“Anonymity allows bloggers and other participants to post vicious, libelous statements without fear of recrimination. There is no pretext of objectivity in the blogosphere and no journalistic morality. Instead, it has evolved into a platform for hateful, offensive attacks on institutions and individuals from all corners of society.”
– 39th Trend/Forecasting Report, The Dilenschneider Group, September 2009
The Heartland Institute often is the target of misinformation and even outright lies about its mission, funding and donors, and members and staff. These attacks come overwhelming from left-wing advocates who object to our principled stand in defense of individual liberty and limited government.
This page rebuts some of the most widely spread attacks on our reputation. The Heartland Institute welcomes alerts from allies about other attacks that should be confronted with facts. Please contact Dan Miller, executive vice president, at dmiller@heartland.org.
Additional information about The Heartland Institute’s programs, people, and funding is available in our 2008 annual report.
Q: What is The Heartland Institute?
A: The Heartland Institute is a national nonprofit research and education organization, tax exempt under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code, headquartered in Chicago, and founded in 1984. It is not affiliated with any political party, business, or foundation.
Heartland’s mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Such solutions include parental choice in education, choice and personal responsibility in health care, market-based approaches to environmental protection, privatization of public services, and deregulation in areas where property rights and markets do a better job than government bureaucracies.
Q: Is Heartland a ‘Front Group’?
A: No. The Heartland Institute is a nonprofit organization entirely devoted to advancing its mission. Heartland doesn’t adopt positions to raise money. If it did, it would avoid controversial positions on such topics as global warming, the war on drugs, and smoking bans. The following facts show that Heartland is not a “front group”:
A long history: Heartland was created in 1984 by a small group of individuals who shared a deep concern over the growth in the size and power of government. They incorporated The Heartland Institute as a nonprofit charitable organization to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Joseph Bast, Heartland’s original executive director, is still there ... now as president and CEO.
Diverse funding base: Heartland has grown slowly over the years by cultivating a diverse base of donors who share its mission. Today it has approximately 2,000 supporters. In 2008 it received 76 percent of its income from foundations, 14 percent from corporations, and 9 percent from individuals. No corporate donor gave more than 5 percent of its annual budget.
Academic fire power: More than 125 academics and professional economists serve as policy advisors to The Heartland Institute, including members of the faculties of Harvard University, The University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Georgetown University, Pepperdine University, Vanderbilt School of Law, and scores of other respected universities.
Credible with policy makers: A survey conducted in January 2009 found 85 percent of state legislators read one or more Heartland newspapers “sometimes” or “always.” More than half (51 percent) said Heartland is a “very” or “somewhat” valuable source of information. More state legislators reported using a Heartland publication to form an opinion than reported using research from any other think tank. Approximately 200 elected officials -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- serve on Heartland’s Board of Legislative Advisors.
Endorsements: Heartland has been endorsed by some of the country's leading scholars, public policy experts, and elected officials. Dr. Milton Friedman called Heartland "a highly effective libertarian institute." Cato Institute president Edward Crane says Heartland "has had a tremendous impact, first in the Midwest, and now nationally." Former CO Governor Bill Owens says “The Heartland Institute is one of the country’s best free-market think tanks.”
Policies regarding donors: The Heartland Institute enforces policies that limit the role donors may play in the selection of research topics, peer review, and publication plans of the organization. Heartland does not conduct contract research. These policies ensure that no Heartland researcher or spokesperson is subject to undue pressure from a donor.
Institutional autonomy: No one on Heartland’s board of directors works for the tobacco, oil, or automobile industries. Walter Buchholtz, a former member of Heartland’s board, was never a "public relations advisor" for The Heartland Institute -- that was his title with ExxonMobil, not Heartland. Roy Marden retired from Philip Morris long ago and left Heartland’s Board in 2008. Tom Walton retired from General Motors in 2008 and from Heartland’s board in 2009. Heartland’s board of directors has 13 members, some of whom were founding members of the organization.
Q: Can you reply to specific accusations made by DesmogBlog?
A: Yes. The DesmogBlog web site was created by John Lefebvre, who pleaded guilty to federal money-laundering charges, and Richard Littlemore, a PR consultant who was recently thrashed in a debate on global warming by Lord Christopher Monckton, to attack any organization or individual who opposes global warming alarmism.
The site (last viewed in September 2009) claims Heartland’s three international conferences on climate change were not “real” conferences at all, but rather PR stunts. In fact, nearly 200 scientists and academics spoke at the conferences and nearly 2,000 people attended. We do not script the remarks of speakers at our conferences or even see their presentations before they deliver them. People with opposing views, including Al Gore and James Hansen, are routinely invited but they boycott our events, afraid to lose debates in front of their peers. (Global warming alarmists virtually always lose debates with climate realists.)
Attendees at Heartland’s climate change conferences have told us they are “more scientific” than conferences they attend that are hosted by scientific groups! The papers are more detailed and the presentations more substantive, there is lots of disagreement among panelists, and there are always Q&A sessions. This is in sharp contrast to the increasingly politicized sessions hosted or funded by the IPCC and other government agencies ... which is to say, virtually all other conferences held on climate change.
DesmogBlog has also claimed that Heartland published a list of scientists who we claim are “skeptics” on global warming who in fact are not. This is a gross and shameless misrepresentation of the truth. Heartland posted a bibliography of peer-reviewed articles, originally produced by Dennis Avery for the Hudson Institute, that question one or more of the fundamental assumptions of the global warming alarmists – e.g., whether the Medieval Warm Period was global, whether it was warmer than the second half of the 20th century, etc. Avery subsequently published, and Heartland posted, two lists of the names and institutional affiliations of the authors of these articles, being careful to explain that “not all of these researchers would describe themselves as global warming skeptics, but the evidence in their studies is there for all to see.”
DesmogBlog attempted to generate controversy by recruiting alarmists whose names appeared in the lists to ask that their names be removed. Avery rightly refused to do so, explaining that the scientists have no right – legally or ethically – to demand that their names be removed from a bibliography composed by researchers with whom they disagree. As a courtesy, Heartland changed the headlines of some of the news releases we had used to announce the release of the lists, but the names of all the authors remain in the lists.
The important point at the base of this controversy is that the published work of many scientists, even those who publicly support the alarmist position in the global warming debate, supports the view that most or all of the modern warming is due to natural causes. This is simply a fact, and an embarrassing one to global warming alarmists. No amount of PR spin can hide this.
Q: Can you reply to specific accusations made by MediaTransparency?
A: Yes. MediaTransparency is a Web site for conspiracy theorists that grew out of attempts in the 1990s to blame liberal set-backs on what Hillary Rodham Clinton famously called “the vast right-wing conspiracy.” The site was down as of September 2009, but allegations that appeared on the site in the past are still repeated by bloggers and appear on other sites.
Mediatransparency had posted a list of contributions to The Heartland Institute allegedly made by “conservative” foundations totaling $2.6 million. We raised approximately $30 million during the 20 years (1986-2006) covered by the report, so these gifts account for less than 10 percent of our total income. Apparently it is up to us to point out the obvious: More than 90 percent of our income came from sources other than the 37 foundations our paranoid critics think rule the world.
The truth is that we solicit the support of these foundations, and they contribute because they agree with our free-market philosophy, not because we are part of some vast right-ring conspiracy.
Q: Can you reply to specific accusations made by SourceWatch?
A. Yes. SourceWatch is a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, a partisan advocacy group. Heartland is one of scores of free-market think tanks that are unfairly criticized on this site.
The site (last viewed in September 2009) devotes much space to Heartland’s alleged ties to Philip Morris and the tobacco industry. A former board member, Roy Marden, indeed worked for Philip Morris/Altria during some of his time on Heartland’s board, and he helped convince others in the company to approve contributions to us because of our opposition to high taxes on cigarettes, the abuse of tort law leading up to the Master Settlement Agreement, and other tobacco-related issues. This was not a conflict of interest: All nonprofit organizations put representatives of foundations and corporations on their boards with the expectation that they help “give or get” financial support.
Philip Morris’ support never amounted to more than 5 percent of Heartland’s annual budget. None of the correspondence between Marden and his colleagues at Philip Morris suggests any improper influence over Heartland’s programs or positions, and indeed there was none. Heartland was speaking up for over-taxed smokers and against nanny state regulations long before Philip Morris offered any funding and before Marden joined the organization’s board. None of these simple and exculpatory facts are reported by SourceWatch.
Similarly, SourceWatch reports contributions to Heartland by ExxonMobil and implies improper influence, but again presents no evidence of this occurring. Walter Buchholtz was a public relations advisor for ExxonMobil during his service on The Heartland Institute’s Board of Directors, and like Marden, he helped persuade his company to contribute to Heartland. He never exerted improper influence on any Heartland staff, and his company never gave more than 5 percent the organization’s annual receipts.
ExxonMobil has not contributed to Heartland since 2006. Indeed, gifts from all energy companies - coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear - combined did not exceed 5 percent of Heartland’s budget in 2007 or 2008.
Q: Can you reply to specific accusations made by ExxonSecrets?
A: Yes. ExxonSecrets is a project of Greenpeace, the radical environmental group that seeks to ban all or nearly all logging, mining, and cars and trucks in the U.S. Fueling alarmism about global warming by wildly exaggerating the human role and the likely consequences of warming is one way they seek to achieve these goals. Naturally, Greenpeace doesn’t like us.
The “Factsheet” on Heartland at ExxonSecrets (last viewed in September 2009) is loaded with errors, from the very first sentence (we were founded in 1984, not “the 1990s”) to the outdated lists of directors, to the false assertion that Walt Buchholtz, a former board member, “serves as Heartland’s Government Relations Advisor,” a deliberate misreading of a tax form filed several years ago. (Buchholtz was never a member of Heartland’s staff.)
The site presents a list of gifts from ExxonMobil to Heartland, apparently based on annual reports from ExxonMobil, but fails to mention that the gifts never exceeded 5 percent of Heartland’s annual budgets, makes no mention of Heartland’s policies that separate donors from our researchers and writers, and presents no evidence at all of an improper relationship. It should matter that Heartland gets 95 percent of its income from energy consumers and only 5 percent from energy producers, but this fact doesn’t appear on ExxonSecrets.
While the first gift to Heartland reported on the ExxonSecrets site appears to have been made in 1998, the site fails to report that Heartland was questioning the science behind the global warming scare since 1994. And although ExxonMobil hasn’t contributed to Heartland since 2006, Heartland greatly increased its concentration and publication output on global warming since then.
Q: Can you reply to specific accusations made by the Free Press?
A: Yes. The Free Press is an liberal advocacy group calling for greater government control over the Internet and other communication technologies. Heartland, in contrast, has published several studies and commentaries documenting the anti-consumer implications of municipal ownership of broadband systems, “network neutrality,” and other regulatory schemes. Naturally, the Free Press doesn’t like us.
In August 2009, Free Press’s “campaign director,” Timothy Karr, called Heartland “a poster child for deception. This coin-operated ‘think tank’ specializes in aping industry talking points to downplay global warming, oppose health care reform and attack Net Neutrality. Its Fortune 500 clients include Philip Morris USA, the ExxonMobil Corporation and major telecommunications companies.”
Gosh, all that because we oppose municipalities wasting taxpayer dollars on redundant broadband systems and new restrictions on how internet service providers can price access to their networks? In fact, our positions on climate change, health care, and net neutrality are all consistent with our free-market perspective and pre-date or post-date any industry funding. We do not tailor our views to raise funds, a point well illustrated by the fact that one of the two (!) funders Karr names no longer supports Heartland precisely because of our principled stand on a major issue.
There is nothing phony about The Heartland Institute, as our history, diverse donor base, academic backing, and credibility among elected officials all prove. What is phony is the Free Press, which faults us for not revealing the identities of our donors yet redacts the names and amounts of gifts on their own 990 forms to the IRS.
Q: Why doesn’t Heartland reveal the identities of its donors?
A: For many years, we provided a complete list of Heartland’s corporate and foundation donors on this Web site and challenged other think tanks and advocacy groups to do the same. To our knowledge, not a single group followed our lead.
After much deliberation and with some regret, we now keep confidential the identities of all our donors for the following reasons:
- People who disagree with our views have taken to selectively disclosing names of donors who they think are unpopular in order to avoid addressing the merits of our positions. Listing our donors makes this unfair and misleading tactic possible. By not disclosing our donors, we keep the focus on the issue.
- We have procedures in place that protect our writers and editors from undue influence by donors. This makes the identities of our donors irrelevant.
- We frequently take positions at odds with those of the individuals and companies who fund us, so it is unfair to them as well as to us to mention their funding when expressing our point of view.
- No corporate donor gives more than 5 percent of our budget, and most give far less than that. We have a diverse funding base that is too large to accurately summarize each time we issue a statement.
If you do not approve of this policy, your argument is not with us but with those who would abuse a sincere effort at transparency. We urge anyone who sees the need for objective research and commentary on public policy issues to join us as a Member or donor.
Q: Is Heartland's position on global warming "extremist" or outside the scientific mainstream?
A: No. Climate scientists at Germany's Institute on Coastal Research recently surveyed more than 500 climate scientists worldwide on global warming issues. Fewer than half the climate scientists surveyed agreed with the assertion, "Natural scientists have established enough physical evidence to turn the issue of global climate change over to social scientists for matters of policy discussion."
More than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition saying "there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing, or will in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate." There is no similar petition in support of the alarmist position that has been signed by anywhere near 31,000 scientists.
Nearly 200 of the world's leading scientists spoke at our three International Conferences on Climate Change, which took place in New York City in March 2008 and March 2009 and in Washington DC in June 2009. These include scientists from NASA and NOAA, official state climatologists, professors from prestigious universities all over the world (including Harvard and MIT), and officials at the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior.
Our conferences have been described by friend and foe alike as the most important and influential gatherings of global warming "skeptics" ever assembled. These conferences were covered by CNN, Fox News, ABC News, the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, La Monde, The Wall Street Journal, and many other media outlets.
Heartland's spokespersons have been invited to testify on global warming issues before Congress and in state legislatures and official government meetings in Ohio, Kentucky, Connecticut, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Colorado, Arkansas, and more.
These are not the activities of a group on the "extreme margin of the discourse" on global warming. In fact, the positions on global warming expressed by spokespersons for The Heartland Institute are closer to where most scientists and economists stand than are the views of well-known alarmists such as Al Gore and James Hansen and many environmental advocacy groups. The American public understands this: A majority of the public does not believe global warming is man-made or that it is a major problem.
In short, The Heartland Institute is firmly within the "mainstream" of expert opinion on global warming. Its spokespersons are credible and respected in the national and international debate. Those who claim otherwise should be asked to document the existence of the alleged "consensus" in favor of their alarmist visions of future global warming.
Q. Is Heartland’s position on tobacco control “extremist” or outside the scientific mainstream?
A. No. Heartland’s long-standing position on tobacco is that smoking is a risk factor for many diseases; we have never denied that smoking kills. We argue that the risks are exaggerated by the public health community to justify their calls for more regulations on businesses and higher taxes on smokers, and that the risk of adverse health effects from second-hand smoke is dramatically less than for active smoking, with many studies finding no adverse health effects at all. These positions are supported by many prominent scientists and virtually all free-market think tanks.
We take these principled positions on tobacco control despite their being very politically incorrect and despite receiving little (and in some years no) funding from tobacco companies because they are freedom issues. The left uses junk science to demonize smokers, which then clears the way for higher taxes on smokers, restrictions on their personal freedoms, and restrictions on the property rights of the owners of bars and other businesses. This is why advocates of liberty must address tobacco control issues, even if it means losing financial support from potential donors who are anti-smoking.
Attacks on the reputations and ethics of the scientists we work, which frequently appear online, are uninformed and disheartening. Dr. Bruce Ames, Dr. James Enstrom, and Dr. Kip Viscusi, to name just three, are among the world’s elite experts on cancer, epidemiology, and risk. Their accomplishments and personal integrity vastly exceed those of their critics. Just as importantly, their ideas and factual statements are readily available on our Web site and elsewhere, open to rebuttal and discussion.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to read and understand the science of second-hand smoke and the economics of excise taxes and smoking bans. Our critics ought to actually read what Ames, Enstrom, and Viscusi have written and point out their errors, if they exist, rather than engage in ad hominem attacks. It’s obvious that few of them have or can.
Q. Was Ben Domenech, managing editor of Health Care News, accused of plagiarism?
A. Yes. Domenech has admitted to plagiarizing from a variety of sources and in different kinds of articles during his college years. He confessed his transgressions, apologized for them on many occasions, to the public as well as the original authors, and has emerged as a stronger editor for the experience.
Domenech’s career since he left college has been admirable. He worked in the speechwriting office of President George W. Bush and as a speechwriter for Tommy Thompson, then secretary of Health and Human Services, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). In addition, he has worked as an editor for Regnery Publishing Co. on multiple New York Times best-sellers and co-founded the popular conservative Web site RedState.com. He conceived and launched The City, an academic journal focused on faith, culture, and politics, published by Houston Baptist University. And he continues to write opinion columns and analytical articles for major news publications today.
Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, said, “I believe in second chances. Domenech brings strong talents as an editor and manager to his job at Health Care News. Our readers will benefit from his work history, his sources, and his editing abilities, and we look forward to his ongoing relationship with Heartland for years to come.”
