Craig Smith Does It Again. Again.

Every Saturday, or so it seems, Richard Mellon Scaife's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review publishes yet another interview between staff writer Craig Smith and some more often than not prominent member of some more often than not prominent conservative think tank.

How ever many there are, one thing is for certain: Smith never discloses the financial connections between his boss, Richard Mellon Scaife, the foundations Scaife controls (the Allegheny, Carthage and Sarah Scaife Foundations), and the think tank employing the conservative he's interviewing.

This week, Craig Smith interviews Robert L. Pfaltzgraff Jr., founder and president of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis. Any reader of this blog will know that I've danced this dance before - more than a few times. Even so, I have to admit that the amount of money Scaife's funneled to this particular think tank is, even for me, surprising.

And it's all due to the alphabetical listing of beneficiaries on the Foundation Annual Report.

I started at the most recent reports and found that:

• in 2009, the Sarah Scaife Foundation gave $710,000 to the IFPA
• in 2008, the Sarah Scaife Foundation gave $860,000 to the IFPA
• in 2007, the Sarah Scaife Foundation gave $710,000 to the IFPA
• in 2006, the Sarah Scaife Foundation gave $735,000 to the IFPA
• in 2009, the Sarah Scaife Foundation gave $610,000 to the IFPA

By my count, that's $3.625 million.

As the letter "I" is rather close, alphabetically, to the letter "H" it wasn't that difficult for my little eye to spy up the list a wee bit to the Heritage Foundation. And what did I find?

This:

• in 2009, the Sarah Scaife Foundation gave $600,000 to the Heritage Foundation
• in 2008, the Sarah Scaife Foundation gave $600,000 to the Heritage Foundation
• in 2007, the Sarah Scaife Foundation gave $400,000 to the Heritage Foundation
• in 2006, the Sarah Scaife Foundation gave $800,000 to the Heritage Foundation
• in 2009, the Sarah Scaife Foundation gave $800,000 to the Heritage Foundation

By my count that's $3.2 million.

What does that tell us, my friends? It tells us that over the last 5 years, Richard Mellon Scaife gave close to a half million dollars more to the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis than he gave to the Heritage Foundation (where he's on the Board of Trustees).

He must really really like the IFPA. Perhaps there's a reason. Perhaps this is it. From the Media Transparency project at media matters:

Founded in 1976 with seed money from the Scaife Family Trust, with the initial goal of bringing awareness of the danger of international communism and the need for a strong defense for the United States...

None of which, of course, is disclosed when Scaife's staff writer, Craig Smith, interviewed Robert Pfaltzgraff, founder and president of the IFPA.

The circle jerk continues.