Think Progress v. Chamber of Commerce

[ProSense]

Think Progress v. Chamber of Commerce

<...>

Today, TP's Lee Fang has put new flesh on the bones of the charge. In a new investigation, Fang has identified 84 more foreign companies that donate to the CoC's 501c6 arm that is used, he writes, for attack ads. Dues contributions from these companies to the c6 total $885,000 - still not a large percentage of $75 million, but a pretty penny indeed, and far, far more than the $100,000 the chamber earlier acknowledged came from foreign companies.

<...>

Now, however, this story takes on a new aspect. Here's nearly a million foreign dollars, and Fang notes it could be more, that's apparently going directly into a group running attack ads. Speaking of allegations against Bill Clinton, the charge that he was injecting foreign money into US political campaigns was, in the 1990s, deemed by Republicans to be worthy of congressional hearings.

It will be very interesting now to see how the rest of the media follow this. They will be cautious about (that could be read: snooty about) following the lead of small and partisan web site. But certainly the chamber has more questions to answer.

Chamber representatives do have the benefit of appearing on Fox "News" to give their side of the story, as they have been doing. Fox is owned of course by the News Corporation. What is the News Corporation? A $1 million donor to that same Chamber of Commerce attack campaign.

Yeah, they're all self-righteous now, but did they forget all the calls for Clinton to disclose?

Chamber: ThinkProgress's Latest Story Is False, Too

After ThinkProgress sought to push its Chamber of Commerce/foreign donations story further today, enumerating some foreign companies that have given money to the Chamber, the group is pushing back once again: it doesn't use those funds for election purposes, the Chamber says.

From a post at the Chamber's website by Tom Collamore:

This allegation is equally false and baseless, not to mention tiresome and desperate.



The U.S. Chamber hosts several business councils, whose purpose is to promote bilateral trade and investment between the two countries. They are run as independent organizations and most members of business councils are not also members of the U.S. Chamber.



For those business councils affiliated with us, their monies are considered "restricted funds" and are held for use by those business councils. These councils have been around for decades. They have never engaged in political activity--and they never will.

The Chamber points out that FactCheck.org, the AP, and the New York Times have all questioned ThinkProgress's claim--echoed by Democrats including President Obama--that the Chamber has used foreign money to influence U.S. elections.

Well, Factcheck.org simply accepted the Chambers' denial as fact and a NYT editorial called out the Chamber.

And those pieces were before the new information surfaced.

[GreenTea]

1. K&R