InfluenceWatch Podcast
The podcast where we go beneath the surface to reveal the web of connected influence, money, and motivation driving the news.
We found 10 episodes of InfluenceWatch Podcast with the tag “philanthropy”.
-
Episode 166: Foreign Billionaire Influences American Policy
April 23rd, 2021 | 16 mins 37 secs
billionaire, charity, conservative, environmental, foreign, left, liberal, libertarian, media, news, nonprofits, philanthropy, politics, progressive, right, swiss
In this episode: Federal law prohibits foreign nationals, except holders of permanent resident (or “green card”) status, from making political contributions in federal elections. But foreign billionaires are free to spend whatever they like on news organizations and advocacy groups that otherwise influence American public policy, and that brings us to Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss, the major environmentalist donor who just dropped a bid to buy the Chicago Tribune and turn the paper into a clone of the Washington Post, another national-level liberal propaganda outlet. But a funny thing happened on the way to a Midwestern #Resistance media outlet: the New York Times exposed Wyss’s agenda and he dropped his bid for the Tribune. Joining us to discuss Wyss, the brouhaha, and Wyss’s other projects is my colleague Hayden Ludwig.
-
Episode 156: Defending the Freedom of Association (with guest Jennifer Braceras)
February 12th, 2021 | 22 mins 49 secs
civil rights, conservative, constitution, culture, dark money, democrat, disclosure, donors, freedom, information, iwlc, jennifer braceras, left, liberal, libertarian, philanthropy, politics, privacy, progressive, republican, right, supreme court
In this episode: We discuss an issue that is well known to those involved in politics and to donors, but perhaps not as well known to the average voter. So we’re hoping to shed some light on it. The issue is donor disclosure, and we have as a special guest Jennifer Braceras, director of Independent Women’s Law Center, project of independent women’s forum, and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who wrote a very sharp op-ed on the subject recently, "Freedom Of Association Is Under Attack. Will The Supreme Court Protect It?" We discuss a few cases surrounding donor disclosure that could be heard by the Supreme Court in the coming months.
-
Episode 154: The Left’s “Dark Money” Machine
January 29th, 2021 | 13 mins 57 secs
2020, biden, california, conservative, dark money, election, freedom, georgia, kamala harris, left, liberal, libertarianism, litigation, mark zuckerberg, money, philanthropy, phill kline, politics, privacy, progressive, right, senate, society
In this episode: We welcome special guest Dan Judy, vice president at North Star Opinion Research in DC. He’s a Georgia native and a fellow UGA alumnus (Go Dawgs!) http://www.northstaropinion.com/about/our-team
-
Episode 152: Aggressively Political Philanthropy
January 15th, 2021 | 19 mins 24 secs
america, business, conservative, elections, foundations, government, labor, law, left, liberal, libertarian, nonprofits, philanthropy, politics, progressive, right, society
In this episode: In recent years, American big business, big labor, and other “bigs” have gotten aggressively more aligned with progressive liberalism—even those bigs, like Big Philanthropy, that are technically required by law not to intervene in elections. While Big Philanthropy might always have been liberal-leaning ideologically, it has gotten so openly Democratic that as conservative philanthropic scholar Bill Schambra noted, “it’s no longer suspect, or even noteworthy, to treat nonprofits and foundations as anything other than useful tools to “build a Democratic Party that can translate [progressive values] into public policy as a true governing majority.”” Joining us to discuss how we got here and the consequences of philanthropy losing its nominal political neutrality is Mike Hartmann, head of Capital Research Center’s Center for Strategic Giving and editor of the Giving Review blog at Philanthropy Daily.
-
Episode 137: Shadow Over America (with guest Kevin Mooney)
September 18th, 2020 | 13 mins 43 secs
conservative, culture, dark money, funding, left, liberal, libertarian, nonprofit, philanthropy, politics, progressive, right, society
In this episode: Hayden Ludwig, an investigative researcher at the Capital Research Center fills in for Mike Watson. With us today is Kevin Mooney, a reporter for the Daily Signal and the Commonwealth Foundation in Pennsylvania. We’ll be discussing CRC’s new report, The Shadow Over America: Arabella Advisors’ $635 Million Empire, pulling back the curtain on a vast web of liberal “dark money” influencing the 2020 election—right here in Washington, DC.
-
Episode 135: Today's Woke-Progressive Infiltration (with guest Naomi Schaefer Riley!)
September 4th, 2020 | 19 mins 12 secs
activism, aei, bagman, business, capitalism, conservative, dark money, donor, donors, ford, foundations, funding, george floyd, influence, intent, iwf, left, left-wing, liberal, libertarian, major institutions, money, naomi schaefer riley, philanthropy, police, progressive, public policy, research, right, rockefeller
In this episode: Since the initial demonstrations following the police-custody death of George Floyd, foundations have pledged over one billion dollars to support efforts to combat alleged “systemic racism.” In practice, that means more foundations have followed the path of the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trusts and abandoned the business-friendly pro-capitalist outlooks of their founding donors and adopted the socialist and woke-progressive outlooks of their current year managers. Joining us to discuss this consistently troubling development this week is Naomi Schaefer Riley, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. We discuss the recent turn toward left-progressive activism at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the broader problem of Big Philanthropy dishonoring donor intent, and what can be done about it.
-
Episode 134: Big Philanthropy and the Professional Left
August 27th, 2020 | 27 mins 17 secs
advocacy, conservative, culture, foundations, giving, jerry falwell, left, liberal, libertarian, logistics, nonprofit, philanthropy, politics, progressive, research, resources, right, society, steve banning, strategy
In this episode: They say that in warfare, amateurs talk strategy while professionals talk logistics. With that in mind, I’m joined by Mike Hartmann, Capital Research Center Senior Fellow and Director of CRC’s Center for Strategic Giving to talk advocacy logistics, specifically the multi-billion-dollar world of private foundations that sustains much of the Professional Left, the position of the Right in advocacy resources and the effects of the falls of Steve Bannon and Jerry Falwell on those resources, and what is to be done about the advantages Big Philanthropy gives the professional Left.
-
Episode 105: RIP, Sir Roger Scruton
January 17th, 2020 | 8 mins 51 secs
america, big labor, bill schambra, british, conservative, department of labor, left. right, liberal, libertarian, obama, obama administration, philanthropy, sir roger scruton, unions
In this episode, the Department of Labor takes deregulatory action to undo a key Obama administration favor to its supporters in Big Labor, center-right scholar of philanthropy Bill Schambra offers an explanation for Americans’ declining trust in nonprofits that satisfies Ockham’s Razor, and we remember the eminent British Conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, who passed away this week.
-
Episode 104: Howard Zinn: Historian, Author, and Communist?
January 9th, 2020 | 7 mins 30 secs
college, communist, dangerous documentaries, film, himmelfarb, history, howard zinn, industry, left-wing, philanthropy, senators, tech, union, victorian
In this episode, a union with close ties to top left-wing Senators targets the technology industry for an organizing campaign; our colleagues at Dangerous Documentaries take aim at the late, probably-Communist, and terribly influential historian-author Howard Zinn; and we remember Gertrude Himmelfarb, historian of Victorian-era philanthropy, who passed away before the New Year.
-
Episode 103: 3 Pillars Supporting the Left
January 2nd, 2020 | 6 mins 41 secs
2019, 2020, allen greenberg, apple, barbara picower, billionaire, brexit, conservative, financing, funding, george soros, investor, jpb foundation, laurene powell-jobs, left, new year, open society foundations, philanthropy, steve jobs, susan thompson, united kingdom, warren buffett
We’re starting off the New Year by taking one last look back at the old year, thanks to the “2019 Philanthropy Awards” published by Inside Philanthropy, a left-of-center news and commentary source on institutional funders. While listeners will likely be familiar with Inside Philanthropy’s “Philanthropist of the Year”—billionaire investor and founder of the Open Society Foundations George Soros—the website highlighted three other figures and institutions that bear watching in the left-of-center philanthropic world beyond the “man who broke the Bank of England”…and who in so doing may have inadvertently made possible Brexit by forcing the United Kingdom out of the predecessor financial arrangements to the European Union’s single currency. We note Inside Philanthropy’s runner-up to Soros, JPB Foundation funder Barbara Picower; Inside Philanthropy’s “foundation president of the year,” Allen Greenberg of the Warren Buffett-funded Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation; and Inside Philanthropy’s “Least Transparent Mega-Giver,” Laurene Powell-Jobs, Apple executive Steve’s widow.