Saturday, February 15, 2014

Data Visualization: Tides Versus ALEC.

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 975 -- The Left-Wing Tides Foundation Escapes Scrutiny, Despite Funding Far More Causes Than ALEC-
The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, now receives a great deal of scrutiny from the establishment media for exerting undue influence on state legislatures. The narrative the media advocate is that evil corporations are funneling "dark" money through ALEC to legislators and state-based groups to advance nefarious causes, like lower taxes and such.
But when it comes to accepting "dark" money, ALEC pales in comparison to the left-wing Tides Foundation (and affiliated Tides Center):
tidesversusalecchart.gif
click the image above for a larger version
A search of non-profit grant databases reveals 139 grants worth a total of $5.6 million to ALEC since 1998. By comparison, Tides is the Mega-Goliath of dark money cash flows. Tides received 1,976 grants worth a total of $451 million during the same period, or nearly 100 times as much money as ALEC. But even that’s not the whole story with Tides, which unlike ALEC, has divided and multiplied over the years. Add to the Tides Foundation total the directly linked Tides Center's 465 grants with a combined worth of $62 million, and the total is well over half a billion dollars.
Earlier this year, we visualized the leftist Tides Foundation versus the libertarian/conservative Koch brothers, in terms of media coverage and grants given by the respective sides to respective activist causes:
tidesversuskoch.gif
click the image above for a larger version
So the next time you see/read/hear about "dark money" and ALEC or the Kochs in your media outlet of choice, and you don't see anything about Tides, it's time to fire your media outlet.
via:http://www.willisms.com/archives/2013/12/data_visualizat_1.html

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