Does anyone know...

[kag]

If there is a clearinghouse website where I can find out if a particular organization is truly "bipartisan" or unbiased? Of course, all of them claim to be, but unless they're really famous (Heritage Foundation, Independence Institute, e.g.) it's hard to tell. I kind of figure that if they hide their funders and board of directors, they're probably biased, and most likely biased toward the right.

There was a comment on a letter to the editor in my local newspaper that referenced a bunch of info and a chart. The info claimed as its source something called "The Tax Foundation" at www.taxfoundation.org . The chart used a site called "http://usgovernmentspending.com" which is pretty obviously a tea-bagger site.

But the chart looked suspicious to me, and here's why: My 15-year-old son just got finished creating a similar (though not identical) chart (yes, he does things like that for fun) but got VERY different results. I think he got his info from the iRS or the CBO, but I'm not sure. I've asked him to mail it to me, and when he does I'll post it here. It's a cool chart.

Anyway, I'm suspicious that the "Tax Foundation" "and the usgovernmentspending site are right-wing producers of data for Heritage and Independence and the like, and thus unreliable. Does anyone know if that's correct?


Link to the comment: http://www.dailycamera.com/letters/ci_18862068 (scroll down to the comments by "123commonsense".

[rurallib]

1. kick - I am no help but would like to see what answers you get

[gateley]

2. Kicking along with ruruallib - usually someone is aware of the

players.

[patrice]

3. Don't know of one, but we surely do NEED some such thing.

- Standards and criteria arrived at by consensus;
- Ratings process, including trait scoring, completely public;
- Authentically identified sample participants provide valid (or at least transparent) representation of population;
- Honest respectful, consensus derived, self-policing dialogue;
- Lather, rinse, repeat (a.k.a. evergreen).

[Luminous Animal]

4. Source Watch.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tax_Foundation

[kag]

5. Thanks, Luminous Animal

Well, given that their Board Chairman is also associated with Koch Charitable Industries, and it's president used to be a research analyst at the Heritage Foundation, I'm gonna go with..."Yeah, this is right wing data pusher."


Edited for spelling.

[JustAnotherGen]

6. You are correct

However - it's a great tool to throw up agaist conservatives. . .

[pnorman]

7. I didn't know that, but

Source Watch was always the place to go for me whenever I wanted such information. Ya know what? It still is!

[pnorman]

8. Source Watch on The Heritage Foundation:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heritage_Foundation