Shadow network : media, money, and the secret hub of the radical right / Anne Nelson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nelson, Anne, 1954- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Council for National Policy (U.S.).

Conservatism--United States.

Conservatism.

Politics and government.

Right and left (Political science).

United States.

Right and left (Political science)--United States.

United States--Politics and government--21st century.

Political culture--United States.

Political culture.

Physical Description:

xix, 394 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.

Summary:

In 1981, emboldened by Ronald Reagan's election, a group of some fifty Republican operatives, evangelicals, oil barons, and gun lobbyists met in a Washington suburb to coordinate their attack on civil liberties and the social safety net. These men and women called their coalition the Council for National Policy. Over four decades, this elite club has become a strategic nerve center for channeling money and mobilizing votes behind the scenes. Its secretive membership rolls represent a high-powered roster of fundamentalists, oligarchs, and their allies, from Oliver North, Ed Meese, and Tim LaHaye in the Council's early days to Mike Pence, Tony Perkins, and the DeVos family today. In Shadow Network, award-winning author and media analyst Anne Nelson chronicles this astonishing history and illuminates the coalition's key figures and their tactics. She traces how the collapse of American local journalism laid the foundation for the Council for National Policy's information war and listens in on the hardline broadcasting its members control. And she reveals how the group has collaborated with the Koch brothers to outfit Radical Right organizations with state-of-the-art apps and a shared pool of captured voter data -- outmaneuvering the Democratic Party in a digital arms race whose result has yet to be decided.

Contents:

1 In the Beginning: Texas p. 1

2 The Birth of the CNP: Washington p. 20

3 Lords of the Air: The CNP's Media Empire p. 35

4 The News Hole in the Heart of America p. 49

5 Money People p. 62

6 Fishers of Men: Electoral Stratagems p. 77

7 Ideology 101: The CNP's Campus Partners p. 100

8 Koch, DeVos, Soros: Donors, Politics, and Pastors p. 118

9 The Obama Challenge p. 137

10 Data Wars p. 162

11 The Art of the Deal: New York, June 21, 2016 p. 191

12 "The Miracle" p. 207

13 Midterms p. 229

14 "Democracy in America" p. 248.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [273]-375) and index.

ISBN:

9781635573190

163557319X

OCLC:

1126560275