The Credible Think Tank Is Dead

The ousting of a Google critic at the New America Foundation shows how donors have corrupted Washington's policy and research institutes.

By John B. Judis

New Republic - September 15, 2017

The New America Foundation is reeling from controversy after its decision late last month to “part ways”—in the words of the group’s president, Anne-Marie Slaughter—with anti-monopoly crusader Barry Lynn and his Open Markets project. It’s a complicated story with diverging accounts, but The New York Times summed it up neatly: “Google Critic Ousted From Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant.”
In a nutshell, according to the Times and correspondence released by New America: Google and Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, are major donors to New America, and Schmidt served as New America’s chairman. Lynn and his project have been critical of the tech giants, and in June published an endorsement of the European Union’s antitrust judgment against Google. Company representatives expressed their displeasure to Slaughter, and she accused Lynn of “imperiling the institution as a whole.” Slaughter asked Lynn and Open Markets to leave.

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