Alternative Media Censorship: Sponsored By CIA's Ford Foundation?--Part 6

"The Progressive Media Project is an affiliate of The Progressive, Inc., the nonprofit educational institution that also publishes The Progressive magazine….In 1993, Allen Hunter, then of the Havens Center at the University of Wisconsin, and Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive, came up with the idea for the Progressive Media Project….With crucial…help from the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Progressive Media Project began to assign, edit, and distribute 200 op-ed commentaries every year….”

--from the Progressive Media Project website

(Note: The following historical article about the hidden financial history of the U.S. alternative media and its historical left gatekeepers was written in 2002. So in 2012, some of the left gatekeepers mentioned in this 2002 historical article may have moved on to other positions within the U.S. alternative media/left subculture or mainstream U.S. media or academic world during the last 10 years.)

Progressive

The editor of Progressive magazine, Matthew Rothschild, also attempted to marginalize 9/11 conspiracy journalists and researchers a few months ago. Coincidentally, the Madison, Wisconsin-based Progressive enterprise has also been receiving a lot of money from the foundations of a politically unprogressive U.S. Establishment since the 1990s.

In 1992, for instance, a $50,000 grant was given to Progressive by the MacArthur Foundation (on whose board ABC News radio commentator Paul Harvey and Enron Global Power & Pipelines director Thomas Theobald sat for many years) "to solicit and disseminate opinion pieces relevant to U.S. foreign policy and international security." That same year, "several MacArthur staff members" were "called to consult with staff members of Bill Clinton's presidential campaign," according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. And, during the late 1990s, one of the top Clinton Administration economic policymakers, Laura Tyson, became a member of the MacArthur Foundation board of directors.

An additional $150,000 grant was also given to Progressive by the MacArthur Foundation in 1994. And in 2002, the MacArthur Foundation gave $120,000 more in grant money to the Progressive enterprise, whose magazine anti-conspiracy theorist Matthew Rothschild edits.

Like FAIR/CounterSpin and Pacifica/Democracy Now!, the Progressive enterprise has also been receiving a lot of money from the Ford Foundation since the 1990s. In 1998, for instance, Progressive was given a $200,000 grant by the Ford Foundation (on whose board of trustees sat Clinton crony Vernon Jordan). And in 2000, two more grants, totalling $250,000, were given to Progressive by the Ford Foundation.

Besides receiving grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation, Progressive has also obtained funds from The Rockefeller Foundation in recent years. In 1998, for instance, a $50,000 grant was given to Progressive by The Rockefeller Foundation.

In 2000, Progressive Inc. took in an annual income of $1.7 million, including $69,727 from its sale of advertising space. And its editor, Matthew Rothschild, has apparently been paid an annual salary of $44,468 in recent years--for putting out a Democratic Party-oriented magazine that rarely mentions the Ford Foundation's historic relation to the CIA and rarely publishes articles written by 9/11 conspiracy journalists or researchers.

(end of part 6 of 2002-written historical article)