Capital Research Center

Capital Research Center (CRC) is a conservative non-profit organization that was founded in 1984 by Willa Johnson "to study non-profit organizations, with a special focus on reviving the American traditions of charity, philanthropy, and voluntarism." They also investigate "viable private alternatives to government regulatory and entitlement programs". The CRC is commonly understood to pursue a right-wing agenda. [cite journal|last=Buttel|first=Frederick H.|coauthors=Kenneth A. Gould|year=2004|title=Global social movement(s) at the crossroads: some observations on the trajectory of the anti-corporate globalization movement|journal=Journal of world-systems research|volume=X|issue=1|pages=51–52|id=ISSN|1076-156X|url=http://jwsr.ucr.edu/archive/vol10/number1/pdf/jwsr-v10n1-buttelgould.pdf|accessdate=2006-05-07] [cite web|last=Berkowitz|first=Bill|year=2004-12-10|url=http://www.mediatransparency.org/storyprinterfriendly.php?storyID=35|title=The Capital Research Center at 20|publisher=Media Transparency|accessdate=2006-05-07] [cite web|year=2005 May/June|url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2005/05/exxon_chart.html|title=Put a tiger in your think tank|publisher=Mother Jones|accessdate=2006-05-07] [cite web|last=Roddy|first=Dennis B.|year=2004-03-07|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04067/281739.stm|title=Right zooms in on Heinz grants|publisher=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|accessdate=2006-05-07]

The stated mission of the CRC is to oppose left-wing politics::"a unified, sophisticated and well-funded philanthropic elite is dedicated to imposing on us the doctrine of 'progressive' philanthropy, doctrines that would reorder our political, economic and cultural priorities. This movement, driven by a bankrupt ideology, long since disproved by history, would impose its own standards of 'social justice' based on more involvement of government in philanthropy and more involvement of charities in politics. It has lost faith in the traditional American values of individual responsibility and free choice, to say nothing of the diversity in the marketplace of ideas." [ [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Capital_Research_Center Capital Research Center - SourceWatch ] ]

Policy stances

David Hogberg, who used to be Research Associate and Executive Director of GreenWatch and EducationWatch, discussing attacks at Oxford that destroyed a boathouse [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1807047,00.html British animal rights activists spread violence on Continent - Times Online ] ] [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2030113,00.html Oxford braced for attacks by animal rights extremists - Times Online ] ] , wrote in his blog entry at their official site, "The animal rights extremists are, like most terrorists, cowards. Now that they can’t go after their usual targets because of heightened security, they are targeting Oxford boathouses." [ [http://www.capitalresearch.org/blog/default.asp?archiveID=111 Capital Research Center: ] ]

Hogberg also completed a study that claimed to show that the philanthropic giving of the Fortune 100 corporate foundations in the U.S. was heavily skewed to the political left. [http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/FW0806.pdf]

Capital Research Center is highly critical of the environmentalist movement. In 2006 it published "", a book by Dr. Bonner Cohen.

History

CRC was founded in 1984 by Willa Johnson, former Senior Vice President of the Heritage Foundation, Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel in the first Reagan administration, and as a legislative aide in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The Washington, DC-based think tank hails Alexis de Toqueville, advocate of civil society, as "the great observer of early American Society." CRC's current president is Terrence Scanlon, a former chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission who served during the Reagan administration. [ [http://www.capitalresearch.org/about/bios.html CRC Staff Biographies ] .

Funding

According to MediaTransparency, CRC has received 182 grants between 1985 and 2003 totalling $7,778,153, its most generous contributors being Sarah Scaife Foundation, Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, and The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc., among others.

Criticism

The Capital Research Center came under fire in the 1990s for publishing studies highly critical of charities which engaged in anti-tobacco lobbying efforts [ [http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2023914980.html Charities' Anti-Tobacco Lobbying Is Criticized ] ] . These charities include the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society. It was later revealed that tobacco giant Philip Morris provided $50,000 in funding to the Capital Research Center [ [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1448234 Public Health Under Attack: The American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST) and the Tobacco Industry ] ] .

ee also

*Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
*Think tank

External links

* [http://www.capitalresearch.org/ Capital Research Center Official Site]
* [http://www.rightalk.com/ Capital Research Center's online radio show, "Organization Watch," which is broadcast live every fourth Tuesday and then replayed repeatedly]
* [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Capital_Research_Center Source Watch Write-up]
* [http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientgrants.php?48 Media Transparency: CRC Recipient Grants]

References