In Washington D.C., lawmakers, government officials and the news media rely on think tanks to provide policy analysis and scholarship. These think tanks are supposedly independent, but a new investigation by the New York Times shows that more than a dozen prominent groups have accepted tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments.
From the story: "The money is increasingly transforming the once-staid think-tank world into a muscular arm of foreign governments’ lobbying in Washington. And it has set off troubling questions about intellectual freedom: Some scholars say they have been pressured to reach conclusions friendly to the government financing the research."