Heritage Foundation "a once-proud organization reduced to selling Trump Steaks to stay in business."

[kpete]

.........

Nine years and two Heritage Foundation presidents later, the patina of intellectual freedom at Heritage appears to have been completely scrubbed away. Earlier this month the Dispatch’s Audrey Fahlberg and Charlotte Lawson painted a disturbing picture of Heritage’s current situation. Under Heritage president Kevin Roberts, numerous Heritage staffers were essentially muzzled in an effort to stay in the good graces of Donald Trump:

Several former experts and researchers detailed limitations on their intellectual freedom beginning in the Trump era, such as being told to delete tweets and ignore areas of agreement with perceived political opponents. In almost every case, the restrictive measures served a partisan end.

“There were several instances where I was asked to scrub the phrase ‘President Trump’ from my pieces. I think it was to tamp down any suspected criticism,” said one former Heritage employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about internal dynamics. “We were definitely discouraged from mentioning the Biden administration by name as well, unless we were attacking them.”

Another former employee said staffers were also told to avoid referring to incoming President Joe Biden as the “president-elect” until electoral votes were certified on January 6, 2021, to avoid lending implicit legitimacy to the 2020 election.

One former employee recalled being instructed by management not to quote or cite Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley because of his strained relationship with former President Donald Trump. Another former employee said Heritage leaders declined a request to conduct a public panel with Republican Sen. Mitt Romney for similar reasons.

Unsurprisingly, this kind of speech policing has lead to considerable turnover and a situation in which Heritage Action — the think tank’s lobbying arm — is now the tail that wags the dog. As Fahlberg and Lawson note, “scholars who have left say that Heritage Action’s ascendance within the organization has continued to muddy the distinctions between its research side and its lobbying arm.”

.......

Many liberals don’t want to hear this but back in the day Heritage had a solid reputation for producing quality policy analysis. Now… it seems to be the think-tank equivalent of Newsweek. As the weekly news magazine has faded away, some idea entrepreneurs have bought up legacy media outlets in an effort to free-ride off of old brands while pushing conspiracy theories. This certainly happened to Newsweek — a onetime rival to Time that is now a husk of its former self. One senses that Heritage is following the same path: a once-proud organization reduced to selling Trump Steaks to stay in business.


the rest:
https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-newsweek-of-think-tanks?sd=pf

[Joinfortmill]

1. Oh, well. They allowed a criminal to corrupt their ethics.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Tarnished brand hollowed out by pursuit of money and power - Couldn't Facebook it any better

[AntivaxHunters]

3. Imagine thinking the Heritage Foundation

was "once a proud organization"?

Proud of what?

Harming 10s of millions of people for opposing basic human rights such as healthcare, a woman's right to choose, education, and living wages?
Miss me with this shit.

[Yoyoyo77]

8. Heritage's middle name? That's right Climate Denial!!!!!

[hatrack]

4. "Once-Proud"? Huh?

More like a prison hulk for hacks stranded on a mudbank in New Jersey. Its residents, however, think they're scudding across the Pacific under full sail beneath bright blue skies.

[Maraya1969]

5. I don't know who they had this "Solid reputation for producing quality policy"

I remember James Dobson, who I think was a previous president or higher up, produced this "Study" that proved that children growing up with gay parents had a harder time than children growing up with straight parents.

The problem was, if you went to the study and looked at it, it was only between a single gay parent vs. 2 straight parents. It was typical evangelical bullshit that they used to spread homophobia.

[dawg]

6. Heritage was never anything other than a right-wing propaganda farm.

They have always started with the policy answers their wealthy donors preferred, and then worked their way backwards in order to try and fabricate believable justifications.

[Midnight Writer]

7. This "think tank" has exactly one "thought"; tax cuts for the rich.

They are another phony nonprofit who try to put a philosophical sheen on naked greed.