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.
Congressman In Charge of Overseeing Wall Street Records Video Praising Bank Lobbyist
Bank lobbyist Charlie Black occupies a warm place in Congressman Jeb Hensarling’s heart. “Charlie taught me a lot about politics, taught me a lot about legislation, and I’ve always sought his advice and counsel. He just does such a great job and demands so much respect on Capitol Hill,” says Hensarling in a video recorded
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Colin Powell Chairs Business Accused of Systematically Defrauding Veterans
As veterans return home to earn a college degree, many say they have been defrauded out of their education benefits from a company chaired by none other than retired general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell is the chairman of the advisory board to Leeds Equity Partners, an investment firm that co-owns for-profit
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Conservative ‘Free Beacon’ Fronts for Lobbying Firm, Including Taiwanese Lobby
(Cross-posted from The Nation) The Washington Free Beacon, a new website on the right, has a particular fascination with promoting weapon sales to Taiwan. In addition to daily hits on the Obama administration and Democrats, the Free Beacon has multiple posts calling for more F-16 fighter jet sales to the island nation, and has branded skeptics of militarization
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Unions Contract Out to Lobbying Firms That Work for Anti-Worker Groups
The following is a joint investigation of In These Times and Republic Report. By Mike Elk and Lee Fang As labor seeks to communicate its message in the media and influence policy, many unions are looking to outside consultant firms. These groups sometimes provide the technical expertise, media suaveness, and necessary connections for unions to get
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Google Goes Out Of Its Way To Help Coal Lobby Target Congress
Google prides itself as a company that goes out of its way to address climate change. An entire website is devoted to Google’s efforts to achieve a “zero” carbon footprint, from energy efficient servers to CO2-reducing investments. But Google’s green PR campaign doesn’t seem to be coordinating its message with Google’s DC advocacy and campaign
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Senators Portman, McCaskill and DeMint Move to Strike Congressman Tom Reed’s Donor-Driven Earmarks
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by freshman Congressman Tom Reed (R-NY), are pushing to violate the congressional earmark ban with a miscellaneous tariff bill that provides special tax treatment to targeted companies looking to import goods. The bill, which provides an uneven playing field for business, is widely viewed as a payback to campaign
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Maine’s Two Senators Were Once Champions Of Campaign Disclosure; Now They Bow To K Street-Prescribed Secrecy
If Maine’s two senators, or even one of them, had stood by their long-held principles, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today where the majority of the outside spending groups are completely undisclosed, and even foreign corporations can spend in our elections without any transparency. Because of the Supreme Court, we can’t limit
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Flashback: Mitch McConnell Once Voted To Ban Groups Like Americans For Prosperity And The NRA From Running Ads
In 2002, Senator Paull Wellstone (D-MN) offered an amendment to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation to ban so-called “sham issue advocacy” groups from airing ads within 60 days of an election. His amendment targeted undisclosed campaign groups — from the NRA, to the Sierra Club, and the National Right to Life. If it weren’t
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