Lee Fang

Lee Fang is a reporting fellow at the Nation Institute and a contributing writer at The Nation. Fang is a former senior investigator at the Republic Report and a former investigative blogger for ThinkProgress. While at ThinkProgress, Fang wrote several articles including one regarding the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that attracted national attention.

Early life and career
Fang's hometown is in Prince George’s County, Maryland. He attended college at the University of Maryland, College Park, graduating with a B.A. in government and politics. Fang was an intern with ThinkProgress and also a researcher for Progressive Accountability. As an undergraduate, Fang also interned for Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), for the activist watchdog outfit Media Matters and for the lobbying firm Westin Rinehart. Fang has been a critic of Islamophobia of American right-wing evangelicals.

Work with ThinkProgress
Fang has published a number of articles about the funding of powerful special interests that is used to fund right wing alternative journalists and political commentators. He published several articles where he alleges that special interests manipulated the media reaction to the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Chamber of Commerce article
On October 5, 2010, Fang wrote a story on ThinkProgress, where he alleged that the United States Chamber of Commerce funded political attack campaigns from its general fund, which solicits funds from foreign sources. Fang stated that the chamber is "likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections."

The story attracted national attention. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce denied Fang's charge, stating on its website that "no foreign money is used to fund political activities. All allegations to the contrary are totally and completely false." Fang discussed the story on National Public Radio, and on MSNBC with Keith Olbermann. Fang told Olbermann that the Chamber is "going to foreign businesses and foreign individuals, saying, 'if you send us checks, you'll have a voice in American public policy debates.' They're sending those checks to the same bank account used for the attack ads."

Tea Party racism video
In July 2010, Fang posted an article on ThinkProgress titled, ‘’Yes, there is racism in the Tea Party movement’’, along with a video that he edited to back his claim. The video shows clips of alleged racism from Tea Party members at rallies. Lachlan Markay of NewsBusters responded that “It took statements out of context, claimed racism where there really was none, claimed liberal plants were authentic members of the movement, and even used video from 2006, three years before the movement existed!” Fang has since updated the article to point out the mistake that a video was added from 2006.

Tea Party censorship demands
Fang's reporting about Florida Congressional representative and Tea Party advocate Allen West, who called for the censorship of U.S. journalism based on publication of leaked documents from Wikileaks, was picked up by CBS News.

Contango article
In April 2011, Fang wrote an article titled ‘’The Contango Game: How Koch Industries Manipulates The Oil Market For Profit’’, in which he said “Koch Industries occupies a unique role in manipulating the oil market.” The story was soon after picked up by major media organizations like CBS and MSNBC.

In his journalism, Fang has previously written about the Koch brothers connection with fake grassroots movement that is portrayed in the media and extensive funding during the 2012 election. Fang has also been quoted for his coverage of Tea Party strategy documents.

Fang later was interviewed for a documentary about the Koch brothers.

Poltico's response
Politico wrote that "The Center for American Progress Action Fund openly runs political advocacy campaigns, and plays a central role in the Democratic Party’s infrastructure, and the new reporting staff down the hall isn’t exactly walled off from that message machine, nor does it necessarily keep its distance from liberal groups organizing advocacy campaigns targeting conservatives. Take ThinkProgress blogger Lee Fang’s efforts to portray the political activities of the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch as motivated by a desire to boost their profits - an argument even some liberals reject as an overly simplistic caricature."

When Politico asked Fang why the Center for American Progress declined to reveal its donors while criticizing the Kochs for not disclosing their donations, Fang said “It’s fundamentally different when you have wealthy individuals that want to donate to a worthy cause, and the Koch brothers and some of their cohorts that are funding groups that are essentially just advancing their self interests and their lobbying interests.” Fang later criticized Politico for "not writing that his side of political debates is morally right."

Writings
Lee Fang, The Machine: A Field Guide to the Resurgent Right New York: The New Press, 2013.

Media appearances
Robert Greenwald and Jeff Cole, "Koch Brothers Exposed" (DVD) New York: Disinformation, 2012. Interviews with Bernard Sanders,  Van Jones,  Bill McKibben, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Lawrence Lessig, Benjamin Todd Jealous, and  Lee Fang.