Like Democracy Now! and FAIR, Chip Berlet's Political Research Associates alternative media group has been subsidized by the Militaristic U.S. Establishment's Ford Foundation in recent years. In 2002, the Ford Foundation gave Chip Berlet's Political Research Associates $175,663 in grant money. That same year the Ford Foundation also gave a grant of $100,000 to the Militaristic U.S. Establishment's Council on Foreign Relations "for the development of a Council Task Force on Terrorism." A few years ago, the Ford Foundation also gave a $701,130 grant to the Council on Foreign Relations for "core support for the activities of the Program on Alternative Future for Southern Asia, its Energy and United States Policy."
Coincidentally, Chip Berlet's Political Research Associates has apparently not been eager to do any research about the Ford Foundation's historical role in funding either the Council on Foreign Relations, the RAND Corporation or the Institute for Defense Analyses.

The source for the information about Political Research Associates being given $175,663 by the Ford Foundation in 2002 is the Form PC Annual Report for fiscal year ending 12/31/02 of Political Research Associates. The report also indicates that for a work week of 32 hours, Political Research Associates Senior Analyst John Berlet was paid $37,806 for the year, plus benefits worth $8,922. PRA's office director was paid an annual salary of $52,499 and PRA's Director of Development was paid a salary of $47,258 in 2002.The information is also contained on PRA's Form 990 for 2002.

In addition to the $175,663 that Political Research Associates received from the Ford Foundation in 2002, PRA was also given $51,500 in grant money by former Clinton Administration Peter Edelman's Public Welfare Foundation. In the early 1970s, a former Deputy Director of Research for the CIA named Herbert Scoville, Jr. apparently sat on the board of the Public Welfare Foundation.

I don't think the information about Ford Foundation's funding of Chip Berlet's PRA has been posted in many places yet. But it's possible that the Ford Foundation web site would list its $175,663 in grants to the PRA. If I recall correctly, when Chip appeared on this list or the Pacifica Radio’s community email discussion list -- newpacifica list -- in 2002 he failed to disclose the fact that PRA was receiving funds from the Ford Foundation.

It appears, in addition, that the reason the Ford Foundation is using the Funding Exchange as its conduit to channel $500,000 to various U.S. alternative media groups in 2003 may be because some of the indymedia groups were unwilling to accept direct grants from the Ford Foundation in 2002 because of its historic CIA ties and its present U.S. power elite ties.

Bob Feldman