Among the most frequently cited background information resources on the Internet is Source Watch, which describes itself as “your guide to the names behind the news.”
But Source Watch is anything but non-ideological. It is actually a product of the Center for Media and Democracy, a radical liberal, Wisconsin-based non-profit that is “an independent for impact, non-for-profit that works to promote informed debate by exposing spin and propaganda.”
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The CMD also describes its activities as “assisting grassroots work that advances the health of people and our planet as well as the economy and democracy. In addition to SourceWatch, we report online at PRWatch.org. We do not accept grants from for-profit corporations or government agencies.”
Perhaps most interestingly, CMD appears for contributions by claiming “your financial support, in any amount, is crucial to the continuation of this collaborative website and our innovate work documenting the people and issues behind the news. Your contribution is also tax-deductible.”
But the reality behind CMD and Source Watch is not legions of small donors sending the goup $10 here or $25 there. In fact, CMD is supported by a number of the nation’s largest, most well-endowed and most liberal foundations, according to The Left-Tracking Library a web site managed by Ron Arnold, author of “Freezing in the Dark: Money, Power, Politics and the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.”
Arnold notes that:
“The Center for Media and Democracy has received at least 70 foundation grants totaling at least $2,520,994, which makes its plea, ‘Your financial support, in any amount, is crucial to the continuation of this collaborative website and our innovate work documenting the people and issues behind the news,’ sound a little silly, unless they’re begging big foundations.
“[The CMD] appears to be an employment haven for radicals untroubled by the strings of elite foundation grants, essentially doing on the left what corporations do on the right. SourceWatch never reveals who they’re taking money from or how much they get.”
For more from Arnold on Source Watch, go here.
