On the yahoo.com front page there was a story with this title:
“The left is abandoning consensus that immigrants are not entitled to public welfare”
The phrasing immediately made my spidey sense tingle. A quick click showed that it led to USAtoday.com. The author was Robert Robb. Never heard of him. A quick google shows that he has been with the Arizona Republic for 20 years. Most of his writing seems to support right wing ideology and attack liberal positions. And he was up for an award from the Reason Foundation, and had papers published by the Goldwater Institute and the Morrison Institute.
I’ve heard of Goldwater.
I had never heard of the Reason Foundation. A quick google says it is a top 50 think tank that has a $10 million budget to produce junk science and propaganda supporting the right wing.
I had never heard of the Morrison Institute. A quick google shows that it is attached to Arizona State University and that they had recently created a Kyl Institute for Water Policy. Named after former Republican Senator Jon Kyl. I am aware of who Jon Kyle is. I wonder, does their water policy involve lead? I can guess the leanings of the institutes.
Ok. I’ve gone far enough down this rabbit hole. This little trip has uncovered 4 different think tanks of the conservative/libertarian persuasion that have millions of dollars to push their crap into the media and a central figure in the Arizona newspaper business who is a happy accomplice to their machinations.
How many baskets of deplorables does it take to make up a vast right wing conspiracy? I don’t know, but I think the threshhold was reached a long time ago.
Robert Robb got face time on USA today, Yahoo!, and the Arizona Republic. Potentially tens of millions of people will read his piece as though it was news.
Back to the original story. it is a hit piece on Democratic immigration policy with the framing that the Democrats used to support the conservative position.
Other Robert Robb articles include:
“Dem’s are repeating Hillary’s mistakes with Trump supporters”
(just what could a Dem do to swing a Trump supporter?)
“Dems may actually believe in open borders.”
(or they may not, but let’s not talk about that)
“Citizenship question much ado about nothing.”
(if you were born a citizen)
“Supreme Court got gerrymandering rule right.”
(they got it right if you are on the right)
usatoday article:
Robert Robb’s trove of tripe at Arizona Republic: