This sort of thing is absolutely ubiquitous on the right, and it goes far beyond the fossil fuel industry. I know, because I once broke bread with these people. Some thoughts. <THREAD> https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063407645

There's an entire industry of savvy PR firms whose main job is to raise money from corporate clients to set up faux NGOs to carry corporate messaging campaigns. These are usually one-person shops (sometimes a couple more), and there are literally hundreds of them. /1

This is so widespread that, if you’re a glib winger, it’s an easy way to make a living. You pull down a good salary with a make-believe organizational byline and the PR firm does the heavy lifting to get you in the media, thereby pleasing the corporate client. /2

You don’t have to know much about issue you’ve been hired to engage in. And most of these mercenary front-men don’t. You just need to be willing to cite the intellectually superficial, poll tested, politically instrumental corporate narrative. /3

And most right-wing ideologues are more than happy to do that because they already agree with the monied narrative. /4

If you’re really good at it, it’s an easy way to make a living, and you might even be doing this for several unrelated faux operations. And if you’re ambitious, you’ll get on a legit organization’s radar screen and maybe get a real job higher up in the food chain. /5

Even so, that would mean bosses and real work expectations. Many are (quite understandably) happy where they are. /6

Somehow, the bulk of my thread got lost here. I have much more to say. So let me try again to say it. Here it comes. /7

I’d estimate that more than half of the conservative NGO universe is make up of Potemkin-village organizations like this. It works for three reasons. /8

First, the right-wing media doesn’t care about expertise, but they do care about promoting the politically-friendly message. And these guys are good at that job. For many of these corporate campaigns, just reinforcing their message in the GOP is enough. /9

Second, many journalists outside the right-wing media bubble are lazy or incapable of distinguishing fake organizations from real ones (much less fake experts from real ones). /10

Third, if you’ve got dozens of fake NGO organizations repeating the same corporate message, it provides an aura of real public sentiment. But it’s all a fraud. /11

Over the course of running @NiskanenCenter now for five years, I have never seen anything quite like this on the left. /12

Now, back to the PR firms. If you’re really good at setting up faux NGOs and recruiting the right wing mercenaries to front them—and likewise, really good at raising money from corporate clients to do this—what do you have? Well, a fat paycheck for one. But for another … /13

... you’re an attractive candidate for running a real-live right wing policy organization. You’ve met all the key requirements, after all (you can raise corporate money, you can recruit “talent,” and you can delivered disciplined policy messaging). /14

It’s why many right wing think tanks and activists groups are now run by former PR operatives like this. /15

Now, this isn’t purely mercenary work (although I’m sure it is for some). For the most part, everyone involved in this industry believes in what they’re doing because they believe in the cause (pushing back against liberal/progressive anti-business policy agendas). /16

But if you want to know why the policy shops on the right are so bereft of ideas and so unable to offer compelling policy initiatives to elected Republican allies, one of the major reasons is this. /17

The NGOs on the right that are supposedly in that business are either not really in that business or they’ve been lobotomized by shallow PR executives. /18

It's also why a large amount of corporate lobbying occurs under the radar screen through shadowy campaigns like this. Often, industry wants to look clean and progressive in public but the real fighting is undertaken through third parties that can't be traced back to them. /19

It's a dirty business, in my opinion, and I'm glad to never have been part of it. But it is something very few people outside of conservative "movement" circles are fully aware of or fully appreciate. /20 <END>

Postscript--This practice is now increasingly embraced by non-corporate ideologues as well. The infamous Leonard Leo, for instance, is playing the role of the PR firm in the above story by raising money from right-wing ideological mega-donors for rump one-man wingnut shops. /21

Remember acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker? Prior to replacing Jeff Sessions, he was the executive director of something called the "Foundation for Accountability and Civil Trust." It was set up by Leo with dark money and it was a one-man faux shop. /22

This is all about finding useful ideological mouthpieces for big money arguments, setting them up to carry water for the donor(s), and using PR talent to bum-rush journalists and producers to treat them like credible, independent, real-world "experts." /23

If you want to read a devastating indictment of how this practice is also increasingly coloring the think tank world, this book by sociologist Thomas Medvetz (U Cal San Diego) is a must-read. And ... it's spot-on. /24 https://www.amazon.com/Think-Tanks-America-Thomas-Medvetz-ebook/dp/B0097E4N6W/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=think+tanks+in+america&qid=1592519350&sr=8-1

I do not operate @NiskanenCenter like that, I assure you. And not *all* think tanks play the role of delegitimizing genuine expertise by promotion of ideologically convenient "faux expertise." But a lot do, and on the right, it's the rule rather than the exception. /25