About: Lee Fang
Bio: Lee Fang is a reporter for The Intercept. He has a longstanding interest in how public policy is influenced by organized interest groups and money. He was the first to uncover and detail the role of the billionaire Koch brothers in financing the Tea Party movement. His interviews and research on the Koch brothers have been featured on HBO’s “The Newsroom,” the documentaries “Merchants of Doubt” and “Citizen Koch,” as well as in multiple media outlets. He was an investigative blogger for ThinkProgress (2009-2011) and then a fellow at the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute and contributing writer for The Nation. In 2012, he co-founded RepublicReport.org, a blog to cover political corruption that syndicates content with TheNation.com, Salon, National Memo, BillMoyers.com, TruthOut, and other media outlets. His work has been published by VICE, The Baffler, The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Progressive, NPR, In These Times, and The Huffington Post. His first book, “The Machine: A Field Guide to the Resurgent Right,” published by The New Press, explores how the conservative right rebuilt the Republican Party and its political clout in the aftermath of President Obama’s 2008 election victory. He is based in San Francisco.
Palantir Hires Former Congressman to Oversee D.C. Operations, Doesn’t Register Him as a Lobbyist
“The air is fresher outside of Washington,” said Zach Wamp, a Republican politician after he left his seat in Congress. Wamp told reporters that he would not pursue a career in lobbying. Instead, he founded a firm that he said would focus on “business development” in Chattanooga, Tennessee. But like many other former officials, leaving
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Media Companies Lobby for Trans-Pacific Partnership
Earlier this month, Media Matters for America published a short research note revealing that most major cable and broadcast news outlets have largely ignored the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Media Matters’ “transcript search of CBS Evening News with Scott Pelly, ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer, and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams from August 1, 2013 through
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Comcast-Funded Latino Groups Celebrate Comcast Merger
While many community advocates expressed skepticism about the proposed merger between Comcast Corporation and Time Warner Cable, a certain subset of Latino organizations immediately celebrated the deal. The “United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) congratulates Comcast for its planned acquisition of Time Warner Cable,” proclaimed a press release sent to reporters last week. “Comcast is
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Refineries Seeking Canadian Tar Sands Quietly Finance Pro-Keystone XL Advocacy
The Consumer Energy Alliance has played a key role in building support for the Keystone XL pipeline. The group sponsored a pro-pipeline study, provided letters used by members of Congress to endorse the project, mobilized thousands of petitions to the State Department, and even created the website “BuildKXLNow.org.” David Holt, president of CEA, portrays his group
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Obama Admin’s TPP Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks
Officials tapped by the Obama administration to lead the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations have received multimillion dollar bonuses from CitiGroup and Bank of America, financial disclosures obtained by Republic Report show. Stefan Selig, a Bank of America investment banker nominated to become the Under Secretary for International Trade at the Department of Commerce, received more
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Pro-Keystone XL Labor’s Short Term Strategy: Fund Union-Busting
Several construction labor unions have decided to lend their support to the Keystone XL. Though critics charge that the pipeline will lead to a drastic increase in carbon emissions, the unions, including Laborers International Union and the International Union of Operating Engineers, have endorsed the project in exchange for several thousand short-term jobs and only 35
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How the Manufacturer of Chemical in WV Spill Lobbies to Prevent Regulation
As 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM), a coal-processing chemical, leaked into the Elk River in West Virginia last month, the health effects of the substance were not, and are still not, clear. Both federal and state officials know little about the chemical, even though it has been in use for decades. And if Eastman Chemical Company, the
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Revolving Door: Top Obama Admin Antitrust Officials Tied To Comcast
The news that cable and news giant Comcast has struck a deal to purchase Time Warner, another large cable business, has raised concerns over market concentration. Observers note that the combined company, even if it divests some holdings, would create monopoly-like conditions for the industry. Many are predicting a lobbying blitz by both companies to
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