We previously exposed a few of the media shills who publicly defended the Kochs and/or Koch Industries while having secretly benefited from their "philanthropy". However, it is our belief that these sorts of undisclosed conflicts of interest are far more prevalent than the mainstream media would have us believe.
Our recent Twitter spat with a Koch-linked media outlet, following its long-winded defense of the Kochs, exemplifies how the "dark money shell game" gives recipients plausible deniability as to the ultimate source of the funds and, in their view, limits the need for potential conflict disclosures. It also provides a teachable moment, wherein we can illustrate how the shell game works to provide plausible deniability to the recipients of "dark money."
Charles Koch started a "foundation" called the Knowledge and Progress Fund in 2004. According to SourceWatch, the Knowledge and Progress Fund, in turn, has given over $10 million in aggregate to another organization called DonorsTrust. Finally, a third organization called the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity was known to have received 95% of its 2011 funding from DonorsTrust and was DonorsTrust's second largest donation in that year. One of the Franklin Center's "projects" is a media property called the "Wisconsin Watchdog".
When Wisconsin Watchdog posted its longwinded defense of the Kochs, we called them out for it:
As a recap, Wisconsin Watchdog is a project of the Franklin Center, which is heavily funded by Donors Trust, which received money from the Knowledge and Progress Fund which, in turn was funded by Charles Koch. But, who is in the right?
That is part of the power of the "dark money shell game"--it obscures the source of funds and provides "plausible deniability" to recipients as to who their donors are. That, in turn, allows them to push back against (what, in our view would be adequate) conflict of interest disclosures.