Real Issues vs. Astroturf: Confronting the Koch Brothers
Presenters
- Doug Clopp
Common Cause
Doug Clopp is the deputy director for programs at Common Cause. His work is focused on governmental and campaign finance reform issues, including the public financing of elections, the influence of money in politics, judicial ethics, filibuster reform, and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. He is also engaged in media and democracy issues such as Net Neutrality.
Recently, Doug was a member of the Defenders of Democracy steering committee that organized the Uncloaking the Kochs event held Rancho Mirage, Calif. The event helped to bring national attention to the undue influence that the Kochs and fellow billionaires have had on our elections and democracy as a result of the Supreme Court's de-regulation of campaign finance laws.
Prior to joining Common Cause, Doug served as the director of governmental affairs for the Maine-based Consumers for Affordable Health Care Foundation. Doug also has a background in state-based campaign finance reform work, serving as the Democracy Project director for the Maine Citizen Leadership Fund, dedicated to implementing, protecting and strengthening Maine's landmark Clean Election Act, the nation's first publicly financed election system.
- Kert Davies
Research Director, Greenpeace USA
Kert Davies is the research director for Greenpeace USA. He has been with Greenpeace since 2000 and directed Greenpeace’s global warming and energy campaign until 2002, when became Greenpeace USA’s first research director. Prior to Greenpeace, Kert was science policy director at Ozone Action and an analyst at the Environmental Working Group. Kert has degrees in environmental studies from Hampshire College (B.A., 1985) and the University of Montana (M.S., 2005).
At Greenpeace, Kert has spurred projects on corporate accountability, including ExxonSecrets.org, StopGreenwash.org, PolluterWatch.org and PolluterHarmony.com. He has worked extensively with investigative journalists and appeared in major media, including on ABC News, BBC, CNN, CNBC, PBS, CBS Radio and NPR, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the Guardian and the Financial Times.
Kert spent three weeks on a Greenpeace research ship in the Gulf of Mexico in October 2010 with independent scientists studying the lingering impacts of the BP spill.
- Lee Fang
ThinkProgress
Lee Fang, an investigative journalist with ThinkProgress, was one of the first reporters to expose the corporate underpinnings of the Tea Party and the underhanded campaign by health insurance companies to stop reform. Lee also broke the story about foreign funding of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce during the midterm elections. Most recently, he unearthed the story about the chamber's efforts to hire hackers to sabotage its critics. He has extensively covered the Koch brothers, and is preparing to publish a book about the right-wing movement in the Obama era later this year. A frequent guest on the Thom Hartmann program, Lee's research on the conservative infrastructure has been featured in the Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post and on CNN and MSNBC.
- Lisa Graves
Executive Director, Center for Media and Democracy
Lisa Graves is the executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes SourceWatch.org, PRWatch.org, and BanksterUSA.org. She has served as a senior advisor in all three branches of the federal government: Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department; Chief Counsel for Nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Deputy Chief for the U.S. Courts. She led the nominations team in the Senate that blocked extremist candidates for the federal judiciary, and previously chaired the DOJ Working Group on Judicial Selection, as well as the Working Group on Civil Rules, and was the lead attorney in DOJ's policy shop on gun crime issues, criminal registries, immigration policy, and the courts. Lisa has testified several times before Congress on national security and civil liberties issues through her work as the Senior Legislative Strategist for the ACLU, as a partner at the Center for National Security Studies, and as the leader of CMD, which has a history of fighting government and corporate spin over matters of war and peace.
- Timothy Karr
Campaign Director, Free Press
Timothy Karr oversees all Free Press campaigns and online outreach efforts, including SavetheInternet.com and our work on public broadcasting, propaganda, and journalism. Before joining Free Press, Tim served as executive director of MediaChannel.org and vice president of Globalvision New Media and the Globalvision News Network. He has also worked extensively as an editor, reporter and photojournalist for the Associated Press, Time Inc., New York Times and Australia Consolidated Press. Tim critiques, analyzes and reports on media and media policy for the Huffington Post and on his personal blog, MediaCitizen.
- When
- Saturday, April 9, 4:00pm - 5:30pm
- Where
- Waterfront 3
map (pdf) - Track
- Social Justice and Movement Building
Astroturf: You’ve probably seen it without even realizing it. It sprouts at town hall meetings, on the Internet, at Tea Party protests, and has spread over mainstream media like kudzu. In recent years, industry-funded, fake grassroots groups have smothered efforts to reform universal health care, curb global warming, regulate banking or win open access to the Internet. This billion-dollar industry isn’t limited to squashing a few select causes, but to defeating any public interest reform effort that gains political traction. Organizations that are fighting for reform must start working together to beat back the lies of these front groups for hire. This is not about liberals versus conservatives; it’s about the public interest versus corporate lobbyists. This panel will engage experts from across movements in a strategic discussion about fighting fake grassroots.
