Billionaire's funding attacks on University Professors
Leadership Institute
Campus Reform is published by the
Leadership Institute, a nonprofit that has trained conservative
activists for four decades through the generous funding of billionaire donors
like the Koch family. The institute reported
more than $16 million in revenue in 2018
alone.
Over the last several years,
Campus Reform has targeted hundreds of
college professors leading to online harassment campaigns, threats of violence, and
calls on universities to fire their faculty.
Campus Reform stories have regularly been
picked up by a host of conservative outlets, from The
Federalist, The Blaze, the
Post Millennial, Breitbart to
Fox News, amplifying
outrage and unleashing abuse as
far-right extremists attack online.
Morton Blackwell,
a conservative activist is the founder and director of the
Leadership Institute,
The site’s most prolific writer has published 253 articles from May 2020 to
March 2021, which could have earned him more than
$26,000.
The Leadership Institute, aims to train “freedom
fighters” to “effectively defeat the radical Left.”
Funded by a host of well-known, ultrawealthy donors,
including multiple foundations connected to the Koch
family network, the institute claims to have trained more than
200,000 conservative activists since its founding in 1979
The Leadership Institute, which employs
Campus Reform staff,
received at least $278,958 from
Koch-related foundations between 2003 and 2017.
and is also part of the State Policy Network, a
group of alleged "think tanks" and political groups funded through the
Koch network.
Top institute funders also include Donors Capital Fund
and Donors Trust,
anonymous conservative donor funds that have
been called “the Dark-Money ATM of the Conservative
Movement.”
https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/kamola.pdf ( from the
Americam Association of University Professors)
The Leadership Institute alumni include
Republican elected officials like Sen. Mitch McConnell
and former Vice President Mike Pence
as well as James O’Keefe, the right-wing
provocateur behind Project Veritas, famous
for his doctored videos targeting the
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, and
Planned Parenthood.
There is a long history of close connections between the
Leadership Institute and
white nationalist
organizations and actual fascists.
It has helped manufacture the right’s construction of
anti-antifa hysteria.
Campus Reform stories have spread on
Reddit as well as on social media platforms
favored by the far right including Parler,
the QAnon forum
GreatAwakening.win, and Patriots.win,
formerly thedonald.win .
College Fix
is another right-wing outlet with “an agenda to
undermine respect and credibility for higher education.”
Young Americans for Freedom, (YAF)
Young Americans for Freedom, (YAF),
(has chapters across the country), had declared white
supremacists, believers in the QAnon
conspiracy theory, and supporters of the Ku Klux Klan
and the Proud Boys. Some were
involved with neo-Nazi activist Richard Spencer.
The Michigan State University chapter of
YAF
has been listed by the Southern
Poverty Law Center as
a
hate group.
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Young_Americans_for_Freedom
More than half a dozen YAF affiliates have
white supremacist views or connections. There are YAF-sponsored
campus activities like a “Catch an Illegal Immigrant”
contest and a “Koran Desecration”
competition.
There is a revolving door between the Leadership
Institute, YAF, and other
conservative youth groups like
Young Americans for Liberty and
Turning Point USA.
SOURCE The Intercept
https://theintercept.com/2021/04/10/campus-reform-koch-young-americans-for-freedom-leadership-institute
