Saturday, November 23, 2013

Where the "spin" in SPN comes from

SPN_exposed_redSomething stinks in Rhode Island, and according to StinkTanks.org, that smell  is the Ocean State Center for Freedom and Prosperity.

A new report which follows Koch brother and other corporate spending through the State Policy Network to its state-based advocacy groups says the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, “claims to be focused on issues important to the people of Rhode Island, it actually pushes an agenda dictated by its national right-wing funders and partners.”

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity, like all SPN-affiliated groups, says it’s a non-partisan group. The group and its staff advocate on behalf of out-of-state corporate interests and often against the working class people of Rhode Island.

Justin Katz, the group’s research director, told me, “This shows that our work is having an effect, but it’s pretty clear that it was produced by outside organizations with no real understanding of what’s going on in Rhode Island.”

RI Future contributor Russ Conway gets a shout out in the report, who debunks the group’s biased research on education in this post. He wrote, “What I found though was nothing but a rehash of the standard right -wing talking points framed as “so sensible and obvious” that they needed no explanation.”

The report indicates the Center received $122,000 from the SPN in 2011 and $25,000 from the JM Foundation in 2012.

You can check out the full report here:


Bob Plain is the editor/publisher of Rhode Island's Future. Previously, he's worked as a reporter for several different news organizations both in Rhode Island and across the country.