status/1102547204991057920?s=21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">compelling evidence</a> that Trump personally wanted to kill the deal to harm CNN.<div class="p17_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to Mayer’s reporting, that’s exactly what was going on. Trump ordered his then-economic adviser Gary Cohn to pressure the Justice Department to block the merger — something Cohn refused to do, but which the department eventually followed through with. Trump showed <a href="https://twitter.com/hadas_gold/status/1102525899407347713?s=21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">no such anti-corporate sentiment</a> with Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox, a deal of similar scope but which would benefit Murdoch financially.<div class="p18_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This development also puts the Federal Communications Commission’s unexpected decision last year to kill the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s merger with Tribune Media, which was arguably <a href="https://www.alternet.org/sinclair-broadcast-group-tribune-merger-officially-dead" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">good for the local news market</a>, in a more sinister light: that merger could have strengthened Fox’s biggest competitor in conservative television broadcasting.<div class="p19_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Antitrust law is a powerful pro-consumer tool when applied fairly and equitably, but in the hands of someone like Trump, it can also be used to chill freedom of the press by rewarding and punishing news organizations.
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">=</div>

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/james-okeefe-stings-himselfOn March 16th, a man who said his name was Victor left a voice message at

the offices of the Open Society Foundations, which are funded by George

Soros, saying that he was a potential donor. Then, he forgot to hang up

the phone, and the machine recorded “Victor” and his staff describing

what sounded like an entrapment scheme. This week, James O’Keefe, the

conservative activist who has used undercover videos to try to

embarrass Planned Parenthood, NPR, and ACORN, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/james-okeefe-accidentally-stings-himself">admitted that he was the caller</a> and

apologized to his supporters for the failed operation. On “The New

Yorker Radio Hour,” the staff writer Jane Mayer goes through the

voice-mail recording to see what it tells us about O’Keefe’s methods and

the scope of his ambitions.===

<h2 class="briefcitTitle" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://cruzcat.ucsc.edu/search%7ES5?/amayer%2C+jane/amayer+jane/1%2C2%2C5%2CB/frameset&FF=amayer+jane&1%2C%2C3/indexsort=-">Dark side : the inside story of how the war on terror turned into a war on American ideals</a></h2>

<div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Mayer, Jane.</div><div style="text-align: left;">New York : Doubleday, [2008]</div><div class="briefcitItems"><div class="briefcitItemsHeader"><div class="briefcitItemsMain"><table id="bib_items" class="bibItems" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" width="100%"><tbody><tr class="bibItemsEntry"><td width="32%"> <a href="http://library.ucsc.edu/locations/mch-stacks" target="_blank">McH Stacks</a></td><td width="40%"> <a href="http://cruzcat.ucsc.edu/search%7ES5?/cHV6432+.M383+2008/chv+6432+m383+2008/-3,-1,,E/browse">HV6432 .M383 2008</a>  </td></tr></tbody></table>

</div>

===

<div class="GGD0W3FBGU"><div style="text-align: left;">===</div><div style="text-align: left;">http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/01/19/jane-mayer-dark-money-book-koch-brothers-nypd-fbi</div>

The just-published book “<a target="_blank" href="http://goo.gl/VEDgrM">Dark Money</a>,” penned by New Yorker staff reporter Jane Mayer, reveals that the Koch Brothers hired the former commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD) — and his daughter, a former FBI agent — to smear her as a “plagiarist” in the months after the release of her August 2010 bombshell article on the Kochs.

That article, titled “<a target="blank" href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/covert-operations">Covert Operations</a>,” served at the time as one of the first in-depth pieces of long-form investigative journalism on David and Charles Koch and the influential right-wing political and <a target="blank" href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/climate-deniers/koch-industries/">climate change denial Tea Party network they had Frankensteined</a>. Mayer's book exposes that the Kochs hired the firm <a target="blank" href="http://vigilantresourcesinternational.com/who-we-are/">Vigilant Resources International</a>, run by former NYPD head <a target="blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Safir">Howard Safir</a> and his daughter <a target="_blank" href="http://vigilantresourcesinternational.com/former-special-agent-jennifer-safir-join-father-former-new-york-city-police-commissioner-howard-safir-vigilant-resources-international-vri-17-years-service-federal-burea/">Jennifer Safir (the former FBI special agent)</a>, to do dirty work on their behalf.

The story, as Mayer told it in “Dark Money,” began when she received a January 3, 2011 email from her New Yorker editor, David Remnick.

“In his e-mail,” to me, Mayer wrote, “Remnick explained that ten minutes earlier he’d received a baffling inquiry about me from Keith Kelly, the reporter who covered the media industry for the New York Post.”

Remnick's query centered around accusations — most likely emanating from somewhere within Koch World and handed to the New York Post and other outlets — that Mayer's journalistic track record, according to their research, was rife with plagiarism. The main issue: it wasn't in the slightest. Mayer has impeccable journalism credentials.

That didn't stop the witch hunt from proceeding and nearly reaching take off mode, though.

<h3 style="text-align: left;">Smear Appears</h3>

With or without real evidence, the point of the covert campaign was not to find genuine evidence of plagiarism, but rather a classic case of attacking the messenger.

“Their aim, according to a well-informed source, was to counteract The New Yorker’s story on the Koch brothers by undermining me,” wrote Mayer. “'Dirt, dirt, dirt' is what the source later told me they were digging for in my life. 'If they couldn’t find it, they’d create it.'”

Vigilant Resources International, “Dark Money” details, got a retainer fee to help the effort along according to sources who spoke to Mayer on the condition of anonymity.

“VRI’s Threat, Risk and Vulnerability Assessments focus on safety and value and address a full spectrum of physical security, integrity, intellectual property and other operational risks,” VRI explains of its work on its website.

VRI goes on to explain of its business conduct:

We provide our findings and prioritized recommendations as actionable 'blueprints' for what should promptly and continuously be addressed to drive the best outcomes in risk management, crisis prevention and mitigation for each facility assessed. Our findings, recommendations and plans comport with applicable regulatory requirements and present industry best practices that are custom-tailored to the unique organizational structure, culture, profile and operations of each client.

</blockquote>

After receiving initial contact from the New York Post, Mayer also got what she described in her book as a more alarming plagiarism query from the right-wing news website The Daily Caller, along with more benign ones from The Washington Post, ThinkProgress and a couple others. The Washington Post and ThinkProgress denied plagiarism victimhood, however, as did two other outlets not named by Mayer in the book.

“Paul Kane, a reporter at The Washington Post, quickly looked up the story in question and sent me an e-mail saying, 'Not only did you not steal from me, you Frickin’ credited me in the VERY NEXT line,'” Mayer explains in “Dark Money.” “The New Yorker had even linked to his story online. And, I later learned, my husband, who was then an editor at The Washington Post, had edited the story that I supposedly stole.”

Lee Fang, now a reporter at The Intercept and formerly a blogger for ThinkProgress, similarly denied the copyright infringement accusation.

“Ms. Mayer properly credited me in her story, and clearly did a ton of her own research,” <a target="_blank" href="http://nypost.com/2011/01/05/smear-disappears/">Fang declared in a January 2011 statement</a> provided to the New York Post. “I have nothing but admiration for her integrity as a journalist.”

<h3 style="text-align: left;">Smear Disappears</h3>

Mayer killed the smear campaign before it gained any momentum or press time, however, mostly due to deft handling of the situation before it spun out of control and developed a life of its own.

“With only a few hours before these allegations were set to go online, all I could do was to try to get out the truth before the lies were spread,” Mayer explained of how she management of accusations. “By midnight, I had reached three of the four authors from whom I was alleged to have plagiarized. All offered to make public statements supporting me and denying I had misappropriated their work.”

Most importantly, Mayer had the truth on her side. The allegations? Tantamount to a ruse, as she laid out in the book:

Someone, probably using a computer program, had mechanically sifted through almost a decade of my work and isolated quotations from officials, and other widely repeated phrases, to argue that 'the structure and wording' were 'quite close' to four other reporters’ news stories. None of the supposedly purloined sentences were of any particular significance…Even sillier, in two of the four stories I was alleged to have 'plagiarized,' I had specifically given credit to the authors whose work The Daily Caller was claiming I'd stolen.

</blockquote>

Rather than plagiarism becoming the story, then, the genesis of how the smear campaign appeared and subsequently disappeared was picked up by the likes of the <a target="blank" href="http://nypost.com/2011/01/05/smear-disappears/">New York Post</a>, <a target="blank" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mystery-reporters-plagiarism-smear-plot-against-the-new-yorker-collapses-2011-1">Business Insider</a> and <a target="blank" href="http://www.salon.com/2011/01/06/jane_mayer_smears/">Salon</a>. At the heart of that campaign was The Daily Caller, an alternative right-wing version of The Huffington Post founded by <a target="blank" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tucker_Carlson">Tucker Carlson</a>, the former MSNBC host and senior fellow at the Koch-founded and Koch-funded <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Cato_Institute">Cato Institute</a>.

“In the end, even the Daily Caller found the allegations to be unfounded, and to its credit, abandoned the story,” <a target="_blank" href="http://nypost.com/2011/01/05/smear-disappears/">wrote the New York Post</a>. “The story is dead but the person or persons behind the allegations remains a shadowy mystery.”

Tucker Carlson proclaimed cluelessness as to how his publication was tipped off to the so-called story to begin with.

“I never ask the reporters where they get stuff, only whether it’s true,” he told the New York Post. “In this case, we didn’t have enough.”

Safir and VRI did not confirm or deny any retainer ties to the effort, Mayer reported in the book.

A source told Mayer that <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Nancy_Pfotenhauer">Nancy Pfotenhauer</a> — former head of Koch front group Americans for Prosperity and Citizens for a Sound Economy, as well as former Koch Industries lobbying in Washington, DC and senior adviser to U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — served as one of several ringleaders of the effort.

Koch Industries already <a target="blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/12/koch-industries-disputes-books-account-of-founders-role-in-building-a-nazi-refinery/?r=0">came out swinging</a> in advance of the book's publication, responding to an advanced review by New York Times reporter Nicholas Confessore by accusing Mayer of working to “further an agenda-driven story line [that] is grossly inaccurate.”

The Daily Caller abandoned an attempt to accuse the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer of plagiarism, including in her comprehensive expose of Koch Industries. Tucker Carlson, who runs the Daily Caller, is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, which has received over $5.5 million from Koch foundations since 1997. Charles Koch co-founded Cato, and Cato’s directors include David Koch and Kevin Gentry of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.

<div style="text-align: left;"> Koch hired her to do hit job on Mayer, J <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/03/03/147953/bloggers-kneel-to-koch/" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/03/03/147953/bloggers-kneel-to-koch/</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div>

Nancy Pfotenhauer, President of PR firm MediaSpeak Strategies, TV pundit and former Senior Policy Advisor and spokesperson for the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign.

Cain rebut; <a href="http://www.kochfacts.com/kf/janemayernewyorker/">http://www.kochfacts.com/kf/janemayernewyorker/</a>

Last August, Jane Mayer wrote a l<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer" target="_blank" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">ong investigative article</a> in The New Yorker about the Koch brothers, the conservative billionaires who bankroll a host of right-wing causes. Since then, she's apparently become the victim of a disturbing, organized smear campaign.

Mayer, who's reported extensively on America's use of torture during the "War on Terror" and co-authored books on Clarence Thomas and Ronald Reagan, is certainly no stranger to peals of right-wing outrage. But her work on the reclusive Koch brothers (whose official objections to the story are <a href="http://www.kochind.com/files/Response%20to%20The%20New%20Yorker.pdf" target="_blank" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">laid out in this letter</a>) seems to have raised it to a new level. Sources tell us that rumors have been circulating for some time now that a private investigator was hired to dig up dirt on Mayer in the wake of the Koch brothers story. (Dirty business, but that sort of thing <a href="http://gawker.com/5056258/who-hired-this-private-eye-to-investigate-me" x-inset="1" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">does happen.</a>)

<div class="referenced-item" data-inset-id="1558311972" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[david carr investgated?</div>

</div>

</aside>

<p data-textannotation-id="fdaa2bdaa964c49256becb756f14a921" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; word-break: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nothing's been confirmed so far. But the circumstantial evidence does seem indicate that someone out there is planting (weak) negative stories about Mayer with any news outlet who might take them. There have been at least three efforts so far:

<li data-textannotation-id="d97ca76dfb0c81c4558bfc007733ee42" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.125rem;">The Washington Examiner (which <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/new-yorker-s-shameful-attack-conservative-philanthropists-charles-and-davi" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">editorialized</a> <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/examiner-opinion-zone/defense-koch-and-opportunity" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">extensively</a> <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/left039s-double-standard-kochs-and-soros" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">against</a> Mayer's Koch brothers piece) did research trying to turn up evidence of Mayer's political partisanship; they apparently <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/search/apachesolr_search/Jane%20Mayer?filters=created%3A[2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z%20TO%202011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z]" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">didn't find anything</a> worth reporting.</li>

<li data-textannotation-id="6b69e9f2e2a3b345cc400bdc44faaecc" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.125rem;">Elaine Lafferty wrote <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-10/billionaire-david-koch-fires-back-at-the-new-yorker/?cid=tag:all1" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">a pro-Koch response</a> to Mayer's story in The Daily Beast, complete with friendly quotes from David Koch—who was unwilling to speak with Mayer herself. TDB later added an <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-10/billionaire-david-koch-fires-back-at-the-new-yorker/2/" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">editor's note</a> to the story admitting, among other things, that they "should have noted that the writer who interviewed Koch had been a consultant for the McCain/Palin campaign."</li>

<li data-textannotation-id="ed8a302e5169938ab02ee0b6c2828225" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.125rem;">And today, <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/smear_disappears_Xs7WqA7cghZ3IWtmyDg7rO" target="_blank" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Keith Kelly reports</a>on a third incident: The Daily Caller spent "several weeks" investigating a story that Mayer plagiarized work in her Koch brothers article, and in another story years ago. They found no evidence, and now they've dropped the story.</li>

</ul>

<p data-textannotation-id="713f0c407039e88145618c7ffd4d02f2" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; word-break: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Who is behind the apparently concerted campaign to smear The New Yorker's Jane Mayer?" Kelly asks, rhetorically. It doesn't take a great investigative journalist to draw up a short list of prime suspects. Scrutiny of reporters' work is fine, but hiring P.I.'s for political-style opposition research and trying to plant false stories is a mark of unscrupulous desperation. After three whiffs, will any more media outlets take the bait against Mayer? We'll be watching!

Any reporters out there know more about the smear campaign against Jane Mayer? <a href="mailto:hamilton@gawker.com" data-ls-seen="1" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Email me.</a>Anonymity guaranteed.

http://gawker.com/5725466/the-desperate-campaign-to-discredit-jane-mayer

==

dark side fora 09 http://fora.tv/2009/07/01/The_Dark_Side_Jane_Mayer/Jane_Mayer_SERE_Program_Built_Curriculum_for_Tortureno link imghttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/1/13/1469288/--Koch-Propaganda-Machine-Tries-Unsuccessfully-to-Discredit-Jane-Mayer-again
Koch Propaganda Machine Tries Unsuccessfully to Discredit Jane Mayer (again!)
By WeAreKochs  
Wednesday Jan 13, 2016 · 9:07 AM PSTWho is criticizing Jane Mayer's reporting on the Koch Brothers? The usual Koch defenders, of course!
After Jane Mayer’s revelations that “Father of Koch Brothers Helped Build Nazi Oil Refinery, Book Says” hit the New York Times, the Koch propaganda machine spun into action—with the predictable rhythm of a Nazi oil refinery!  First, the company posted a lengthy corporate rebuttal that a journalist described on Twitter as a “non-denial denial” (which didn’t even address the allegation that Charles and David Koch tried to blackmail their own brother); then, some of the same Koch-funded and supported media outlets that spread FUD on climate change have mobilized with misleading defenses of the Kochs.  Fortunately, we and others have called the propagandists out for their obvious bias for their benefactors.
John Hinderaker posted the following story to his blog (Powerline Blog) and on Twitter:
 Follow John Hinderaker @jhinderakerJane Mayer and NY Times dive into the gutter to attack Koch Industries falsely. Disgusting journalism: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/01/jane-mayer-and-the-new-york-times-dive-into-the-gutter.php … @powerlineus5:31 PM - 12 Jan 2016  18 18 Retweets   8 8 likes Our response:
 Follow WeAreKochs @WeAreKochsShill Alert: "Blogger From Koch’s Law Firm Defends #Koch, Doesn’t Disclose Ties" http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/03/03/147953/bloggers-kneel-to-koch/ … https://twitter.com/jhinderaker/status/687084496072478720 …3:06 AM - 13 Jan 2016Blogger From Koch’s Law Firm Defends Koch, Doesn’t Disclose Ties — ThinkProgressBy Lee Fang Fighting back against public scrutiny, Koch Industries is relying on a small army of conservative bloggers, reporters, and lobbyists. Chief am…thinkprogress.org  5 5 Retweets   2 2 likesThe Daily Caller ran a story entitled “The NY Times’ Koch-Nazi Connection Has More Holes Than The French Navy”, prompting a comment (which we are unable to independently verify) from Connor Gibson:Did you really just downplay the importance of one of HItler's major refineries being built a few years before he invaded the rest of Europe? As if fuel wasn't an absolutely critical piece of infrastructure in that regard?The Daily Caller News Foundation has taken payments from Koch for the last several years, maybe your editor didn't tell you, or maybe DC doesn't bother to pretend it follows standards of journalism.You defend him every time he, his company or his political activity is criticized. It's this strange combination of sad and amusing. Is your career fulfilling, shilling and defending the world's fifth richest men?
What is it about the Daily Caller's inability to disclosure that it is funded by Charles Koch? And why can't DC seem to not speak up in Koch's defense at every opportunity? You behave like consultants, not reporters. Way to go.The Daily Caller News Foundation also happens to be listed as a “Partner Organization” of the Charles Koch Institute.
Just a reminder:“The best defense against bullshit Is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something!” — Jon Stewart
Even without seeing an advance copy, we highly recommend that Daily Kos readers read Jane Mayer’s new book “Dark Money”—the source the New York Times credits for the allegations in this article.  Mayer’s 2010 article “Covert Operations” is widely credited as the first in-depth investigative reporting on the Koch political network.  It prompted what Gawker reported to be a “Desperate Campaign to Discredit Jane Mayer”.  Allegations such as that a “private investigator was hired to dig up dirt on Mayer in the wake of the Koch brothers story” have had a chilling effect on coverage of the Kochs, and are one of the reasons that none of our members are willing to reveal their offline identities.  We salute Jane Mayer’s courage!
Wednesday, Jan 13, 2016 · 1:21:22 PM PST · WeAreKochsThere’s more:
 Follow Ian Tuttle ? @iptuttleThe @nytimes splashed the Koch Bros/Nazi news -- w/o disclosing its personal tie to the story. @NRO: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/429724/koch-brothers-nazis-new-york-times-bias …11:29 AM - 13 Jan 2016Photo published for The Deleterious Effects of Koch Addiction (UPDATED), by Ian Tuttle, National ReviewThe Deleterious Effects of Koch Addiction (UPDATED), by Ian Tuttle, National ReviewIn response to "Harry Reid, Call Your Office."nationalreview.com  Retweets   likes Follow WeAreKochs @WeAreKochsLOL ironic that @iptuttle didn't disclose National Review Institute's #Koch Foundation ties. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/climate-deniers/front-groups/national-review-institute/ … https://twitter.com/iptuttle/status/687355788248133632 …12:11 PM - 13 Jan 2016National Review Institute - Greenpeace USAThe National Review Institute received $10,000 from Koch foundations in 2011. The National Review frequently publishes Koch-funded climate change deniers.greenpeace.org  1 1 Retweet   likesWednesday, Jan 13, 2016 · 4:13:21 PM PST · WeAreKochs
And more.  Mark Hemingway at The Weekly Standard just wrote an article with the ironic title: “New Yorker Reporter Attacks Koch Bros., Fails to Disclose Conflicts of Interest”.  The title is ironic because Mr. Heminway’s own bio states:
He was the recipient of a Gold Award journalism fellowship from the Phillips Foundation in 2003 and was a Global Prosperity Initiative fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in 2003 and 2004. 
Guess who donated $25,000, in 2003, to the Phillips Foundation for "General Operating Support"?  Koch Family Foundations!
Charles Koch, himself, is on the board of directors at the The Mercatus Center.  The Charles G. Koch Foundation directly gave $8.8 million to the Mercatus Center between 2002 and 2012.
The Weekly Standard has previously been criticized by ThinkProgress for its ties to the Kochs.
NOTE: It appears the author did disclose his own personal potential conflicts, but The Weekly Standard hid the disclosure behind a second button click (with no other content).  That means many readers (including us, in our first few reads) were unlikely to see it.  A full update to that effect has been included later, when we discovered its existence.
Wednesday, Jan 13, 2016 · 4:25:14 PM PST · WeAreKochs
It seems that the "Blogger From Koch’s Law Firm [Who] Defends Koch, Doesn’t Disclose Ties", John Hinderaker, is back with another hit piece entitled “Jane Mayer: World’s Worst Hypocrite?”.
Thursday, Jan 14, 2016 · 9:48:26 AM PST · WeAreKochsAnd so it continues:
 Follow Phil Kerpen ? @kerpen
NYT "running dubious advertorials to goose book sales for the wife of one of their top editors." http://www.weeklystandard.com/new-york-times-reporter-attacks-koch-bros.-fails-to-disclose-conflicts-of-interest/article/2000558#.Vpbjq8LNJ8w.twitter …8:42 PM - 13 Jan 2016Photo published for New York Times Reporter Attacks Koch Bros., Fails to Disclose Conflicts of InterestNew York Times Reporter Attacks Koch Bros., Fails to Disclose Conflicts of InterestIn 2011, Jane Mayer of the New Yorker published, Covert Operations, an article that purported to expose the well-known fact the Koch Brothers were financially supporting a lot of libertarian and...weeklystandard.com  6 6 Retweets   3 3 likes Follow WeAreKochs @WeAreKochs.@AmerComm is #DarkMoney org w/#Koch ties. Phil (it's prez) has reason not to like the book http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Commitment#Ties_to_the_Koch_Brothers … https://twitter.com/kerpen/status/687494981213356032 …8:46 AM - 14 Jan 2016  1 1 Retweet   likesThursday, Jan 14, 2016 · 10:36:53 AM PST · WeAreKochsMore from The Weekly Standard:
 Follow The Weekly Standard ? @weeklystandard
New Yorker's Jane Mayer Tipped Off Hillary Clinton to Unpublished NYT Story http://tws.io/1PtSjsm 8:34 AM - 14 Jan 2016Photo published for New Yorker's Jane Mayer Tipped Off Hillary Clinton to Unpublished NYT StoryNew Yorker's Jane Mayer Tipped Off Hillary Clinton to Unpublished NYT StoryOn Wednesday, I noted that the New York Times had heaped a lot of favorable coverage upon New Yorker writer Jane Mayer’s new book on the Koch brothers, despite the fact that the coverage was unfair...weeklystandard.com  11 11 Retweets   12 12 likes For context:
12 Jan Brian Faughnan @BrianFaughnan@senatorshoshana Exactly. But change IS inevitable and you have to anticipate, shape it.http://www.kochind.com/MBM/guiding_principles.aspx … Follow Shoshana Weissmann ? @senatorshoshana@BrianFaughnan I love my Koch baes. I totally know what you mean6:51 AM - 12 Jan 2016  Retweets   likesShoshana Weissman’s twitter bio says that she manages Social for The Weekly Standard!  “Bae” is a term of endearment, sometimes defined as slang for “before anyone else,” for those unaware.  As it relates to the Kochs, we prefer the Danish definition: “poop.”
 Follow WeAreKochs @WeAreKochsIn case you need context for what The Weekly Standard and its Social Media Manager tweet about Jane Mayer and #Koch. https://twitter.com/senatorshoshana/status/686923522430627841 …9:29 AM - 14 Jan 2016  Retweets   likesAlso note that this Weekly Standard article is by the same author, Mark Hemingway, that we previously wrote about…
Thursday, Jan 14, 2016 · 1:19:26 PM PST · WeAreKochsAnd it continues:
14 Jan Kevin R Kosar @kevinrkosar@MikeLeePearl Perhaps of interest: http://www.weeklystandard.com/new-yorker-reporter-attacks-koch-bros.-fails-to-disclose-conflicts-of-interest/article/2000558 … Follow WeAreKochs @WeAreKochs@kevinrkosar @MikeLeePearl The Weekly Standard author has a Koch-conflict of his own, as do many Jane Mayer critics: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/13/1469288/--Koch-Propaganda-Machine-Tries-Unsuccessfully-to-Discredit-Jane-Mayer-again#update-1452726801000 …12:06 PM - 14 Jan 2016Photo published for Koch Propaganda Machine Tries Unsuccessfully to Discredit Jane Mayer (again!)Koch Propaganda Machine Tries Unsuccessfully to Discredit Jane Mayer (again!)After Jane Mayer’s revelations that “Father of Koch Brothers Helped Build Nazi Oil Refinery, Book Says” hit the New York Times, the Koch propaganda machine spun into action—with the predictable rhy...dailykos.com  Retweets   1 1 likeIn fact, Kevin R Kosar is a Senior Fellow at the R Street Institute. According to a testimonial from Summer 2015 Koch Fellow John D’Ambrosio that is actually published on the Charles Koch Institute website:I was lucky enough to transition into the Koch Fellow Program. I gained extensive policy experience working at the R Street Institute in Washington, DC, where I researched disruptive technology policy, contributed to a nationally recognized research project, and wrote multiple policy blogs that were published on R Street’s website.In addition to employing Koch Fellows, R Street Institute is listed by SourceWatch as an “Associate Member” of the State Policy Network (SPN).  SourceWatch also alleges that:Fueled by robust funding from right-wing funders including the Koch brothers, the Bradley Foundation, the anonymous wealthy donors to the donor-advised funds of DonorsTrust, and others, SPN has grown rapidly in recent years.Thursday, Jan 14, 2016 · 1:31:46 PM PST · WeAreKochsThis speaks for itself:
 Follow Daniel McCoy @ICTBiz_dmccoyFor those interested in Jane Mayer's Nazi sympathizer assertion directed toward Koch, this is an interesting read http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/01/jane-mayer-worlds-worse-hypocrite.php …12:08 PM - 14 Jan 2016  2 2 Retweets   1 1 like Follow WeAreKochs @WeAreKochsWe're more interested in the "previous work" that "landed" you guys lunch with #CharlesKoch. http://gawker.com/how-to-land-an-interview-with-charles-koch-1532784919 … https://twitter.com/ICTBiz_dmccoy/status/687728128295321600 …12:30 PM - 14 Jan 2016Photo published for How to Land an Interview With Charles KochHow to Land an Interview With Charles KochEvil cartoon villain Charles Koch, one half of the Amazing Billionaire Koch Bros., does not give a lot of interviews. You can hardly find a photo of the guy. But one outlet has landed a coveted...gawker.com  Retweets   likesThursday, Jan 14, 2016 · 2:06:51 PM PST · WeAreKochsWorth mentioning that Mark Hemingway’s article on the Kochs is running with the following disclosure.  It is sneakily hidden by The Weekly Standard behind a 2nd button click with no other content.  We didn’t even see it on our first reads.  However, the placement on the site is probably not the author’s fault, and Mark Hemingway deserves a positive “shout out” for doing the right thing and offering a disclosure (even if the publication’s placement means people are unlikely to see it).
(Now for my own disclosure: Yes, I have worked for and been affiliated with a couple of organizations that have received Koch money. Suffice to say, this does not mean I agree with the Kochs on everything. At least progressives can be happy that President Obama finally came around to adopting the position on gay marriage that the Kochs held for decades prior.)Thursday, Jan 14, 2016 · 5:09:07 PM PST · WeAreKochsIt continues:
 Follow Tim Carney @TPCarneyInteresting:"New Yorker's Jane Mayer Tipped Off Hillary Clinton to Unpublished NYT Story" http://www.weeklystandard.com/new-yorkers-jane-mayer-tipped-off-hillary-clinton-to-unpublished-nyt-story/article/2000567 …8:52 AM - 14 Jan 2016Photo published for New Yorker's Jane Mayer Tipped Off Hillary Clinton to Unpublished NYT StoryNew Yorker's Jane Mayer Tipped Off Hillary Clinton to Unpublished NYT StoryOn Wednesday, I noted that the New York Times had heaped a lot of favorable coverage upon New Yorker writer Jane Mayer’s new book on the Koch brothers, despite the fact that the coverage was unfair...weeklystandard.com  7 7 Retweets   4 4 likes Follow WeAreKochs @WeAreKochs"Visiting Fellow, AEI"(Twitter bio). SW:[AEI] "received...$867,289...from...Koch Foundation" http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Enterprise_Institute#Ties_to_the_Koch_Brothers … https://twitter.com/TPCarney/status/687678697168596992 …4:02 PM - 14 Jan 2016  Retweets   likesThis is Tim Carney’s profile on the American Enterprise Institute website.  According to SourceWatch:David H. Koch is on the American Enterprise Institute's National Council, whose members "serve as ambassadors for AEI, providing AEI with advice, insight, and guidance as [it] looks to reach out to new friends across the country."
Between 2002 and 2013, the American Enterprise Institute received a total of $867,289 in funding from the Charles G. Koch Foundation.It looks like SourceWatch retrieved the AEI National Council page back in 2014.  Looking at the current National Council page, we are unable to locate David H. Koch’s name.
Thursday, Jan 14, 2016 · 7:16:37 PM PST · WeAreKochsYesterday (1/13), Rush Limbaugh weighed in on the story:
CALLER: The fact that ISIS doesn't hear Donald Trump.
RUSH:  Hey, that's nothing.  Have you heard...? Jane Mayer's got a book, and the New York Times picked it up.  Are you aware that the father of the Koch brothers built the third largest oil refine for the Nazis?
CALLER: "Oh, yeah.  What a great, quote/unquote, "recruitment tool."
RUSH:  Well, but the fact is he didn't! They're totally making this up.  They're making it up. As a reminder, even the official corporate statement did not accuse Jane Mayer of “making it up” and actually acknowledged that:Between 1928 and 1934, Winkler-Koch Engineering handled more than 500 projects.  Of these, 39 involved signed contracts to build cracking units.  One of those units was included in a refinery in the port area of Hamburg, Germany, built for Foreign Oil Co. of Boston.
…
Winkler-Koch’s contract with Foreign Oil was signed on Sept. 8, 1933, and the refinery became operational March 23, 1935. That signing was nearly six years before Germany invaded Poland.So, even the company response was essentially that they only built part of the refinery in Nazi Germany, and that it was before Hitler invaded Poland.To understand Rush Limbaugh’s over-enthusiastic defense of the Kochs, it might be helpful to note the the partially Koch-funded FreedomWorks allegedly was a sponsor of Rush Limbaugh’s in the past.  Politico’s Ken Vogel reported in 2014 on Limbaugh’s ties to FreedomWorks and the partially Koch-funded Heritage Foundation:Rush Limbaugh: The Heritage Foundation at the end of January ended its five-year sponsorship of El Rushbo’s show, for which it had paid more than $2 million in some years and more than $9.5 million overall. In 2012, FreedomWorks paid at least $1.4 million to make him an endorser, though it’s not clear that the sponsorship is ongoing.After the negative publicity those sponsorships received, it is possible that Koch-funded groups no longer have active relationships with Rush Limbaugh or his show.  But, he certainly indirectly benefited from the money that was flowing through the network of partially Koch-funded political groups in the past.
Friday, Jan 15, 2016 · 8:25:22 AM PST · WeAreKochsThe Weekly Standard has released a third anti-Mayer article entitled: “All In the Family”.  The byline of this article is merely “The Scrapbook,” so it is impossible to tell if the author has a Koch-connection.  Greenpeace previously called out The Weekly Standard and its owner, Clarity Media Group, for prior Koch defense stories and roles in the Koch-funded climate denial movement.  According to Greenpeace’s 2011 article:
Clarity Media Group has played a flagship role in standing up for the billionaire Kochs over the last year. Since the Aspen meeting, pro-Koch publications from both Examiner.com and theWeekly Standard have been featured on Koch Industries’ “Koch Facts” webpage, created to dismiss allegations of Koch’s various unsavory business practices. Clarity’s outlets also published articles attacking Greenpeace after our March, 2010 release of Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Movement.The Weekly Standard, which published a lengthy defense of the Koch brothers in March, 2011, has also been a promoter of so-called “climategate” emails. The magazine has served as a platform for prominent career climate skeptics Steven Hayward and Kenneth Green of the Koch-funded American Enterprise Institute (AEI).Friday, Jan 15, 2016 · 6:58:30 PM PST · WeAreKochsAnother local news outlet in Kansas allegedly came to the Kochs’ defense; this time with a somewhat misleading newscast.  KAKE, which, like the Wichita Business Journal, landed an exclusive interview with Charles Koch, allegedly aired the videos below.  Unlike the Koch interview, which appears on the KAKE website, these videos are only accessible because they was uploaded by a citizen to YouTube.  Therefore, they cannot be verified.The text “Koch-Hitler Connection Denied” and “Koch Denies Hitler Connection” appears on the screen during both mentions, and the narration is misleading.  One video addresses “sympathy” for the Nazi regime rather than the actual accusation that Fred Koch helped build part of a Nazi oil refinery (which the company’s official statement confirmed).  The second video characterizes the company’s statement as a blanket denial—which it clearly was not. Rachel Maddow had a more direct take on the company’s statement, as it relates to Jane Mayer’s actual allegation, below:Saturday, Jan 16, 2016 · 8:39:48 AM PST · WeAreKochsIt looks like we missed an article from The Washington Free Beacon entitled “Phalange-linked Paper Attacks Dead Father of Koch Brothers”.  The article is attributed only to the “Washington Free Beacon Staff”.
According to a 2011 story by Ken Vogel in Politico, called “The Kochs Fight Back”:The Kochs also took the Democratic attacks seriously, assembling a crisis communication team including consultants Michael Goldfarb...Michael Goldfarb is the founder of The Washington Free Beacon—and, according to the site’s About page, remains its Chairman.  Meanwhile, the Free Beacon’s current editor in chief, Matthew Continetti was the author of a 2011 “hagiography to Koch Brothers” while employed alongside Michael Goldfarb at The Weekly Standard.  ThinkProgress pointed out at the time:In over 8,000 words of hagiography, Continetti did not find space to disclose that his fellow opinion editor at the Weekly Standard, Michael Goldfarb, is currently employed by Koch Industries to help improve the company’s political image. Or that the Weekly Standard’s reporters routinely attend Koch’s secret political strategy and fundraising meetings. Or that Continetti had received a fellowship funded by the Phillips Foundation, a nonprofit heavily reliant on Koch funds.Monday, Jan 18, 2016 · 5:07:08 PM PST · WeAreKochsJane Mayer’s own 1/18/2016 article in Politico puts the multiple attacks from the Daily Caller and The Weekly Standard into context:
Two of the top donors in the Koch network owned their own news outlets. The oil tycoon Philip Anschutz owned the Washington Examiner and the Weekly Standard, and the mutual fund magnate Foster Friess was the largest shareholder of the Daily Caller.It is a possible explanation for the source of many of the recent attacks being The Weekly Standard and the Daily Caller—and recent tweets like the ones below (Chuck Ross’ twitter bio states that he is a “Reporter at The Daily Caller”):
View image on Twitter Follow Chuck Ross @ChuckRossDCReminder that Sid Blumenthal and Jane Mayer (of Koch hit job fame) are good pals.10:20 AM - 18 Jan 2016  5 5 Retweets   1 1 likeTuesday, Jan 19, 2016 · 11:49:06 AM PST · WeAreKochsNow, there is an article running in Commentary Magazine entitled “The Hypocrisy of the Koch Haters”, which references a review of Jane Mayer’s book in its opening sentence.  Not surprisingly, the author, Michael Rubin, is listed as a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).  According to ConservativeTransparency.org, the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation has directly contributed over $1.8 million to AEI between 2004 and 2014.
Tuesday, Jan 19, 2016 · 12:14:10 PM PST · WeAreKochsCommentary Inc. appears to be the parent organization of Commentary Magazine (they share an address).  It has received funding from DonorsTrust, Donors Capital Fund, and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.  According to SourceWatch:
The twin Donors organizations are advertised as a way for very wealthy people and corporations to remain hidden when "funding sensitive or controversial issues," creating a lack of accountability.The Scaife family, and its foundations, are covered in Jane Mayer’s book.
Tuesday, Jan 19, 2016 · 3:09:01 PM PST · WeAreKochsMatt Welch’s bio lists him as the “Editor in Chief” of Reason magazine.  He just tweeted out an article on Reason defending the Kochs’ support for criminal justice reform.
 Follow Matt Welch ? @MattWelchIs the Kochs' Support for Criminal Justice Reform a P.R. Move? http://reason.com/blog/2016/01/19/is-the-kochs-support-for-criminal-justic …7:07 AM - 19 Jan 2016Photo published for Is the Kochs' Support for Criminal Justice Reform a P.R. Move?Is the Kochs' Support for Criminal Justice Reform a P.R. Move?Jane Mayer implies their interest in the issue is new while conceding it is not.reason.com  2 2 Retweets   1 1 likeAccording to Pando, the Kochs have given “millions” to Reason. Pando also details Reason’s prior history of publishing holocaust denial and pro-apartheid content.  The Kochs’ stood by Reason for all those years; I suppose it is a nice gesture for them to symbolically return the favor.
 Follow WeAreKochs @WeAreKochs#Kochs gave "millions" to Reason, notable for its holocaust denial, pro-apartheid, history. https://pando.com/2014/07/24/as-reasons-editor-defends-its-racist-history-heres-a-copy-of-its-holocaust-denial-special-issue/ … https://twitter.com/MattWelch/status/689464237282832385 …2:03 PM - 19 Jan 2016Photo published for As Reason's editor defends its racist history, here's a copy of its holocaust denial "special issue"As Reason's editor defends its racist history, here's a copy of its holocaust denial "special issue"—Reason magazine, January 1976 Last weekend, I wrote about how Reason magazine — and their backers, the Koch brothers — was supporting a major push to further sell Silicon Valley on the “virtues” of...pando.com  1 1 Retweet   1 1 likeThursday, Jan 21, 2016 · 7:59:32 PM PST · WeAreKochsThe Acton Institute blog is lashing out at Jane Mayer with a blog post entitled “‘Dark Money’ and Leftist Hypocrisy”.  According to Conservative Transparency, the Charles G. Koch Foundation directly gave the Acton Institute $50,000 in each of 2011 and 2013.  In addition, DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund appear to be substantial contributors.
Meanwhile, Koch cronies are back to their dirty tricks—trying to smear Jane Mayer.  According to an article in Politico from earlier today:
America Rising PAC, the GOP opposition network founded by Matt Rhoades and Joe Pounder, has set its sights on Jane Mayer, shopping around accusations that she has ideological bias.…
Asked why they were taking up the cause of defending the Kochs, Chassé they were defending their allies."This liberal author is attacking our allies, and we’re not going to sit idly by while she spreads disingenuous information and tries to hide her clear ideological bias from the public," she said.At least they acknowledged their own “ideological bias” and “alliance” with the Kochs!
Friday, Jan 22, 2016 · 8:21:12 AM PST · WeAreKochsJonah Goldberg, from the National Review, just published two critical pieces about Jane Mayer’s new book, on the National Review website and NewsMax.  At the end of the National Review article, it says:
Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review.The National Review Institute has directly received money from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and DonorsTrust.
Also, just a reminder: according to SourceWatch:
David H. Koch is on the American Enterprise Institute's National Council, whose members "serve as ambassadors for AEI, providing AEI with advice, insight, and guidance as [it] looks to reach out to new friends across the country."
Between 2002 and 2013, the American Enterprise Institute received a total of $867,289 in funding from the Charles G. Koch Foundation.It looks like SourceWatch retrieved the AEI National Council page back in 2014.  Looking at the current National Council page, we are unable to locate David H. Koch’s name.
Friday, Jan 22, 2016 · 8:59:31 PM PST · WeAreKochsJonah Goldberg’s defense of the Kochs, from his perches at the Koch-funded AEI and Koch-funded National Review Institute, has now been published in the New York Post.
Tuesday, Jan 26, 2016 · 10:00:23 PM PST · WeAreKochsAnother article was published in The Weekly Standard by Mark Hemingway; this one is entitled “Koch Biographer Jane Mayer's Strange Denials of Her Family Nazi Connections”.  Another blatant smear piece by a publication owned by a Koch network donor, written by an author who was a fellow at the Koch-funded Mercatus Center in 2003 and 2004.==

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