The Shadow Party by Horowitz David & Poe Richard

Author:Horowitz, David & Poe, Richard [Horowitz, David]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2007-04-16T16:00:00+00:00

Pew Charitable Trusts $40.1 million

Bill Moyers ’ Schumann Center for Media and Democracy $17.6 million

Carnegie Corporation of New York $14.1 million

Joyce Foundation $13.5 million

George Soros’ Open Society Institute $12.6 million

Jerome Kohlberg Trust $11.3 million

Ford Foundation $8.8 million

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation $5.2 million

Total $123.2 million

Source: The New York Post21

Some of the more notable recipients of Pewgate money included groups posing as government ethics “watchdogs.” Soros’ OSI alone gave $1.7 million to the Center for Public Integrity, $1.3 million to Public Campaign, $650,000 to the Alliance for Better Campaigns, $625,000 to Common Cause, $300,000 to Democracy 21, $275,000 to Public Citizen and $75,000 to the Center for Responsive Politics.22 Other Pewgate foundations contributed to these “watchdog” groups as well. In addition, a significant portion of Pewgate funds went into academic institutions such as the Annenberg Centers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, and the William J. Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Soros’ OSI alone gave more than $3.3 million to the Brennan Center between 1999 and 2003.

Some Pewgate funds were used to buy favorable media coverage. Sager reports that the Carnegie Corporation paid the American Prospect magazine $132,000 to publish a special issue pushing campaign finance reform. National Public Radio has spent at least $860,000 of Pewgate funds on programs spotlighting the role of money in politics.23 In his efforts on behalf of Pewgate, PBS icon Bill Moyers raised media manipulation to the status of an art form. As president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy since 1990, Moyers himself was the number-two Pewgate donor. However, as a journalist, Moyers also received Pewgate money and also promoted front groups funded by Pewgate foundations.

Through his Public Affairs Television company, Moyers produces documentaries for PBS newsmagazines such as Frontline.As a Pewgate operative, Moyers’ special relationship with PBS provided him with a bully pulpit for getting the message out about campaign finance reform. Journalistic ethics took a back seat to the political cause. In a June 1999 PBS special “Free Speech for Sale,” Moyers interviewed three campaign finance reformers— Bert Neuborne of the Brennan Center, Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity, and Bob Hall of Democracy South— without disclosing that all three represented organizations funded by Moyers’ own Schumann Center.24 By that time, Moyers had personally produced eight hours of programming promoting campaign finance reform.

Some Pewgate money found its way into the hands of politicians, notably Senator McCain of Arizona, the Republican cosponsor of the McCain-Feingold Act. McCain’s Reform Institute for Campaign and Election Issues received generous funding from several Pewgate foundations, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. Revocable Trust, and George Soros’ OSI. McCain’s Institute also received funding from such ultra-leftist sources as the Tides Foundation, the Proteus Fund, Echosphere and the Educational Foundation of America. Indeed, the Reform Institute’s website reveals that almost all of McCain’s funders who have contributed more than $50,000 are left-wing foundations.25

Pewgate’s tentacles reach even to the US Supreme Court.

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