Beacon Center of Tennessee

Learn more about how the State Policy Network aids ALEC and spins disinformation in the states.

The Beacon Center of Tennessee (BCT, formerly the Tennessee Center for Policy Research) describes itself as "an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to providing concerned citizens, the media and public leaders with expert research and timely free market policy solutions to public policy issues in Tennessee." BCT is a member of the State Policy Network (SPN).

Ties to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity

As the publisher of TennesseeWatchdog.org, The Beacon Center of Tennessee hosts writers from the ALEC-connected Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which screens potential reporters on their “free market” views as part of the job application process. The Franklin Center funds reporters in over 40 states. Despite their non-partisan description, many of the websites funded by the Franklin Center have received criticism for their conservative bias. On its website, the Franklin Center claims it "provides 10 percent of all daily reporting from state capitals nationwide."

Franklin Center Funding

Franklin Center Director of Communications Michael Moroney told the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) in 2013 that the source of the Franklin Center's funding "is 100 percent anonymous." But 95 percent of its 2011 funding came from DonorsTrust, a spin-off of the Philanthropy Roundtable that functions as a large "donor-advised fund," cloaking the identity of donors to right-wing causes across the country (CPI did a review of Franklin's Internal Revenue Service records). Mother Jones called DonorsTrust "the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement" in a February 2013 article. Franklin received DonorTrust's second-largest donation in 2011.

The Franklin Center also receives funding from the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a conservative grant-making organization.

The Franklin Center was launched by the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance (SAM), a 501(c)(3) devoted to pushing free-market ideals. SAM gets funding from the State Policy Network, which is partially funded by The Claude R. Lambe Foundation. Charles Koch, one of the billionaire brothers who co-own Koch Industries, sits on the board of this foundation. SAM also receives funding from the Rodney Fund.

Personnel

According to BCT's website as of April 2013, the following are organizational personnel:

Staff

• Drew Johnson, President
• Kellie Garretson, Administrative Assistant
• Trent Seibert, Director of Government Accountability (bio)
• Nicole Williams, Vice President of Operations (bio)
• Douglas Kurdziel, Research Fellow
• Trapper Michael, Research Fellow
• Daniel Phillips, Research Fellow
• Troy Senik, Research Fellow
• Luci Stephens, Research Fellow

"Scholars"

• Dale Bails, PhD, Christian Brothers University
• Robert Berry, MD, PATMOS EmergiClinic
• J.C. Bowman, PhD, Florida State University
• J.R. Clark, PhD, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
• Larry M. Hall, PhD, Belmont University
• Martin D. Kennedy, PhD, Middle Tennessee State University
• Sally Kilgore, PhD, Modern Red Schoolhouse Institute
• Shaka L.A. Mitchell, JD, Institute for Justice
• John Stone, PhD, Education Consumers Clearinghouse
• Amy H. Sturgis, PhD, Belmont University
• Charles Van Eaton, PhD, Bryan College
• Marilyn Young, PhD, Belmont University

Funding

The BCT is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, but does not disclose the sources of funding on its website.

Core Financials

2011:

• Total Revenue: $527,219.00
• Total Expenses: $536,835.00
• Net Assets: $279,211.00

2010:

• Total Revenue: $608,125.00
• Total Expenses: $360,582.00
• Net Assets: $283,244.00

2009:

• Total Revenue: $463,320.00
• Total Expenses: $583,135.00
• Net Assets: $35,701.00

Website

According to a WHOIS search, TENNESSEEPOLICY.ORG was created October 13, 2004, and registered to Drew Johnson at P.O. Box 121331, Nashville, TN 37212.

The website debuted online the week of March 8, 2005. [1]

Contact Information

P.O. Box 121331
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615 383-6431
Fax: 615 383-6432
Email: info AT tennesseepolicy.org
Website: http://www.tennesseepolicy.org/

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch Articles

• State Policy Network:
  • SPN Funding
  • SPN Agenda
  • SPN Founders, History, and Staff
  • SPN Members
  • SPN Ties to ALEC
  • Thomas A. Roe
  • Tracie Sharp
  • Byron S. Lamm
  • Roe Foundation
• American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
  • ALEC Non-Profits
• DonorsTrust
• Donors Capital Fund
• Koch Family Foundations
• Koch Industries
• Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity
• Heritage Foundation
• Think tanks
• Whitney Ball
• Adam Meyerson
• Bridgett Wagner

Related PRWatch Articles

• Rebekah Wilce, A Reporters’ Guide to the "State Policy Network": the Right-Wing Think Tanks Spinning Disinformation and Pushing the ALEC Agenda in the States, PRWatch.org, April 4, 2013.
• Sara Jerving, ALEC and Heartland Aim to Crush Renewable Energy Standards in the States, PRWatch.org, November 27, 2012.
• Connor Gibson, Meet the Network Hiding the Koch Money: "Donors Trust" and "Donors Capital Fund", PRWatch.org, October 29, 2012.
• Brendan Fischer, Koch-Funded Mackinac Center Brings Wisconsin Act 10 Provisions to ALEC, PRWatch.org, May 2, 2012.
• Sara Jerving, Franklin Center: Right-Wing Funds State News Source, PRWatch.org, October 31, 2011.

External Resources

• Center for Media and Democracy and Arizona Working Families, A Reporter’s Guide to the Goldwater Institute: What Citizens, Policymakers, and Reporters Should Know, organizational report, March 14, 2013.
• Paul Abowd, Center for Public Integrity, Donors use charity to push free-market policies in states, Consider the Source, February 14, 2013.
• John R. Mashey, Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax 2, DeSmog Blog report, updated October 23, 2012, p. 74.
• Andy Kroll, The Right-Wing Network Behind the War on Unions, Mother Jones, April 25, 2011.
• Guidestar, State Policy Network, IRS filings and other organizational information about SPN.
• Center for Policy Alternatives, ALEC and the Extreme Right-Wing Agenda, organizational brochure about ALEC and SPN.
• John J. Miller, Fifty Flowers Bloom: Conservative think tanks — mini–Heritage Foundations — at the state level, National Review, November 19, 2007.
• Bridge Project, State Policy Network, online resource listing grants to SPN and SPN's connections to other groups.
• People for the American Way, State Policy Network, RightWingWatch.org, organizational resource.
• Greenpeace, Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group: State Policy Network (SPN), organizational resource.
• "Wash. Post reported "think tank's" charge against Gore, omitted its anti-environmental background", Media Matters of America, March 1, 2007.
• "The Smearing of Al Gore," Tumeke Blogspot, March 1, 2007.
• mrs panstreppon, "Al Gore's Electricity Bills: Tennessee Center For Policy Research," TPM Cafe, February 28, 2007. Article and comments include significant research data on BCT.
• "Headline News' Stouffer called 'free market' group that attacked Gore an 'environmental group'," Media Matters for America, February 27, 2007.
• Carpetbagger, "Conservative smear machine targets Gore (again)," The Carpetbagger Report, February 27, 2007.
• Mark Memmott, "Charges, countercharges flying over Gore's electric bill," On Deadline Blog/USA TODAY, February 27, 2007.
• egalia, "Tennessee Center For Policy Research: Rightwing Smear Machine," Tennessee Guerilla Women Blogspot, February 27, 2007.
• Dave Johnson and James Boyce, "A Far Too Convenient $mear: Part One - Updated - Rush Update," Seeing the Forest, February 26, 2007; also posted at The Huffington Post.
• Report: "Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own 'Inconvenient Truth'. Gore’s home uses more than 20 times the national average," BCT, February 26, 2007. Article link posted by State Policy Network. re Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth
• John Rodgers, "Dept. of Revenue says conservative think tank 'not a legitimate group'," Nashville, TN's The City Paper Online, February 16, 2007.
• John Rodgers, "Dept. of Revenue says conservative think tank 'not a legitimate group'," Nashville, TN's The City Paper Online, February 16, 2007.
• Anne Malinee, "From Beltway to Bible Belt. Drew Johnson's Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a state-based, free market think tank, is up and running," The Vanderbilt Torch, December 15, 2005 (cache file).
• Legal Listings, Nashville, TN The City Paper Online, April 27, 2005.
• Mary Katherine Ham, "Thinking in Tennessee," The Insider Online Blog, March 8, 2005.

References

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