Hypocrisy Grows in Sunlight

Last week, we reported on the undisclosed funding and conflicts of interest behind the pro-regulatory “research” being peddled by The Sunlight Foundation and picked up by the New York Times. Following that Big Government report, Sunlight scurried to put up a post mentioning that pro-net neutrality companies also hire government officials and spend money on lobbying and disclosing that “Google senior manager Kim Scott sits on the Advisory Board of the Sunlight Foundation.”

The most interesting aspect of this story is not really about Internet regulation, though.

The real issue is how the Sunlight Foundation, which says it exists to push “transparency in government,” actually has a stunningly hypocritical stance with its own funding and self-interest.

All you have to do is to look at its Board of Directors and major donors (often one and the same). Start with Craig Newmark, founder of the eponymous Craig’s List. His foundations gave Sunlight $10,000 in 2009 (Craig Newmark Philanthropic Fund) and $50,000 in 2010 (Craigslist Charitable Fund). Craig Newmark sits on the Board of the Sunlight Foundation, and has been one of the leaders in lobbying for heightened government regulations on broadband.

Next, you have Google, which has joined Newmark in financing pro-Net neutrality lobbying for years and which has a senior executive on Sunlight’s Advisory Board. It wasn’t until our post that the Sunlight Foundation thought it relevant to mention that their Advisory Board and major donors contain people with a direct financial interest in regulation for which Sunlight is providing helpful “transparency research”. The New York Times didn’t mention that, either.

Apparently transparency is only for those on the other side of the political aisle.

But what really takes the cake for an organization that criticizes others for lack of transparency is that Harvard Prof. Larry Lessig sits on Sunlight’s board. This is roughly like having Bernie Madoff on the board of an accounting firm.

As described by Andrew Orlowski at The Register recently, Professor Lessig (a professor of ethics, no less!) seems to have made a killing advocating on behalf of the gambling industry. Orlowski’s remarkably detailed reporting shows how Lessig’s for-profit iCommons attracted more than a million dollars in contributions from “newly-formed and secretive off-shore trusts” about three years ago, shortly after a new U.S. law took effect that curtailed online gambling.

As for current funders of Lessig’s group, that’s anyone’s guess since Lessig’s London-based nonprofit Creative Commons does not disclose a list of its donors.

The issue here is not the politics. It’s the hypocrisy. The Sunlight Foundation is being funded to advocate for left-wing policies, while claiming to be a non-partisan “transparency” organization. Transparency has become a shield for overtly left wing lobbying.

The media, of course, doesn’t ask these questions.