Another Two-Fer At The Trib

From today's Editorial Page at Richard Mellon Scaife's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Extended federal unemployment benefits, set to run out June 2, aren't putting people to work. Left unchecked, they "help" those who are gaming the system.

Of course they'd say that. But what's the data to support it? Where does it come from?

No surprise here, either:

Notes David Littmann, senior economist for the free-market Mackinac Center for Public Policy, those federal checks -- for up to 99 weeks -- don't reduce unemployment but the incentive to find work.

It's no wonder Pennsylvania struggles to maintain its unemployment compensation fund when it's second only to California in what it pays out, according to the Commonwealth Foundation.[emphasis in original]

We all know where this is headed, right?

• The Mackinac Center is a Michigan-based conservative think tank that received $100,000 from the Richard Mellon Scaife controlled Sarah Scaife Foundation in 1999-2000.
• The Commonwealth Foundation is a Pennsylvania-based conservative think tank that's received about $2 million from the Richard Mellon Scaife controlled Allegheny, Carthage and Sarah Scaife foundations over the last 2 decades.

And yet no mention of any of that money in an editorial critical of extending unemployment benefits.

The circle jerk/tribbing continues.

Interesting.

I want to go further on this.

The Mackinac Center is a member of something called the State Policy Network. The SPN describes itself as:

State Policy Network is the capacity building service organization for America's free market, state-focused think tank community. We advance a free society by providing leadership development, management training and networking opportunities for think tank professionals and by promoting strategic partnerships among market-oriented organizations.

So it's an organization of conservative state-based think tanks, fair enough.

Guess who else is a member?

• Commonwealth Foundation (approx $2 million Scaife money over the years)

Associate Members

• Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (approx $4 million Scaife money over the years)
• Accuracy in Media (approx $4.3 million Scaife money over the years)
• Capital Research Center (approx $4.5 million in Scaife money over the years)

Just to name a few. The Heritage Foundation's a member, as is Judicial Watch and Freedomworks and so on. All recipients of vast amounts of Scaife money. How many of these Scaife-funded foundations does his editorial board use as "informational" sources?

Tell me again how there's no vast right-wing conspiracy.