The Pennsylvania Independent is part of a nationwide movement to drive the news with pseudo-reporting by conservative advocacy organizations posing as legitimate news operations
A new report exposes a disturbing new movement to supplant genuine investigative reporting with pseudo-reporting by right-wing advocacy organizations. These advocacy groups, posing as legitimate news bureaus, are well funded and have become accepted as objective news organizations by many mainstream newspapers, television and radio news operations.
According to the report by Keystone Progress, this insidious infiltration of legitimate news operations is led by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. Its local affiliate in Pennsylvania is the Pennsylvania Independent.
The report outlines how these advocacy groups are funded and shows how they have become accepted as objective news organizations by many mainstream newspapers, television and radio news operations. In fact, this network of “news” outlets run by the Franklin Center claims that it already "provides 10 percent of all daily reporting from state capitals nationwide."
Key Findings
Despite its claims, the Pennsylvania Independent is far from being independent or unbiased.
The Pennsylvania Independent is run by the far-right Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which has close ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Koch brothers, the Tea Party, Conservative Political Action Conference, Heritage Foundation and numerous other conservative causes and candidates.
The Franklin Center lists dozens of conservative think tanks, many of which are members of the rightwing State Policy Network, as state affiliates. The Commonwealth Foundation is one of those conservative think tanks.
The Independent is staffed by conservative ideologues who have been active in conservative causes.
Ninety-five percent of the Franklin Center’s known funding comes from the Donors Capital Fund and the related Donors Trust, “the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement” that receives significant funding from the Koch brothers.
Mainstream legitimate news operations are ignoring the clear conservative advocacy intentions of the Pennsylvania Independent and are republishing its “reporting” as legitimate, unbiased news.
The full report is available online at http://www.scribd.com/...
The report was produced by Keystone Progress. Keystone Progress is Pennsylvania’s largest progressive advocacy organization with over 350,000 subscribers. Keystone Progress embraces a pragmatic and flexible approach to advancing equal opportunity for all, the protection of individual freedoms, and democratic, transparent and people-oriented (rather than corporate) government.
