Lee Fang is a researcher. He works for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org.
Background
Lee's hometown is in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Lee attended college at the University of Maryland, College Park and graduated with a B.A. in Government and Politics.[1]
Media and Political Experience
Lee was an intern with ThinkProgress and also a researcher for Progressive Accountability. During his undergrad, Lee also interned for Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), Media Matters for America, and Westin Rinehart.[1]
United State Chamber of Commerce controversy
On October 5, 2010, Fang broke a story on ThinkProgress.Org which alleged that the United States Chamber of Commerce funded attack campaigns from its general fund which "solicits foreign funding". The article cited the opinion of legal experts who claimed that the Chamber of Commerce attempted to get around campaign finance laws which ban foreign corporations from becoming involved in American elections [2]
Fang's article immediately attracted media attention. A day after its publication, the New York Times published an op-ed that raised concerns about whether or not campaign finance laws were being violated with the "commingling of secret foreign money" into the United States Chamber of Commerce.[3]
Fang's story was reported on again in the New York Times on October 8, 2010. The article pointed out that Obama, after having been aware of the Fang's claims, stated that, "“Just this week, we learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign corporations... so groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections.”[4]
FactCheck.org called responded to this story by stating the accusation is "a claim with little basis in fact",[5] while The New York Times wrote, "[T]here is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual, according to both liberal and conservative election-law lawyers and campaign finance documents".[6]
Reporting on Koch Brothers
Fang is a critic of the Koch Brothers, owners of Koch Industries, the second largest privately owned company in the United States. [7]
On April 13, 2011, Fang's article The Contango Game was electronically published on ThinkProgress's website.[8]
On June 28, 2011, Fang accused the Koch Brothers, the United States Chamber of Commerce, Wal-Mart, and other corporations as being "at the forefront at exploiting the new Wild West of unmitigated corporate electioneering." [9] On June 29, 2011, Mark Hemmingway, a blogger for The Weekly Standard wrote an article responding to Fang's criticism: "In the case of the Koch brothers, they have been outspoken philosophical libertarians for decades. Their support of free speech over onerous campaign laws is entirely consistent and should not be surprising." Hemmingway also went on to call Fang's crticism of Wal-Mart as being "hypocritcal" due to information from a Washington Examiner article that stated Wal-Mart is "a donor of at least $500,000 and possibly as much as $999,999 to the Center for American Progress, which employs Yglesias and Fang"[10]
References
- ^ a b "Lee Fang". Center for American Progress.
- ^ Fang, Lee. "Exclusive: Foreign-Funded 'U.S.' Chamber of Commerce Running Partisan Attack Ads". ThinkProgress.Org.
- ^ "Clean and Open American Elections". The New York Times. 6 October 2010.
- ^ Lichtblau, Eric (8 October 2010). "Topic of Foreign Money in U.S. Races Hits Hustings". New York Times.
- ^ Jackson, Brooks. "Foreign Money? Really?". FactCheck.org. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
- ^ Lichtblau, Eric. "Topic of Foreign Money in U.S. Races Hits Hustings". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
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(help) - ^ Hemingway, Mark. "De-Fanging Think Progress' Attack Dog". The Weekly Standard.
- ^ Fang, Lee. "The Contango Game: How Koch Industries Manipulates the Oil Market for Profit". ThinkProgress.
- ^ Fang, Lee. "Blow to Public Financing At The Supreme Court Litigated By Koch and Walton-Funded Groups". ThinkProgress.
- ^ Carney, Timothy P. "Big Business, Koch, and free Markets". Washington Examiner.