The Think Tank As Flack.

• Author: CALLAHAN, DAVID

How Microsoft and other corporations use conservative policy groups

ON SEPTEMBER 18, The New York Times ran a breathless front-page account of corporate propaganda. The Microsoft Corporation, we learned, had bankrolled a California think tank--ironically named the Independent Institute--to run full-page newspaper ads supporting Microsoft's claim of innocence in the face of federal antitrust charges. The ads took the form of a letter signed by 240 academic "experts" and purported to be a scholarly, unbiased view of why the government had gone overboard in its case against the company. According to the Times article, Microsoft had not only paid for the ads, but was in fact the single largest donor to the Independent Institute, a conservative organization that has been a leading defender of the company since it first came under fire from federal prosecutors.

This revelation has been an embarrassment both to Microsoft and to the Independent Institute, which claims to adhere to the "highest standards of independent scholarly inquiry" But the Times is another institution that should be embarrassed, trumpeting the story as a shocking expose. To be sure, the article had timely elements, running on the eve of final arguments in the high profile Microsoft trial. But framed more broadly, the tale of right-wing think tanks propagandizing on behalf of their corporate masters is now many years old. What was truly remarkable about the Times story is that the paper has nm so few similar stories and has failed to report on one of the most important ways in which corporate dollars seek to influence public policy.

Three mighty rivers of private money now help shape American politics. The first, and most familiar, is direct campaign contributions to political candidates and parties. Little mystery surrounds this giving. Unmistakably, these donations are naked attempts by corporations and other donors, like unions, to influence the political process. In the past quarter century, untold numbers of news stories have exposed this dark side of American democracy and efforts to dam the campaign spending river have long been underway.

The second great river of money goes to underwrite a vast lobbying apparatus in Washington and state capitals. Again, this is a river that flows largely in public view, thanks to the efforts of muckraking journalists and good government groups. The shopworn image of special interest lobbyists circling around federal and state legislators like buzzards is one reason why so many Americans distrust government.

The third river of private money flowing into politics is less well-known, but nearly as wide and deep as the other two. It is the money which underwrites a vast network of public policy think tanks and advocacy groups. Historically, much of this money--on both the left and the right--has come from foundations. For public policy organizations on the left and the center, this source of money remains dominant, with some funds also coming from unions. However, the big development of the 1990s is that conservative institutes have had spectacular new success in tapping business money to fund ideologically charged policy research.

Over the past 10 years, a huge influx of private sector money has allowed conservative think tanks and advocacy groups to grow by leaps and bounds. Not only are well-known organizations like CATO, the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation more flush with cash than ever, but giving by corporations and...