To Media Matters for America and the American Independent Foundation, two progressive groups formed by the conservative journalist-turned-Democratic operative David Brock, the scourge of so-called right-wing “dark money” is a stain on democracy.
Media Matters once declared, in a blog post on its website that Brock promoted, that the press ignores “the GOP’s dark money problem.”
However, the Brock-linked groups have also long relied on anonymous donations from shadowy organizations to keep their lights on, tax records show.
Newly filed disclosures with the IRS covering 2023 show Media Matters and the American Independent Foundation scooped up hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Hopewell Fund. The charity is part of a massive Democratic-aligned dark money network called Arabella Advisors, overseeing groups that, in turn, do not release details on their finances thanks to lax federal disclosure laws.
During the 2024 election cycle, the Brock-founded American Bridge PAC filled its war chest with tens of millions of dollars from its affiliated dark money arm registered under 501(c)(4), a section of the IRS code for “social welfare” groups that may act political and are not required to disclose their donors. American Bridge PAC, according to Federal Election Commission filings, spent around $58 million on ads opposing President-elect Donald Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris.
“David Brock and Democrats regularly lecture Americans about the need to rein in political spending, but they are benefiting the most from it,” said Jeff Clements, the CEO of a money-in-politics watchdog group called American Promise.
Brock, 62, founded Media Matters in 2004 and left the organization in 2022. Media Matters, which calls itself a “progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media,” often posts articles on its website aiming to highlight right-wing dark money groups.
“Since rebranding, the company has operated as a dark money-fueled conservative news wire service writing and distributing right-wing slanted news stories,” Media Matters said of the Center Square, a right-leaning website, in June of last year in one article.
Still, Media Matters has its own reliable dark money allies.
It has long received funding from the Hopewell Fund and the New Venture Fund, which are both in the Arabella Advisors network. Media Matters also accepts large checks through a handful of donor-advised funds, which transparency advocates have long held are dark money vehicles for the ultra-wealthy to influence the political landscape anonymously.
Anonymous-funded efforts to influence politics are a staple at the American Independent Foundation — the charity arm of a network of progressive websites shaped by Brock and panned for publishing “fake news” articles attacking Republicans.
The American Independent is behind websites peddling Democratic talking points in Michigan, Montana, Pennsylvania, and other states. This election cycle, the purported local news sites published various pieces on right-wing dark money, aiming to zero in on GOP billionaires influencing elections.
“Fossil fuel-backed dark money group dishonestly blames Casey for higher consumer prices,” read one headline in the American Independent’s Pennsylvania offshoot in July about Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).
“Right-wing think tank tied to dark money jumps into Wisconsin Supreme Court race,” another headline declared in March of last year in the Wisconsin Independent.
Based in Washington, D.C., the American Independent Foundation has taken millions of dollars over the years from the likes of Media Matters, American Bridge, and the Tides Foundation, an influential left-wing dark money group in California.
In 2022, the Hopewell Fund routed $1.3 million to the American Independent, which was once listed on American Bridge’s tax forms as a “related tax-exempt organization.”
Anonymous donations have also flooded into the American Independent Foundation through the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, the Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund, and other donor-advised funds, tax forms show.
“Brock’s donors are undoubtedly making their billions off federal contracts and in industries, like oil and gas, that benefit from the policies they oppose,” said Tom Jones, president of the conservative American Accountability Foundation watchdog group.
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“That’s likely why they’re hiding behind various donation shields,” Jones added.
Media Matters and the American Independent did not respond to requests for comment.
