Dark Money and Project 2025: A Deep Dive into Political Secrecy and Conservative Ambitions

KPFA - Project Censored

In the first segment, we learn about the phenomenon of “dark money”: political campaign contributions designed to be difficult or impossible for the public to know about or trace. Mickey talks with media scholar Steve Macek about GOP plans for legislation to make it even easier to keep these contributions secret, as well as the failure of corporate media to energetically report on dark money and the wider issues of what big donors get for their dollars.

Then, Project Censored’s curriculum development coordinator Mischa Geracoulis guest co-hosts the show to address the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, the conservative wish list for a second Trump term. Mischa speaks with Lisa Graves, who specifically addresses how education and the media landscape would be changed if Project 2025 is actually implemented.

GUESTS

Steve Macek is a professor of communications and media studies at North Central College in Illinois. He’s also the co-coordinator, with Andy Lee Roth, of Project Censored’s Campus Affiliates Program. Steve was also one of the editors of the recent book Censorship, Digital Media, and the Global Crackdown on Freedom of Expression (Peter Lang, 2024).

Lisa Graves is the founder and executive director of True North Research, a national investigative watchdog group. She has previous experience at the Justice Department and in the federal court system. More analysis of Project 2025 can be found at project2025admin.com.

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