''ThinkProgress'' was an American
progressive news website that was active from 2005 to 2019. It was a project of the
Center for American Progress Action Fund
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The president and chief executive office ...
(CAP Action), a
progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. Founded by
Judd Legum
Judd Legum (born December 8, 1978) is an American journalist, lawyer, and political staffer.
Early life
Legum was born in Annapolis, Maryland. Legum earned a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy analysis from Pomona College and a Juris Doctor ...
in 2005, the site's reports were regularly discussed by mainstream news outlets and peer-reviewed academic journals. ''ThinkProgress'' also hosted a climate section called ''Climate Progress'', which was founded by
Joe Romm
Joseph J. Romm (born June 27, 1960) is an American author, editor, physicist and climate expert, who advocates reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming and increasing energy security through energy efficiency, green energy techn ...
.
In 2019, after financial losses, CAP Action unsuccessfully sought a new publisher for the site.
No new content has been added since September 2019, rendering ''ThinkProgress'' effectively defunct.
History
''ThinkProgress'' was founded in 2005 by
Judd Legum
Judd Legum (born December 8, 1978) is an American journalist, lawyer, and political staffer.
Early life
Legum was born in Annapolis, Maryland. Legum earned a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy analysis from Pomona College and a Juris Doctor ...
, a lawyer, who ran the site until he left in 2007.
Faiz Shakir
Faiz Shakir (; born 1979) is an American Democratic political advisor. He serves as senior advisor to Bernie Sanders and executive director of the nonprofit media organization ''More Perfect Union''. Previously, he was campaign manager for Bern ...
edited the site from 2007 until 2012,
when Legum returned as editor-in-chief.
[ Legum left the site again in 2018. ''ThinkProgress'' described itself as "editorially independent" of the ]Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The president and chief executive officer ...
(CAP) and CAP Action.[ In its early years, ''ThinkProgress'' included a daily newsletter that contained a recap and analysis of major political news and the blog ''Wonk Room'', which was published until 2011. In that year, the site was redesigned to offer sections organized by subject matter, and other CAP Action blogs were consolidated into the site. The site was then divided into sections covering climate, economy, health, justice, ]LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
, world, culture, sports, politics and features. In 2017, the site's organization returned to a less segmented presentation.
''ThinkProgress'' had a staff of five in 2006[ and 42 in 2017.][ In 2015, the staff of ''ThinkProgress'' unionized with the ]Writers Guild of America, East
The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is a labor union representing writers in film, television, radio, news, and online media.
The Writers Guild of America, East is affiliated with the Writers Guild of America West. Together the guilds admi ...
. Previous staffers who went on to write for other media outlets include Alyssa Rosenberg and Andrea Peterson, who joined ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''; Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias (; born May 18, 1981) is a liberal American blogger and journalist who writes about economics and politics. Yglesias has written columns and articles for publications such as ''The American Prospect'', ''The Atlantic'', and ''Sla ...
, who moved to ''Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'' and Vox; Zaid Jilani, who writes for ''The Intercept
''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...
''; and Nico Pitney Nico Pitney (born 1981) is an American journalist, editor and media executive who has helped lead several prominent left-leaning media outlets, including ''HuffPost'' and ''NowThis.''
Pitney was born in Tokyo and attended the University of Californ ...
and Amanda Terkel, who joined ''The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
''.[ Shakir, who led the 2020 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, now heads (together with Pitney) More Perfect Union, a labor-focused news outlet that he describes as "''ThinkProgress'' for a digital age."]
''ThinkProgress'''s climate section, ''Climate Progress'', was founded by climate scientist Joseph J. Romm. The section discussed climate and energy
In the 21st century, the earth's climate and its energy policy interact and their relationship is studied and governed by a variety of national and international institutions.
The relationships between energy-resource depletion, climate change, ...
, political news related to climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, and responses to climate change by the media. In November 2016 ''ThinkProgress'' launched a "Trump Investigation Fund" crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...
effort.[ In 2017, Michael Goldfarb, founder of the conservative newspaper '']The Washington Free Beacon
''The Washington Free Beacon'' is an American conservative political journalism website launched in 2012.
The website is financially backed by Paul Singer, an American billionaire hedge fund manager and conservative activist.
History
The ' ...
'' and its parent company, the Center for American Freedom, said he modeled them on ''ThinkProgress'' and CAP.
Closure
In mid-2019, after the site had experienced declining revenue, traffic and donations, CAP put ''ThinkProgress'' up for sale. No buyer was found. A plan to make ''ThinkProgress'' the institutional blog of the Center for American Progress was abandoned, and publication on the site ended on September 5, 2019.
Reporting
Impact on mainstream press
''ThinkProgress'' reports drew comment from news outlets such as ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine and CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
. For example, ''Times'' reporter Ian Urbina
Ian Urbina (born March 29, 1972) is an American investigative reporter who has written for a variety of outlets, including ''The New York Times'' and ''The Atlantic''. Urbina is the author of The New York Times Best Seller list, ''The New York T ...
, in his coverage of hostility in the health care reform debate, cited a 2009 ''ThinkProgress'' report by Lee Fang
Lee Fang (born October 31, 1986) is an American journalist. He is currently an investigative reporter at ''The Intercept''. Previously, he was a reporting fellow at The Nation Institute and a contributing writer at ''The Nation''. Fang was also a ...
on a Tea Party Patriots
The Tea Party Patriots is an American conservative political organization founded in 2009 as part of the Tea Party movement. It is known for organizing citizen opposition to the Affordable Care Act during the presidency of Barack Obama, and more ...
strategy memo advocating disrupting town hall meetings of Democratic members of Congress.
After the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster
The Upper Big Branch Mine disaster occurred on April 5, 2010 roughly underground in Raleigh County, West Virginia at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine located in Montcoal. Twenty-nine out of thirty-one miners at the site were killed ...
in 2010, ''ThinkProgress'' reported on the safety record of mine owner Massey Energy, finding over $2.2 million in fines levied by the Mine Safety and Health Administration
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) () is a large agency of the United States Department of Labor which administers the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act) to enforce compliance with mandatory safet ...
against Massey for more than 3,000 safety violations; ''Times'' reporter Tom Zeller Jr.
Thomas Zeller Jr. (born April 30, 1969) is an American journalist who has covered poverty, technology, energy policy and the environment, among other topics, for a variety of publications, including 12 years on staff as a writer and editor at ''T ...
cited the figures in the ''Times''s coverage of Massey's safety record. In 2013, ''ThinkProgress'' posted a video of Pam Simon, a staffer for Representative Gabby Giffords
Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American retired politician and gun control advocate who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing from January 2007 until January 2012, when she resigned ...
, who was shot alongside Giffords in 2011, confronting Senator Kelly Ayotte
Kelly Ann Ayotte ( ; born June 27, 1968) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from New Hampshire from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Ayotte served as New Hampshire Attorney General from ...
regarding Ayotte's opposition to closing the gun show loophole
Gun show loophole is a political term in the United States referring to the sale of firearms by private sellers, including those done at gun shows, that do not require the seller to conduct a federal background check of the buyer.
This is als ...
; the ''Times'' cited the video in a report on gun control
Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.
Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...
activism among gun violence victims. In a 2015 op-ed in the ''Times'', Charles M. Blow
Charles McRay Blow (born August 11, 1970) is an American journalist, commentator and op-ed columnist for ''The New York Times'' and current political analyst for MSNBC.
Early life
Blow was born and raised in Gibsland, Louisiana. He was educated ...
excerpted ''ThinkProgress'' research on gender in chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
hiring. The same year, Blow excerpted ''ThinkProgress'' research on the effectiveness of drug screening of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF ) is a federal assistance program of the United States. It began on July 1, 1997, and succeeded the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, providing cash assistance to indigent Ame ...
recipients in an analysis of the political rhetoric of poverty.
In 2006, ''The Guardian'' highlighted a series of reports in ''ThinkProgress'' that exposed inaccuracies in the ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
television mini-series ''The Path to 9/11
''The Path to 9/11'' is a two-part miniseries that aired in the United States on ABC television on September 10–11, 2006 and in other countries. The film dramatizes the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City and the events lead ...
''. The network re-edited several disputed scenes. In 2011 a report in ''The Guardian'' by Ewen MacAskill
Ewen MacAskill (born 1951)Bryan Burrough, Sarah Ellison and Suzanna Andrew"The Snowden Saga: A Shadowland of Secrets and Light" ''Vanity Fair'', May 2014 is a Scottish journalist. He worked for 22 years on ''The Guardian'', ending his career in ...
, Julian Borger, Jon Boone and Nicholas Watt
Nicholas Watt is a journalist. In 2016 he became political editor of the BBC's ''Newsnight''.
Early life
Watt attended King's College School in Wimbledon before studying History at the University of York between 1986 and 1989, going on to s ...
on U.S. policy toward Afghanistan excerpted a ''ThinkProgress'' interview with Senator Barney Frank
Barnett Frank (born March 31, 1940) is a former American politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. A Democrat, Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee ...
. In 2016 a ''Guardian'' investigation by Jonathan Freedland
Jonathan Saul Freedland (born 25 February 1967) is a British journalist who writes a weekly column for ''The Guardian''. He presents BBC Radio 4's contemporary history series ''The Long View''. Freedland also writes thrillers, mainly under the ...
of the basis of Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
's claims of voter fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
in the Iowa Caucuses
The Iowa caucuses are biennial electoral events for members of the Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S. state of Iowa. Unlike primary elections in most other U.S. states, where registered voters go to polling places to cast ballots, ...
excerpted a ''ThinkProgress'' report that a two-year investigation by the Iowa Secretary of State found no voter impersonation
Voter impersonation, also sometimes called in-person voter fraud, is a form of electoral fraud in which a person who is eligible to vote in an election votes more than once, or a person who is not eligible to vote does so by voting under the name ...
.
Similarly, a 2012 ''Washington Post'' article cited ''ThinkProgress'' research showing that Crossroads GPS
American Crossroads is a US Super PAC that raises funds from donors to advocate for certain candidates of the Republican Party. It has pioneered many of the new methods of fundraising opened up by the Supreme Court's ruling in ''Citizens United ...
failed to register as a nonprofit organization in Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. ''ThinkProgress'' reported an average of one school shooting
A school shooting is an attack at an educational institution, such as a primary school, secondary school, high school or university, involving the use of firearms. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shootings due to multiple c ...
every other day in the first days of 2014; ''Post'' columnist Dana Milbank
Dana Timothy Milbank (born April 27, 1968) is an American author and columnist for ''The Washington Post''.
Personal life
Milbank was born to a Jewish family, the son of Ann C. and Mark A. Milbank. He is a graduate of Yale University, where he wa ...
cited the research in a 2014 column on the lack of progress on gun control. In 2017 Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (; born 20 January 1964) is an Indian-American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's '' Fareed Zakaria GPS'' and writes a weekly paid column for ''The Washington Post.'' He has been a columni ...
, in a ''Post'' opinion piece, cited a ''ThinkProgress'' compilation of policies that candidate Trump pledged to implement on his first day as President. In 2017 ''Wall Street Journal'' columnist William Galston
William Arthur Galston (; born January 17, 1946) holds the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies and is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; he joined the think tank on January 1, 2006. Formerly the Saul Stern Professor and Dean at t ...
cited a ''ThinkProgress'' report of 52% unemployment among 16- to 64-year-olds in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, twice the unemployment rate of the city as a whole. In 2014, ''Time'' magazine, CNN and NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
picked up ''ThinkProgress'' reports on Chipotle Mexican Grill
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (, ), often known simply as Chipotle, is an American chain of fast casual restaurants specializing in bowls, tacos and Mission burritos made to order in front of the customer. Chipotle operates restaurants in the Uni ...
's including in their annual report a warning to investors regarding the risk of climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
on operations.
Research and academia
''ThinkProgress'' reports were cited by academic researchers in peer-reviewed journals such as ''Climatic Change
''Climatic Change'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media covering cross-disciplinary work on all aspects of climate change and variability. It was established in 1978 and the editors-in-chie ...
'' and ''The American Economic Review
The ''American Economic Review'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Economic Association. First published in 1911, it is considered one of the most prestigious and highly distinguished journals in the field of eco ...
''. In 2017 ''ThinkProgress'' published the disciplinary records of the New York City police officer who put Eric Garner
On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. Video footage of the inciden ...
in a fatal choke hold. ''ThinkProgress'' also tracked anti-Muslim
Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism.
The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...
and antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
incidents.
''Climate Progress''
After his 2011 ''Climate Progress'' report identifying food insecurity
Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World F ...
as "the biggest impact that climate change is likely to have on most people for most of this century", the journal ''Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'' invited Romm to write a commentary on desertification
Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused by ...
. In a 2016 article in ''The New York Times'', Andrew Revkin
Andrew C. Revkin is an American science and environmental journalist, author and educator. He has written on a wide range of subjects including destruction of the Amazon rain forest, the 2004 Asian tsunami, sustainable development, climate chan ...
recommended Romm's assessment in ''Climate Progress'' of the prospects for the climate and the environment under newly elected President Trump. Andrew Leonard
Andrew Leonard (born 1962) is an American journalist who writes feature articles for ''San Francisco'' and contributes to Medium. From 1995 to 2014 he wrote for ''Salon.com''. He has also written for ''Wired''.
Career
Leonard is credited with co ...
in ''Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
'', John Rennie of the Public Library of Science
PLOS (for Public Library of Science; PLoS until 2012 ) is a nonprofit publisher of open-access journals in science, technology, and medicine and other scientific literature, under an open-content license. It was founded in 2000 and launc ...
and Jim Naureckas Jim Naureckas (born 1964 in Libertyville, Illinois) is the editor of ''Extra!'', the magazine of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting).
He graduated from Stanford University in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in political science. He covered the ...
of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is a progressive left-leaning media critique organization based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1986 by Jeff Cohen and Martin A. Lee. FAIR monitors American news media for bias, inaccu ...
cited a 2010 ''Climate Progress'' report in their critiques of an online poll regarding attitudes toward climate change conducted by ''Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
'' magazine.
Reception
''ThinkProgress'' had about 100,000 visitors per day in 2006,[ 6 million ]unique visitors
Website popularity is commonly determined using the number of unique users, and the metric is often quoted to potential advertisers or investors. A website's number of unique users is usually measured over a standard period of time, typically a m ...
and 14 million page view
In web analytics and website management, a pageview or page view, abbreviated in business to PV and occasionally called page impression, is a request to load a single HTML file ( web page) of an Internet site. On the World Wide Web, a page request ...
s in March 2014,[ and 8 to 10 million unique page views per month in 2017.] In 2017, Lifewire
Lifewire is a technology information and advice website. The website's owner is Dotdash Meredith, originally About.com, which launched Lifewire in 2016 as one of its spin-off vertical sites.
As of April 2022, it had a global website ranking of 1 ...
ranked ''ThinkProgress'' among the ten most popular news blogs on the Internet. According to CAP, the site received "more than 12 million pageviews and 7.5 million unique visitors in June 2019".[
In 2008, '']Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine named ''Climate Progress'' one of the "Top 15 Green Websites," saying that ''Climate Progress'' "counters bad science and inane rhetoric with original analysis."[ In 2009, ]Thomas Friedman
Thomas Loren Friedman (; born July 20, 1953) is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for ''The New York Times''. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global ...
, in his column in ''The New York Times'', called ''Climate Progress'' "indispensable." In 2010 ''Time'' included ''Climate Progress'' in a list of the 25 "Best Blogs of 2010", saying ''Climate Progress'' was one of "the blogs we can't live without." In 2010, UK's ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' included ''Climate Progress'' on its list of "Top 50 Twitter climate accounts to follow", saying ''Climate Progress'' was one of "the key people and organisations you should be following on Twitter if you're interested in climate change." In 2015 Tim Ward wrote in ''HuffPost
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' that ''Climate Progress'' "has been the best available source of climate-change news for several years."[
]
Criticism
''ThinkProgress'' reports were sometimes criticized. For example, in 2010, Lee Fang wrote in ''ThinkProgress'' that the United States Chamber of Commerce
The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is the largest lobbying group in the United States, representing over three million businesses and organizations. The group was founded in April 1912 out of local chambers of commerce at the urging ...
funded political advertising campaigns from its general fund, which solicits funds from foreign sources. FactCheck.org
FactCheck.org is a nonprofit website that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in Politics of the United States, U.S. politics by providing original research on misinformation and hoaxes. It is a project of the Annenberg Public Po ...
said that the claim that "foreign corporations are 'stealing our democracy' with secret, illegal contributions funneled through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce" had "little basis in fact. ... At least 84 foreign companies pay at least $885,000 in dues to the hamber of Commerce according to ThinkProgress. Still lacking, though, is any proof that the money is being used in the chamber’s ad campaign." Eric Lichtblau
Eric Lichtblau (born 1965) is an American journalist, reporting for ''The New York Times'' in the Washington bureau, as well as the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''Time'' magazine, ''The New Yorker'', and the CNN network's investigative news unit. He ha ...
of ''The New York Times'' said that the article "provided no evidence that the money generated overseas had been used in United States campaigns."
Editorial independence
In 2015, Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
wrote in ''The Intercept
''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...
'' that CAP officials pressured ''ThinkProgress'' staff into placating the Israeli government and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC ) is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the legislative and executive branches of the United States. One of several pro-Israel lobbying organizations in the United Stat ...
(AIPAC) in their Middle East reporting, while noting that CAP had cited strategic interests for its stance: "The clear and overwhelming record of the literally hundreds of articles and policy papers from the Center for American Progress and ''ThinkProgress'' demonstrates our longstanding support both for Israel and the two-state solution to the Middle East peace process as being in the moral and national security interests of the United States."
References
External links
* {{official website
10 Years of ''ThinkProgress'' and the Future of Digital Media
(2015 panel discussion)
American political websites
American political blogs
Internet properties established in 2005
Media analysis organizations and websites
Progressivism in the United States
Internet properties disestablished in 2019