nfic nat'l freedom on info coalition
<div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> ===</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Koch Foundations Increased Media Investments in 2018</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Alex Kotch | November 26th, 2019</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Billionaire Charles Koch's two foundations spent nearly $3.5 million on media grants and contracts in 2018.</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As the political and philanthropic network of billionaire libertarian Charles Koch employs its latest PR strategy, the Charles Koch Foundation (CKF) and the Charles Koch Institute (CKI) increased their giving to media organizations by roughly $1 million in 2018.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Koch has generally funded right-wing organizations such as the Daily Caller News Foundation, which funds much of the content on the Daily Caller website, and the Reason Foundation, which publishes libertarian-minded news and opinion on Reason.com. These and other donations continued in 2018, but the two foundations also contracted with conservative media outlet RealClearPolitics and two center-left publications, The Atlantic and Ozy Media.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Overall, CKF and CKI combined to spend nearly $3.5 million on media grants and contracts in 2018. This amount is a small, but growing, portion of the foundations’ annual donations. In 2018, CKF gave out <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2019/11/19/koch-invested-127-5-million-building-right-wing-infrastructure--2018/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">$127.5 million</a> in donations, mostly to fund Koch’s right-wing educational and political infrastructure.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daily Caller News Foundation</font></h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">CKF’s largest media grant in 2018, $746,250, went to the Daily Caller News Foundation. While less than the $960,000 it gave a year before, it was still Koch’s biggest contribution to a media organization last year, as it has been since 2015.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Nov. 11, the Daily Caller News Foundation uploaded a mashup video to YouTube that <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-daily-caller-features-anti-semitic-podcast-host-in-video-mashup/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">included a clip of a neo-Nazi</a> rapping about his support for President Donald Trump. In the verse of the original video that followed the clip used by Daily Caller, the neo-Nazi rapped about the “Great Replacement,” a central white nationalist propaganda theory that claims immigrants of color will replace white populations.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This wasn’t the first time the Daily Caller has been linked to white supremacy; it has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/maga-trolls/daily-caller-has-published-white-supremacists-anti-semites-and-bigots-here-are-ones-we" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">published several white supremacists and antisemites</a> and has had some <a href="https://splinternews.com/leaked-emails-show-how-white-nationalists-have-infiltra-1837681245" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">on staff</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After a November 2018 <a href="https://readsludge.com/2018/11/21/charles-koch-is-funding-rightwing-pro-trump-media-new-disclosure-reveals/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Sludge report</a> on the Koch foundations’ funding of pro-Trump media, three CKF top officials <a href="https://www.facebook.com/radley.balko/posts/10155657642037027" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">claimed</a> to <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Washington Post</em> opinion writer and Reason alumnus Radley Balko that, <b>“they personally and the Kochs and their foundations more generally find the Daily Caller abhorrent, and feel the same way about Tucker Carlson.” </b>The officials argued that the CFK funding went towards writer fellowships for articles that are made available by wire to a broader range of news outlets. It is not publicly known whether CFK has funded the Daily Caller News Foundation this year.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Daily Caller New Foundation’s 2018 revenue numbers aren’t yet public, but CKF’s donations in 2016 amounted to 84 percent of the foundation’s annual contribution total.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RealClear</font></h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two entities of the conservative media operation RealClear got money from the Koch foundations in 2018. The Real Clear Foundation, which funds RealClearInvestigations and “news aggregation and content creation that is in the public good,” according to <a href="https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2018/522/128/2018-522128875-105ee1a4-F.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">tax records</a>, received a $375,000 consulting contract from CKI.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RealClearPolitics, the company’s news, opinion, and poll aggregation website, and CKI teamed up to poll the public and veterans on military intervention and specific wars in <a href="https://www.charleskochinstitute.org/story/charles-koch-institute-real-clear-politics-foreign-policy-poll/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">2017</a> and <a href="https://www.charleskochinstitute.org/news/iraq-war-15-year-poll-with-real-clear/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">2018</a>. Also in 2017, the website published <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2017/07/10/koch_money_gets_happiness_studies_booed_but_why.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">a piece</a> critical of activists organizing against a Koch-funded center at Wake Forest University. RealClearPolitics accepts trainees from CKI’s Media and Journalism Fellowship program “with no strings attached.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RealClearPolitics got $75,000 from CKF in 2018. Neither entity received money from the Koch foundations from 2015-17. RealClearPolitics published <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/10/08/public_realism_on_afghanistan_138280.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">an op-ed</a> from CKF official Will Ruger in October 2018 and <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/06/26/democrats_and_republicans_arent_so_different_after_all___140654.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">another</a> by Sarah Ruger, director of free expression at CKF, this June.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RealClear Foundation has been funded by right-wing megadonors for years. In fiscal year 2013, the sole disclosed donor was Nelson Broms, an insurance executive who co-founded the Koch-funded <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Manhattan_Institute_for_Policy_Research" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Manhattan Institute</a>, who gave $50,000. By <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/522128875/04_2019_prefixes_47-54%2F522128875_201803_990PF_2019042316234513" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">FY2016</a>, the Real Clear Foundation had significantly increased its fundraising ability, getting $2,250,000 from the Koch-tied <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=DonorsTrust" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">DonorsTrust</a>. CMD has tracked over $5.5 million in Real Clear Foundation funding since April 2013, including $1 million from the similarly Koch-tied <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Donors_Capital_Fund" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Donors Capital Fund</a> and six-figure amounts from conservative megadonor foundations in the Koch funding network, such as the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ed_Uihlein_Family_Foundation" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Ed Uihlein Family Foundation</a> and the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sarah_Scaife_Foundation" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Sarah Scaife Foundation</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><img class="wp-image-7824 aligncenter lazyloaded" src="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/realclear-300x289.jpg" alt="" width="723" height="697" data-lazy-srcset="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/realclear-300x289.jpg 300w, https://www.exposedbycmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/realclear-768x739.jpg 768w, https://www.exposedbycmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/realclear.jpg 1250w" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px" data-lazy-src="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/realclear-300x289.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px" srcset="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/realclear-300x289.jpg 300w, https://www.exposedbycmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/realclear-768x739.jpg 768w, https://www.exposedbycmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/realclear.jpg 1250w" data-was-processed="true" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%; height: auto;" /></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RealClearPolitics co-founder John McIntyre is tied to the far-right Federalist website. He and his wife, Jenn, are listed as directors of The Federalist on a 2017 <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1716513/000171651317000003/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">securities offering filing</a>, alongside co-founders Ben Domenech, who is married to Meghan McCain, and Sean Davis. Jenn McIntyre is also listed as an executive for The Federalist, which is not connected to the Koch-funded Federalist Society.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center-Left Publications</font></h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The foundation of Charles Koch, whose political network has installed scores of right-wing state and federal lawmakers and funded ideological free-market centers and conservative student groups on college campuses, began funding initiatives in 2018 to counter the political polarization that it has catalyzed.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On its 2018 tax return, CKF listed a $300,000 contract with The Atlantic Monthly Group, which publishes The Atlantic.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Atlantic</em> magazine has a long history of publishing liberal and centrist writers. Since the conservative-friendly Jeffrey Goldberg took the reins in late 2016, the publication has devoted its pages to stories questioning political correctness on college campuses, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/01/the-humiliation-of-aziz-ansari/550541/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">criticizing the #MeToo movement</a>, and<b> defending controversial figures such as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/08/why-the-left-is-so-afraid-of-jordan-peterson/567110/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Jordan Peterson</a>.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Peterson has been accused of misogyny, bigotry, and conspiracy theorizing. Conservative <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em> opinion editor Bari Weiss <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/the-jordan-peterson-tour-comes-to-aspen/563813/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">interviewed Peterson</a> at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is presented by Atlantic Live and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/live/events/aspen-ideas-festival-2018/2018/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">supported by Koch Industries</a> and the foundation of GOP megadonor Paul Singer.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Goldberg even briefly hired <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/new-york-times/kevin-williamson-also-said-his-podcast-people-whove-had-abortions-should-be-hanged?redirect_source=/blog/2018/04/04/kevin-williamson-also-said-his-podcast-people-who-ve-had-abortions-should-be-hanged/219857" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">extreme misogynist</a> Kevin Williamson, whom he first defended and then let go under enormous public pressure. Still, the publication is seen as part of the liberal media sphere.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Nov. 28, <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Atlantic</em> kicked off a year-long series, “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2018/11/the-atlantic-begins-the-speech-wars-reporting-project/576805/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">The Speech Wars</a>,” which was underwritten by CKF, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Fetzer Institute. The series presents “a marketplace for competing ideas,”</span> said Goldberg. CKF is “excited” to “[support] <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Atlantic</em>‘s expansion of their courageous and nuanced coverage of growing polarization,” <a href="https://www.charleskochfoundation.org/news/the-atlantic-launches-new-project-on-free-speech/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">said</a> CKF’s Ruger. “America’s an increasingly diverse nation, and we can be better for our differences. Dedicated efforts like <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Atlantic</em>‘s stand to deepen our understanding and ultimately address barriers to that peaceful and productive pluralism.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A larger 2018 contract, $500,000 from CKI, went to <a href="https://www.ozy.com/about-ozy/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Ozy Media</a>, a company “tailor-made for the Change Generation–people from every corner of the globe who are challenging the status quo and bucking convention.” The money supported a PBS primetime series, “<a href="https://www.ozy.com/take-on-america-with-ozy/89692/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Take On America</a>,” which has a similar theme to <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Atlantic</em> series: It “provides participants an opportunity to take a pause from the <a href="https://www.charleskochfoundation.org/news/foundation-supports-ozy-series/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">growing polarization</a> by joining town hall meetings across the country.” <b>Ozy CEO Carlos Watson, who co-founded the company with former Goldman Sachs associate Samir Rao,</b> hosts the series, which is also funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to contracting with two media companies with liberal audiences, CKF also partnered with the Poynter Institute, a mainstream journalist education nonprofit, which it gave $225,000 in 2018. A year earlier, CKF gave Poynter its first grant, worth $75,000, to launch the Poynter College Media Project, a campus-based initiative that “encourage[s] the student press to use journalism to navigate divisive issues.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Koch operation, which has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/nyregion/what-happened-to-jane-mayer-when-she-wrote-about-the-koch-brothers.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">surveilled and attempted to smear</a> well-known reporters such as Jane Mayer of <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The New Yorker</em>, has a new line about journalism. “Media plays a vital role in the free flow of knowledge essential to society,” <a href="https://www.poynter.org/educators-students/2018/poynter-koch-foundation-expand-impact-in-year-two-of-program-for-college-journalists/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">said</a> Ruger. “Poynter’s program takes that one step further, highlighting the critical and continuing role a free press has in facilitating conversations on even our most difficult issues.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This April, Poynter announced the <a href="https://www.poynter.org/news-release/2019/poynter-koch-institutes-join-forces-on-media-and-journalism-fellowship/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism Fellowship</a>, sponsored by CKI.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State Policy Network Associates</font></h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Koch foundations donated to State Policy Network members the libertarian think tank <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reason_Foundation#Ties_to_the_Koch_Brothers" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Reason Foundation</a> ($463,000) and, the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Moving_Picture_Institute" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Moving Picture Institute</a> ($384,000) in 2018.</span> The Reason Foundation, which had the late David Koch on its board, has received millions of dollars from several Koch family foundations over time. In recent years, Koch donation amounts have jumped around, but 2018’s total is roughly $135,000 more than the previous year.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Moving Picture Institute is a New York City-based “modern-media production house and talent incubator that creates and supports high-impact film and video content designed to entertain, inspire, and educate audiences with captivating stories about human freedom,” according to its website. In addition to Koch funding, the institute has received funds from other key right-wing sources including DonorsTrust and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. It has produced films and video series <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160329040606/http://www.thempi.org:80/films/mineyourownbusiness.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">attacking environmental activists</a>, explaining various aspects of <a href="https://www.thempi.org/econ-pop" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">economics</a>, and questioning <a href="https://www.thempi.org/regulation" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">regulation</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Other major recipients of money from the Koch foundations in 2018 include, the National Freedom of Information Coalition ($118,000), and the Student Free Press Association ($88,000), which operates the conservative College Fix website with content from student journalists who “commit themselves to the principles of <a href="https://www.thecollegefix.com/about/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">a free society</a>.” The group has also <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/473862135/201721319349102082/IRS990PF" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">received funding</a> from the Thomas W. Smith Foundation. Right-wing megadonor and current Education Sec. Betsy DeVos’s son, Rick, was on the Student Free Press Association board as of <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/272277658/09_2018_prefixes_27-31%2F272277658_201712_990_2018092015711780" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">2017</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Conservative outlets The American Spectator ($7,700 from CKF) and National Review ($6,000 from CKI) got smaller amounts through their connected foundations in 2018.</font></p></div>