"Independent" Think-tanks

There is no such thing as an "independent" think-tank. Or at least, if there is, think-tanks' use of the word is misleading, because it relates to independence from particular group-types (such as political organisations), and not independence from all with an axe to grind. They can't be fully-independent: most are privately funded. Why would companies fund a think-tank that doesn't produce results that benefit them? Conversely, how would a think-tank function if it was completely impartial and thus received no funding?

Take Civitas as an example. It recently made the news for releasing research that showed longer prison sentences were a good thing.

My guess is that most of the companies funding their Civitas think-tank (the funders' names, suspiciously, do not have to be made publicly available) are... those that stand to make money out of running prison services. Longer prison sentences means that more prisons (and thus money) will inevitably be needed. Just fancy that!

My guess is also that other (really-independent) researchers have found longer prison sentences have the opposite effect, and that Civitas has chosen the group most likely to represent the findings that benefits it. In fact, I've found a good example here.

I did some research into Civitas, suspicious as to why news articles seem to be so keen to associate the spin agency – er, think-tank – with the word "independent." Do a search for that word on this page. It turns out that the oft-used phrase "independent think-tank Civitas", comes from... Civitas press releases! So when it comes to corporate news, the agencies get it from the mouth of the company they're reporting on. (Incredibly, although The Guardian succumbed to using the corporate brainwashing word "independent," BBC News didn't.) And it's so good to see that Civitas are impartial enough not to promote itself in a good light by flooding news articles with the word "independent." Do call me a cynic. Or a realist.

Imagine how many other articles you're reading that are dictated directly by corporations, and how many you should be reading but aren't because they portray corporations in a negative light. Do you trust your beloved news source now? Do you think you're getting the news, the whole news and nothing but the news?