Hey, Ma! Look At ME!

From the Daily Kos:

New report by Keystone Progress unveils Commonwealth Foundation and Allegheny Institute as part of web of groups pushing national corporate agenda at the expense of Pennsylvania’s middle class

(HARRISBURG, PA)— Keystone Progress and the Center for Media and Democracy released a new report today that exposes how two nominally independent tanks—the Commonwealth Foundation and the Allegheny Institute—are taking their cues from right wing funders, the Republican Party and the agenda established by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The report, entitled “The Commonwealth Foundation and the Allegheny Institute: Think tanks or corporate lobbyist propaganda mills?” exposes the relationship of far-right State Policy Network (SPN) to both groups. SPN is a web of conservative state-based think tanks across the United States. In addition to its state think tank affiliates, many other national right-wing organizations are associate members of SPN, including the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Cato Institute, the Franklin Center, the Heritage Foundation, the Heartland Institute, and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. [Bolding in original]

You can take a look at the report here.

And on page 17 you can read this:

Scaife has been accused of using his newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, to promote conservative principles through the Allegheny Institute’s comments and research.^clvii The Tribune-Review has failed to state its conflict of interests when quoting an Allegheny Institute official or using research from the Institute.^clviii In August, 2013, at least five articles cited the Allegheny Institute, including a “puff piece,” promoting Institute president Jake Haulk.^clix None of them mentioned the connections between the Tribune-Review and the Institute.^clx

In August 2012, the progressive Pennsylvania blog “Two Political Junkies” accused the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review of not reporting a story due to its connections to the Scaife family^clxi. [Links included back to 2PJ and self-serving emphasis added.]

Needless say, the report's a good read.  The report's authors do a great job describing the financial twining between Scaife and both the Commonwealth Foundation and the Allegheny Institute.

They also point out the connections between the Commonwealth Foundation, Allegheny Institute and ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Did you know Scaife had a hand in the foundation of ALEC?

We wrote about it here, citing the Washington Post, from May 2, 1999:

Scaife has given ALEC more than $2 million since 1975, keeping the group alive in its early years. Now his donations ($75,000 last year) are an insignificant part of its budget. [Emphasis added.]

Awkward kung fu moves!