Best of CRC Media Hits for April 2021

We broke new ground in April 2021: Capital Research Center president Scott Walter was quoted in the New York Times as part of reporter Ken Vogel’s expose on Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss and his use of the lefty funding network Arabella Advisors to effect changes in the American socio-political landscape. Our research was also used in a Washington Post column written by Kathleen Parker detailing the strange 180 degree turn President Joe Biden has made on the subject of court packing.

While we were delighted to help these are two outlets, we also maintained our excellent work on the righty side of media, as well, including developing a new relationship with Just the News TV and beginning a project that saw several of our op-eds run in the American Conservative. In some ways, April was the best month we’ve seen yet for publicizing our research on influencers and the funding behind them. And we’ll be shooting higher as 2021 continues.

“Top Bidder for Tribune Newspapers Is an Influential Liberal Donor”
New York Times, Ken Vogel, April 13, 2021

“I don’t blame the folks who were concerned about what might happen if the Kochs bought the same newspaper chain,” said Scott Walter, the president of the conservative nonprofit watchdog group Capital Research Center, which tracks political spending by liberal groups and has received funding from Koch foundations. “Wyss’s bid should be equally concerning.”

“Opinion: Biden Should Remember That He Once Called Court-Packing a ‘Bonehead Idea’”
Washington Post, Kathleen Parker, April 16, 2021

The movement to restructure the court enjoys deep pockets, thanks in part to a nonprofit fundraising behemoth called Arabella Advisors. Arabella is an umbrella organization that manages four major nonprofits that, in turn, host more than 300 policy projects, some of which are laser-focused on the federal judiciary. It’s noteworthy that when Republicans organize themselves to support conservative judges, the left writes furiously of “dark money.” But, when the left does the exact same thing, why, it’s just a lighter shade of gray.

Hansjorg Wyss and Arabella Advisors
Greg Kelly Reports, Newsmax, Hayden Ludwig, April 26, 2021

Hayden Ludwig joined Greg Kelly to discuss the role of Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss in funding political groups through the Arabella Advisors network.

“Shareholder Activism: Woke Capitalism from the Inside”
American Conservative, Robert Stilson (Op-ed), April 19, 2021

Conservatives are rightly vexed by “woke capitalism,” exasperated at the ways in which big American corporations are increasingly weighing in on sociopolitical issues—invariably, it seems, in favor of the progressive left. Certainly, many businesses are under pressure to do so.

Sometimes that pressure is open and public. Indeed, it can make national news. But other times it is less so. Many Americans are likely unaware of the coordinated campaigns by shareholder activists—equity owners in a corporation interested in something other than financial gain—to insert their political priorities into those same corporate boardrooms through environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) shareholder proposals.

“Privatization of Elections May Be Coming to an End”
Just the News, Scott Walter (Guest), April 19, 2021

Scott Walter, President CRC: Private funding of get out the vote may be banned in many states.

“How Mark Zuckerberg Almost Handed Texas to the Democrats”
American Conservative, Hayden Ludwig (Op-ed), 5/5, 2021

By now it’s a familiar story to many Americans that private money was just one of many irregularities that plagued the 2020 election. In numerous reports, the Capital Research Center has traced the flow of $350 million from Facebook founder and billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to county elections officials, flooding local jurisdictions with “Zuck bucks,” which aided with things like fraud-prone drop boxes and mail-in ballots.

At the heart of that story is the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), a sleepy Chicago nonprofit that barged into the 2020 election after Zuckerberg’s infusion grew its revenues by nearly 25,000 percent, turning this tiny advocacy group into a left-wing giant almost overnight.

“The Totalitarian Undertow of Social Distancing”
Issues & Insights, Jon Rodeback, April 14, 2021

Social distancing, mask mandates, and lockdowns have put civil society on ice. Church congregations either do not meet, “meet” in socially distancing congregations, or try to fellowship over video conferencing. Many schools are still closed, still trying to replace face-to-face learning with farcical “distance learning.” Public sporting events have been almost nonexistent. Many small businesses have gone under, and many of the survivors are struggling.

Most remaining social interaction has been pushed to social media, which at its best is a weak substitute for face-to-face human interaction. Even ardent supporters of mask-wearing can’t deny that they stifle communication, verbal and nonverbal. When was the last time you saw someone smile in public?

“Justice Breyer Comes Out Against Court-Packing—Left-Wing Dark-Money Groups Are Very Upset!”
National Review, Carrie Severino, April 7, 2021

Justice Stephen Breyer asserted his opposition to packing the Supreme Court in remarks he made yesterday at Harvard Law School. The Court’s authority, he said, relies on “a trust that the court is guided by legal principle, not politics.” So “[s]tructural alteration motivated by the perception of political influence can only feed that perception, further eroding that trust.”