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Aug 28 7 tweets 4 min read
#THREAD

A literature review compiled by @transparify shows news Editors & journalists fail to distinguish between genuine think tanks that conduct independent policy research, & fake tanks that abuse the label to surreptitiously promote vested interests of hidden paymasters.
Due to the financial opacity of fake tanks, it's impossible to tell whether those who pull the strings behind the scene are domestic or foreign players: Tufton St's Adam Smith Institute is so opaque it is not only unclear who gives the money, but also which entities spend it.
Such hidden influence is especially worrying when self-proclaimed ‘think tanks’ use the media to shape coverage of party politics in the run-up to an election.

The IEA released a statement in the run-up to #GE2017 denouncing @UKLabour's manifesto as “delusional & incoherent”.
The IEA took down the statement from its website, but an archived version is still available online.

The IEA did not back up its claims with a study, & it refuses to disclose who funds it, but at least two major UK news outlets covered its commentary.
web.archive.org/web/2017051709…
For now at least, there are rules to ensure there is transparency around spending on campaigning at elections, but this does not cover editorial content, & there are no mandatory requirements for charities or think tanks to disclose who funds them.

In short, there appear to be no effective legal or regulatory barriers preventing fake tanks backed by secretive players from setting up shop in London and using attention-grabbing press releases to generate fake news.

#EnoughIsEnough

transparency.org.uk/fake-news-fake…

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More from @docrussjackson

Aug 28
#THREAD

GB "News" is owned by All Perspectives Ltd, which as of August 2022 is controlled by three significant shareholders, all of whom work with Dubai-based investment firm Legatum.

The CEO of GB "News", Angelos Frangopoulos, who formerly ran Sky News Australia, has form...
In control of All Perspectives are: Paul Marshall (25-50% ownership of voting rights); Legatum investment firm CEO Mark Stoleson, Chair of Legatum Institute Foundation, Alan Mccormick & billionaire Chris Chandler, who all have significant control over the trustees of a trust.
In July 2016, multimillionaire Paul Marshall donated £3,250 to Michael Gove's Tory Party leadership campaign. In 2017 he gave funding to the divisive partisan "political news" website UnHerd, & in 2019, he "gave" £500,000 to the Conservative Party.

Read 15 tweets
Aug 28
This is just one recent example of the dangerously irresponsible shameless normalisation of divisive neofascist rhetoric from the anti-British non dom billionaire-owned Telegraph columnist.
Read 4 tweets
Aug 28
#THREAD

Koch & other US Libertarian billionaire-funded low-tax deregulatory antidemocratic anti-abortion anti-Net Zero free-market think tanks are driving the Tories' policy agenda & are supported by Truss & the ERG.

These think tanks also influence Britain's extremism policy.
In November last year, Priti Patel said it was "an honour" to give a keynote speech on security at the Koch-funded anti-abortion Heritage Foundation think tank HQ in Washington, which rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.

Facing accusations of downplaying Islamophobia, & known for his reactionary views, the "temporary" contract for the role of UK head of the 'Commission on Countering Extremism', appointed in March 2021, was extended for the Heritage Foundation's hard-right extremist Robin Simcox.
Read 22 tweets
Aug 27
That not a single UK print or broadcast national news media outlet has so far even mentioned that GB "News" presenter Neil Oliver last night interviewed someone who in 2016 described the #Holocuast as "a lie", is as chilling as it is mind-blowing.

WTAF happened to #NeverForget?
To its credit, the Jewish Chronicle has at least covered this story - but shamefully for UK journalism, it remains the only national "news" organisation to have done so.

thejc.com/news/news/outr…
Read 8 tweets
Aug 27
This makes me sick to my stomach.

GB "News" is giving airtime to one of the most influential far-right voices in Europe, who until recently was denying the #Holocaust.

FFS @Ofcom, what will it take to reign in this dangerously irresponsible Channel?

hopenothate.org.uk/2017/08/01/far…
And of course this grotesque dangerous far-right freak is being amplified by Sophie Corcoran.

Whatever happened to #NeverForget & #NeverAgain?

This is horrific, & extremely dangerous.

British people should be appalled that GB "News" is shamelessly platforming the far-right.
Peter Imanuelsen, aka Peter Sweden, is a far-right British national, a conspiracy theorist & a "xenophobic pseudo-journalist who has denied the #Holocaust, called the moon landing a “hoax,” & suggested that #LGBTQ people be sent to camps."

FFS @Ofcom.

mediamatters.org/donald-trump/m…
Read 9 tweets
Aug 27
When a tax-avoiding non-dom billionaire-owned newspaper, which always represents its owner's interests & relentlessly demonises anyone making calls for progressive taxation or improved working conditions, offers a competition to prevent readers dying, you're living in a dystopia.
Read 5 tweets

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