Where Is The Franklin Center Centered?

Via Erik Gunn of Milwaukee Magazine, we find a link to a most interesting investigative story done on the shadowy shenanigans and sketchy capers of the Franklin Center. Here are a couple of highlights:

I've had a little time to look through the Franklin Center's 2010 form 990 now, and there are a few things I'm going to point out to you about it before giving you the whole thing to peruse on your own time. First, the Koch Brothers' crime family apparently had a little more money for the Franklin Center in 2010 than they had in 2009. You'll recall the Franklin Center got nearly $3 million in 2009 (actually $2,918,431), most or all of it laundered through the Sam Adams Alliance. In 2010, the Koch Brothers' crime family coughed up an additional $900,000 or so, for a total of $3,776,997 in 2010. Add the income amounts disclosed for the two-year period, and you get almost $6.7 million ($6,695,428). That's a pretty sweet two year budget -- average of $3.3 million -- for a start-up non-profit organization founded and based (for its first year or so) in an indiscrete, seasonal taffy shop in Medora, North Dakota, don't you think?

Second, the Franklin Center has apparently notified the IRS that they've now had an address change. While their 2009 Form 990 listed their address at the Bismarck UPS Store, in 2010 they are saying they're based in Alexandria, Virginia. I think that's interesting primarily because they haven't bothered to tell the North Dakota Secretary of State that they have had a change of address, nor have they told the Virginia State Corporation Commission that they are no longer a "foreign corporation."

And this look at how they might be spending their lucre:

Good question. I figured that they must be spending it all on grant money to in-place news entities, but that's not the case. According to their 2010 form 990, it appears they only gave about $315,600 in grants to fake news outlets. Their single largest category of expenses for 2010 is the "Fees for services: other" category, to which they paid $1,734,369. There's really no way to know, but my guess is that's money spent on the state-based fake news websites they finance all around the country. The next biggest expense is legal fees, at $503,166. Again, no way to know for sure, but I'm guessing that's mostly to pay lawyers to defend those fake news reporters when they get sued for defamation. That probably happens a lot. Then they paid out $387,202 for "conferences, conventions, and meetings." I'll get to that in a minute. The next biggest expense is for "Development" for $347,703. I'd guess that's to send all their reporters and staff to adult remedial reading, writing and math classes. This is probably a sound investment; these people obviously need that. Then another $189,000 for their annual "travel" budget. That's a pretty impressive travel budget for a little not-for-profit organization based in Bismarck. Those things make up the bulk of the Franklin Center's expenditures in 2010. (Look at the 990 report, below, to see where they spend the rest.)

So what is the Franklin Center spending its "conferences, conventions, and meetings' money on? It's hard to say. No. That's not true. To some extent it is easy to say. The Franklin Center is one of the primary sponsors of the annual "RightOnline" Republican bloggers' conference, generally scheduled to take place at the same time as the progressive "Netroots Nation" conference, and (historically) in the same city. (They try to follow Netroots Nation around, but are likely having trouble booking hotels and conference centers for 2012. Heh.) The Franklin Center is also a major sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference ("CPAC") where right-wing nutbags show up every year to out-crazy one another. They sponsor official Republican Party presidential debates. They sponsor the right-wing fascist American Legislative Exchange Council's Annual Conference. They sponsor the right-wing "Watchdog.org" state-based Fox News-like, partisan propaganda services stinking up over 20 states. And after sponsoring all of this right-wing nutbag and Republican events and propoganda, the Franklin Center very ironically claims to foster "unbiased and accurate" investigative journalism.

Do read the whole thing, it's as enlightening as it is disgusting.