Tucker Carlson hypes Kremlin Agitprop as defacto Putin mouthpiece in US

[Anonymous]

DAILY CALLER:
The Daily Caller is an online media outlet founded by conservative TV commentator and journalist Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, former chief policy advisor to Vice President Cheny. Launched on January 11, 2010, The Daily Caller positioned itself as a conservative alternative to The Huffington Post. [1], [2]
DeSmog and the Washington Post reported $3 million in funding for The Daily Caller came from climate change denier and GOP supporter Foster Friess, who had reportedly found sponsorship from a range of organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Mining Association, and Southern Company, all major opponents of meaningful action to curb climate change. [4], [5]
Writing at the Washington Post, Howard Kurtz reported that “Carlson insists this won’t be a right-wing site” and quotes Carlson saying “we’re not enforcing any kind of ideological orthodoxy on anyone.”
DeSmog also noted that The Daily Caller‘s appointment of former RNC press secretary Moira Bagley to the position of opinion editor called into question Carlson’s statement that the site wouldn’t cater to the right-wing crowd. [4]
The Daily Caller is home to reporter Michael Bastasch, who has regularly promoted the views of climate change deniers such as Richard Lindzen, Anthony Watts, Andrew Montford, Judith Curry, and many others.
Tax disclosures revealed The Daily Caller’s nonprofit received $960,000 from the Charles Koch Foundation in 2017 and another $20,000 from the Charles Koch Institute. In the prior year, the two combined gave a total of $958,000, amounting to 83 percent of The Daily Caller News Foundation’s annual budget. When combined with the approximately $150,000 given by the Trump campaign in 2016, the total represented 97% of the group’s budget that year. [45]
Nonprofit Status Questioned
While The Daily Caller describes itself as a “for-profit, independent news outlet” that generates revenue through advertising, it runs alongside its 501(c)(3) non-profit counterpart, The Daily Caller News Foundation, also founded by Carlson and Patel. Public 990 tax forms reveal that The Daily Caller News Foundation, which distributes content “without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience,” receives significant funding from foundations backed and directed by the Koch and Scaife families (see “funding” section below). [1], [3]
In 2017, an investigation by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) examined the relationship between The Daily Caller and its connected nonprofit. That relationship “raises significant questions about whether the (c)(3) is operating for private benefit instead of for a charitable or educational purpose consistent with its tax-exempt status,” according to Elizabeth Kingsley, a nonprofit tax expert at the D.C. law firm of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisenberg. [43]
CMD also found that, through the Daily Caller, Tucker Carlson rented out an email list to the Donald Trump campaign for president for an estimated $150,000. While it is unclear how much of that value went to Carlson himself, he never disclosed this campaign funding in relation to his coverage of the presidential race at FOX News. News of the CMD investigation also broke at The Washington Post. [44]
While The Daily Caller’s nonprofit arm described itself as a “consumer research educational organization” whose goal is to provide “consumer news and research” to “mainstream consumers,” CMD‘s investigation found “one of the Daily Caller News Foundation’s primary activities is to provide The Daily Caller Inc. with a steady stream of content for its for-profit news website.” The Daily Caller promoted this in its materials for advertisers, as excerpted below: [43]
“The Daily Caller News Foundation has an advantage that most new media outlets do not: access to millions of views. Reporting created by The Foundation is automatically sent for consideration to the for-profit Daily Caller.”
Tucker Carlson’s Alleged “Misogynistic and Perverted Comments”
In March 2019, Media Matters for America released audio in which they suggest Tucker Carlson made “numerous misogynistic and perverted comments” during his appearances on the radio program Bubba the Love Sponge between 2006 and 2011. Audio below: [46]
2009, August, https://www.desmog.com/daily-caller/
Host: "He's in prison for facilitation of child rape"
Carlson: "Whatever the hell that means"
Co-Host: "That means [cut off]"
Carlson: "He's in prison because he's weird and unpopular and he has a different lifestyle that other people find creepy."
[..]
Carlson: "The rapist, in this case, has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person, so it's a little different. I mean, let's be honest about it."
https://www.desmog.com/daily-caller/

PATEL
"Carlson and Patel, who were roommates at Connecticut's Trinity College"
"Patel, who was nominated by the Bush White House to run the National Telecommunications and Information Administration -- he was never confirmed -- has a home in Jackson Hole, where Friess is based, and a friend arranged a meeting in September. Friess, an investment magnate and a Christian philanthropist, has donated $689,000 to Republican organizations and the Bush presidential campaigns over the last decade."
"Why would Friess insist that he didn't even want to serve on the company's board? "He's eccentric," Patel says."
Friess, who has gone hunting with Cheney, is a man of many opinions. He has sent out fundraising letters to fight the Democrats' health-care legislation, calls much of the information on global warming "distorted and manipulated," and says "the American public is oblivious to the fact that we are at war and that just playing defense is a disastrous course to take."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/10/AR2010011002388_pf.html

FRIESS:
2010 Spoke to a Tea Party rally in Phoenix, Arizona
Friess reportedly has put more than $3M into conservative commentator Tucker Carlson's The Daily Caller website..[15]
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Foster_Friess

GINNI THOMAS:
She went on to work with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and for the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing powerhouse that has played an instrumental role in an unqualified Trump success — stacking the court with conservative judges such as Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who were selected and vetted by the foundation.
She spent several years as a special correspondent for The Daily Caller [..] Her last contribution there was in 2018, but the articles feature headlines like, “Dems Are On The ‘Greatest Witch Hunt Since Salem,’ According To Donald Trump Jr.”
https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-donald-trump-presidential-elections-election-2020-clarence-thomas-8e73931b61f04a64c47511dc15d2f2e3

THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce describes itself as “the world’s largest business organization representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions.” The primary focus of the U.S. Chamber is advocacy and lobbying for pro-business policies. In 2015, the chamber spent more than $80 million on lobbying efforts.1
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors, which it says “determine the U.S. Chamber’s policy positions on business issues and advise the U.S. Chamber on appropriate strategies to pursue,”2 includes representation from the fossil fuel industry such as ConocoPhillips and Consol Energy (one of the biggest coal producers in the US), large pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Bayer, and the tobacco company Altria (formerly Philip Morris).3
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce claims to have millions of members and represent both large and small businesses, but its membership list isn’t public and as a trade association, the group has no legal obligation to disclose its donor [sic].
The U.S. Chamber was a member of the Global Climate Coalition (GCC) before it disbanded in 2002. GCC was an industry group opposing policies that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, early members included Amoco, the American Forest & Paper Association, American Petroleum Institute (API), Chevron, Chrysler, Cyprus AMAX Minerals, Exxon, Ford, General Motors, Shell Oil, Texaco, and more than 40 other corporations and trade associations.7 8
In September 2010, two watchdog groups, U.S. Chamber Watch and StopTheChamber.com, filed complaints (PDF) with the Internal Revenue Service asking it to investigate the chamber for fraud and money laundering. They alleged the chamber illegally funneled donations from wealthy charitable foundation Starr Foundation into its political battles.9
Chamber Watch also said $12 million of an $18 million donation that Starr Foundation gave to the National Chamber Foundation were in loans that had not been repaid by the chamber. Chamber Watch also said this money had been diverted to political causes that would shield companies like AIG from liability lawsuits.
Sourcewatch notes that the Starr foundation includes a number of connections to AIG including founder Cornelius Vander Starr, who also founded AIG. The foundation’s Chairman of the Board of Directors is Maurice R. Greenberg, former President and CEO of AIG. The Foundation’s Director (and Treasurer) Howard I. Smith was also AIG‘s former Chief Financial Officer.
In 2010, the New York Times reported that half of the Chamber’s $140 million in contributions for 2008 had come from just 45 donors [..] As it is not required to disclose its donors, the precise funding values of the US Chamber of Commerce are unclear. The following is a brief summary based on available data compiled by the Conservative Transparency project, and only a small sample of the full funding received by the Chamber.25 [..] Note that Conservative Transparency data does not specify if funding was to the US Chamber or US Chamber Foundation. Not all funding values have been verified by DeSmog.
Crossroads GPS $5,250,000
Freedom Partners $5,000,000
https://www.desmog.com/us-chamber-commerce/

CROSSROADS GPS
Crossroads GPS is often described as a "dark money" group because it is organized as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit and does not disclose its donors, despite spending millions to influence political campaigns. During the 2012 election cycle, Crossroads GPS and its affiliated SuperPAC American Crossroads spent at least $175 million on ads influencing the 2012 presidential and senate elections, making them the largest outside spending group active in the 2012 election.[2] Their total was likely much higher, as Crossroads GPS is not required to disclose all of its spending. The Center for Media and Democracy estimates that the groups spent just over $240 million in total in 2011 and 2012.
The American Crossroads SuperPAC established another political nonprofit, One Nation, in 2015. One Nation has spent heavily in Senate races for the 2016 election cycle.[3]
Crossroads GPS reported the following grants in 2014:[20]
American Future Fund: $2,000,000
Carolina Rising Inc: $4,820,000
Center for Individual Freedom: $40,000
Ethics and Public Policy Center: $50,000
Kentucky Opportunity Coalition: $390,000
National Rifle Association: $125,000
National Right to Life: $900,000
John Hay Initiative: $50,000
U.S. Chamber of Commerce: $5,250,000
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Crossroads_Grassroots_Policy_Strategies

FREEDOM PARTNERS
Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, or Stand Together, replaced the Koch network's Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce (previously the Association for American Innovation), which folded in May 2019.
Koch Industries issued a press release in 2013 stating that Freedom Partners was legally separate from the corporation, but Freedom Partners was controlled by Koch loyalists.[3] Politico describes the group as "the Koch brothers' secret bank."[4][5] Additionally, a document discovered after the winter 2014 donor meeting revealed extensive one-on-one meetings between donors and "representatives of the political, corporate, and philanthropic wings of Kochworld."[6]
Freedom Partners was previously chartered as a Delaware corporation,[9] but as of 2017, it lists Arlington Virginia as its address.[10]
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Stand_Together_Chamber_of_Commerce

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Former Stand Together Chamber of Commerce/Freedom Partners Employees in Trump Administration
As of March 2020:[11]
Marc Short (former President), White House Director of Legislative Affairs and Assistant to the President
Erin Paige Agostin, Education
Edward Ajaeb (former Analyst), Office of National Drug Control Policy
Brittany Baldwin (former Deputy Director of Writing), White House Office
Luke Alexander Beckmann (former Analyst), Department of Homeland Security
Natalie Boyse, Education
Luke Alexander Beckmann, Homeland Security
Samantha Dravis (former Legal Counsel), Environmental Protection Agency (resigned April 2018)
Stephen J. Ford (former Director of Writing), Office of the Vice President
Andrew D. "Andy" Koenig (former Vice President of Policy), White House Office
Gary Michael Lawkowski (former Legal Counsel), Department of the Interior
Michael P. McKeown, Department of Homeland Security
Michael A. "Mike" Roman, (former Vice-President), White House Office
Bethany Scully (former Deputy Director Member Relations), White House Office
Cooper James Smith (former Research Associate), Department of Housing and Urban Development
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Stand_Together_Chamber_of_Commerce

KOCH
Charles Koch is the right-wing billionaire owner of Koch Industries. As one of the richest people in the world, he is a key funder of the right-wing infrastructure, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the State Policy Network (SPN). In SourceWatch, key articles on Charles Koch and his late brother David include: Koch Brothers, Americans for Prosperity, Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, Stand Together, Koch Family Foundations, Koch Universities, and I360.
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Stand_Together_Chamber_of_Commerce

Readfearn ticks off a number of current Daily Caller employees that got their start in the Kochtopus network.
A prime example is our favorite Daily Caller churnalist, Michael Bastasch. Before joining the Daily Caller News Foundation, he was an intern at Heritage, an intern at the Charles Koch Institute, a research associate at the State Policy Network-affiliated Cascade Policy Institute, a Koch summer fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies, and a public affairs intern at ALEC. Not exactly the pedigree of an unbiased journalist.
In his defense, this revealing CV is all public on his LinkedIn page, which also tells us that his “skills” aren’t so much “journalism” or “reporting,” but “politics,” “public affairs,” “political communication,” “public relations,” etc. Which makes sense, since his BA isn’t in journalism or English or anything traditional for a reporter. No, as his skill set suggests, his degree is in political science. Which again, to be fair, isn’t particularly uncommon for reporters. But, when combined with his work history at exclusively Koch-backed operations, makes it hard to argue that he’s a real reporter and not a political operative. That he now works not for the for-profit Daily Caller, but the Koch-funded Daily Caller News Foundation makes it that much more obvious.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/6/17/1539772/-Why-Do-the-Kochs-Want-To-Hide-Donations-From-The-IRS-The-Answer-WON-T-Surprise-You

[Anonymous]

Is the Chamber of Commerce donation list the smoking gun?

[Anonymous]

Tucker's flawless logic at work:

[Anonymous]

I’m on my phone and not going to attempt to clip the quote but from Tucker’s quote on child rape and supporting Warren Jeffs… I’m beginning to suspect that he shares the GOP’s predilection for children.

[Anonymous]

The holiest of the 'Holier than Thou's,'
in their closets worship cows..

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tucker's flawless logic at work:

“I didn’t die from the vaccine so why do you think others have?”

[Anonymous]

Whelp, there you go - too much Agitprop from Carlson - it turns out even Fox has its limits:

https://press.foxnews.com/2023/04/fox-news-media-and-tucker-carlson-part-ways