In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media network--Part 21

In The Pay of Foundations---Part 21

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers.

Although large numbers of people from the Dominican Republic now live in New York City area from which the parallel left Democracy Now! radio and cable tv show originates, since 2004 Democracy Now! has not provided its listeners with many news segments examining which special U.S. corporate interests benefited most from the Democratic Johnson White House’s decision to order U.S. military troops to occupy the Dominican Republic in 1965 or many weekly updates on the 21st-century political and economic situation within the Dominican Republic.

One reason might be because the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation has given the Democracy Now! media firm over $1.5 million in grants since 2004; and the long-time president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation, Bill Moyers, was one of the Johnson White House officials responsible for the decision to order U.S. troops to invade and occupy the Dominican Republic in late April 1965, in violation of the United Nations Charter.

LBJ's Military Occupation of Dominican Republic Protected G. and W. Investments

But a year before U.S. troops were sent to the Dominican Republic by the Johnson White House in 1965 the U.S.-based Gulf and Western corporation had also begun, coincidentally, to spend $54 million [equal to over $426 million in 2018] to acquire, by 1967, control of the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company that owned 450 square miles or 300,000 acres of Dominican Republic land and a sugar mill in La Romana, Dominican Republic; and the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company was then merged with Gulf and Western Industries.

As a result, Gulf and Western, now controlling 8 percent of all arable land in the Dominican Republic, became that country’s largest landowner and largest private employer between 1967 and 1985; and it produced sugar cane on about 50 percent of the land it now owned. In addition, by the early 1980s the U.S.-based corporation owned and operated the Hotel Santo Domingo and Hispaniola in Santo Domingo and the Casa de Campo Resort Complex in La Romana. According to a June 13, 1984 New York Times article:

“In 1974 and 1975, G.and W. made millions by speculating in sugar in the republic. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which later investigated G. and W., estimated that G. and W. may have made as much as $64.5 million [equal to between $306 million and $340 million in 2018] during those years. In 1979, the S.E.C. sued G. and W. charging that…[then-Gulf and Western Chairman Charles] Bluhdorn had made a secret agreement with high officials of the Dominican Government to speculate in sugar….”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] also accused Gulf and Western in 1975 of illegally failing to pay the Dominican Republic’s government more than $38 million [equal to over $180 million in 2018] in profits generated by its business activities in the Dominican Republic that it was under a legal obligation to pay; and Gulf and Western was compelled by the SEC in 1980 to agree to spend $39 million during the next 7 years funding some kind of development program in the Dominican Republic.

Around 19,000 agricultural workers were exploited by Gulf and Western in the Dominican Republican each year during the cane-cutting season between 1967 and the early 1980s. So, not surprisingly, when the National Council of Churches requested that Gulf and Western fully disclose detailed data on what its agricultural workers in the Dominican Republic were being paid in hourly wages in 1976, Gulf and Western executives refused to disclose this information.

In the early 1980s, however, “rising poverty, unassailable unemployment and inflation running at over 50 percent became the norm” in the Dominican Republic; and following the Balageur government’s imposed “price hike under the IMF-induced austerity measures” on Apr. 23, 1984, street protests “spread out” from Santo Domingo “leaving the nation rocked from three days of civic protest” and with “as many as 112 civilians dead, hundreds more wounded in the streets, and over 4,000 demonstrators imprisoned,” according to the 2000 book Dominican Republic: A Guide To The People, Politics and Culture.

So, also not surprisingly, in 1985 Gulf and Western sold its Dominican assets after 18 years of exploiting the country’s sugar production resources. As the New York Times reported in its June 13, 1984 article, “in a move that would end nearly 20 years of involvement in the Dominican Republic, Gulf and Western Industries said yesterday that it would try to sell its sugar growing operations and holdings there” and “analysts had expected G. and W. to try to rid itself of its troubled sugar operations.”

Yet “registered U.S. private investment in the Dominican Republic” still “stood at approximately $660 million [equal to over $1.2 billion in 2018] in 1990” and “a multitude of North American companies and their subsidiaries” still operated “in the country: Abbott Laboratories, Citibank, Colgate Palmolive, Esso, Falconbridge, Ford, IBM, Texaco and Xerox,” according to James Ferguson’s 1992 book The Dominican Republic: Behind The Lighthouse. And  “almost half of all” Dominican “companies” were still “owned by U.S. or Canadian interests” in 2000, according to the 2000 book Dominican Republic: A Guide To The People, Politics and Culture.

Democracy Now! Funder and Ex-LBJ Special Assistant/Press Secretary Moyers with LBJ

Democracy Now! funder Moyers also participated in both a May 13, 1965 meeting with the former long-time Ford Foundation president McGeorge Bundy, then-CIA official Richard Helms and then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and a May 14, 1965 meeting with Bundy that discussed U.S. policy decisions related to the Dominican Republic. And at the May 14, 1965 meeting, former Ford Foundation president “Bundy advocated having United States troops clean out the northern section of Santo Domingo,” according to a declassified Johnson White House document.

As payment for his participation as President Lyndon Johnson’s special assistant in the Johnson White House policy decision meetings like the April and May 1965 meetings that discussed the situation in the Dominican Republic, Democracy Now! funder and long-time Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation president Moyers was paid an annual salary in 1965 of $28,500 [equal to over $225,000  in 2018], according to a Jan. 17, 1965 New York Times article. And on Jul. 9, 1965, Moyers was appointed by LBJ to be his acting White House Press Secretary.

Subsequently, Moyers became Johnson’s permanent White House Press Secretary and filled that Johnson White House staff position until Jan. 25, 1967. According to a Dec. 14, 1965 New York Times article, Newsweek magazine later then reported that Democracy Now! funder Moyers’ annual salary from his White House gig as LBJ’s press secretary was to be increased to $30,000 [equal to over $237,000 in 2018] in 1966.

But when the Johnson White House’s National Security Affairs Advisor Bundy announced in December 1965 that he was resigning his White House position as of Feb. 25, 1966 to become the president of the Ford Foundation (which, coincidentally, later also helped fund the Democracy Now! show in the late 1990s and early 21st-century), a Dec. 9, 1965 New York Times article reported that “Johnson will not shift Moyers to Bundy post” because “Johnson wants Moyers free to be troubleshooter,” according to the New York Times Index 1965 book. (end of part 21)

In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media network--Part 20

Democracy Now! Funder and Ex-LBJ Special Assistant Moyers With LBJ

In The Pay of Foundations—Part 20

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers.

In the Dominican Republic “in February 1963, Juan Bosch took office as the first democratically elected president” of that country “since 1924;” and “he called for land reform; low-rent housing; modest nationalization of business; foreign investment provided it was not excessively exploitative of the country and other policies,” according to William Blum’s 2000 book, Rogue State. But “a number of American officials and congressmen expressed their discomfort with Bosch’s plans, as well as his stance of independence from the United States,” according to the same book.

So, not surprisingly, as David Howard’s Dominican Republic: A Guide to the People, Politics and Culture book recalled in 2000, “Bosch…lasted only 7 months in office” as Dominican Republic “military officers” overthrew his democratically elected “government and annulled the constitution; and their troops surrounded the National Palace on Sept. 5, 1963."  But, as Rogue State observed, “nineteen months later,” in April 1965, “a widespread popular revolt broke out” in the Dominican Republic “which promised to put the exiled Bosch back into power.”

The Democratic Johnson White House, in which longtime Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation president Bill Moyers then worked as LBJ’s Special Presidential Assistant, however, ordered 23,000 U.S. troops to invade the island on Apr. 28, 1965; and “by the end of the invasion, more than 3,000 Dominicans and 31 American servicemen had lost their lives” as “the Marines deprived the people of the Dominican Republic of self-determination.” according to an article by Juleyka Lantigua-Williams, titled “40 Years Later, U.S. Invasion Still Haunts Dominican Republic,” that was posted on Apr. 21, 2005 on The Progressive magazine’s website. “

Commander of U.S. occupation troops in Dominican Republic in 1965-66

Johnson administration officials then “personally groomed Joaquin Balaguer,” who had been a close advisor to long-time Dominican dictator Trujillo prior to the CIA-backed assassination of Trujillo in 1961, “to head the Dominican government in 1966” and “U.S. aid insured Balaguer's control over the country,” according to a 1978 NACLA article by Philip E. Wheaton about the fraudulent 1978 Dominican Republic elections, that NACLA reposted on its website on Sept. 25, 2007. 

The Dominican Republic: A Guide to the People, Politics and Culture book described what happened politically in the Dominican Republic in the three decades between 1966 and 1996 (the year in which the Carnegie Corporation of New York foundation gave Pacifica a $25,000 [equivalent to over $40,000 in 2018] grant to launch the parallel left Democracy Now! daily radio news show):

“Dr. Joaquin Balaguer won the…elections in June 1966, following a violent electoral campaign during which 350 supporters of Bosch’s PRD (Dominican Revolutionary Party) were killed...President Balaguer was not slow to use coercive tactics and force…His main opponent, Juan Bosch, went into voluntary exile as a result of political repression and threats on his life. During the 1966 presidential elections, he had been unable to conduct a political campaign beyond daily radio broadcasts, while Balaguer had been able to tour the country. The…Balaguer administration gave rise to heightened repression, and the 1970 elections were carried out in an atmosphere of violence. La Banda, a group of government-sponsored thugs, carried out 190 political assassinations between 1970 and 1972. Police harassment of political opponents continued unabated…”

James Ferguson’s 1992 book The Dominican Republic: Behind The Lighthouse also recalled that “between…1966 and the end of 1971 over 1,000 political assassinations took place in the Dominican Republic,” although “little of this was reported in the U.S. media.”

In addition, according to David Howard’s Dominican Republic: A Guide to the People, Politics and Culture book:

“…Balaguer…defeated his principal opponent, Juan Bosch, at the…elections in 1990 amid allegations of widespread fraud…The 1994 elections followed a similar course…Balaguer was adjudged to have won, but further accusation of fraud threatened to paralyze the country with growing popular discontent…International observers  agreed that opposition parties were disenfranchised…Government supporters were given multiple cedulas or voting cards, and opponents were excluded from the electoral list or intimidated…Many stations were kept closed by armed government supporters or by the police…Fraudulent mandates and the exclusion of the majority of the population from state politics has meant that the Dominican political system has consistently lacked credibility and legitimacy…Balaguer…served as president for 22…years…”

Not surprisingly, in the years between the Johnson White House’s late April 1965 decision to invade the Dominical Republic and 2018, large numbers of people from the Dominican Republic migrated to the United States. By 2000, the Dominican Republic was being described by David Howard in his Dominican Republic: A Guide to the People, Politics and Culture book as “a transitional society with over one-tenth of its population living in the United States;” and as Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova noted in an article, “Dominican Immigrants in the United States,” that was posted on the Migration Policy Institute’s website on Apr. 11, 2018:

 “…U.S. intervention accelerated the departure of Dominicans in the 1960s and the decades that followed. In 2016, nearly 1.1 million Dominican immigrants lived in the United States…The Dominican population in the United States, which stood at 12,000 in 1960, reached 169,000 by 1980 and then doubled by 1990 and more than doubled again by 2010…The top four counties by Dominican population were all in New York: Bronx County, New York County (Manhattan), Kings County, and Queens County. Together these counties were home to 41 percent of Dominicans in the United States…The Dominican diaspora in the United States is comprised of about 2.2 million individuals who were either born in the Dominican Republic or reported Dominican ethnicity or ancestry, according to tabulations from the U.S. Census Bureau 2016 ACS...” 

Although large numbers of people from the Dominican Republic now live in New York City area from which the parallel left Democracy Now! radio and cable tv show originates, since 2004 Democracy Now! has provided its listeners with neither very many news segments examining the role that the Democratic Johnson White House played in Dominican Republic history in 1965 nor weekly updates on the 21st-century political and economic situation within the Dominican Republic. One reason might be because the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation has given the Democracy Now! media firm over $1.5 million in grants since 2004; and the long-time president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation, Bill Moyers, was one of the Johnson White House officials responsible for the decision to order U.S. troops to invade and occupy the Dominican Republic in late April 1965, in violation of the United Nations Charter.

Schumann Foundation Prez Moyers: Gave $1.5 Million to Democracy Now! since 2004

In 2004, for example, Moyers’ foundation gave a $25,000 [equal to over $33,000 in 2018] grant to Democracy Now! “to fund Special 2004 election coverage for Democracy Now!,” according to the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation’s 2004 Form 990 financial filing. And the 2009 Form 990 financial filing for the same foundation indicates that Moyers’ foundation gave a $300,000 [equal to over $350,000 in 2018] grant to Democracy Now! Productions in 2009.

A grant of $750,000 [equal to over $810,000 in 2018] was next given to Democracy Now! Productions by former Johnson White House Special Presidential Assistant Moyers’ Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation in 2013, according to this foundation’s Form 990 financial filing for 2013; and, the following year, Moyers’ foundation gave an additional grant of $292,600 to help fund the parallel left Democracy Now! show according to the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation’s Form 990 financial filing for 2014.

In addition, another grant of $214,074 was given by Moyers’ Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation to Democracy Now! Productions, according to the foundation’s Form 990 financial filing for 2015; and between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016 yet another grant of $250,000, was given to help fund Democracy Now! by Moyers’ foundation, according to the 2016 Form 990 financial filing of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation. 

Yet according to Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s daily diary, on Apr. 28, 1965—the day on which U.S. troops had been ordered by LBJ to begin occupying Dominican Republic territory—Johnson was in the lounge of the White House Oval office from 4:45 p.m. to 6:21 p.m. meeting with then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk, then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, then-Assistant Secretary of State George Ball, then-National Security Advisor and future long-time Ford Foundation President McGeorge Bundy and then-LBJ Special Presidential Assistant and future long-time Schumann Center for Media and Democracy President and Democracy Now! funder Bill Moyers. And during this White House meeting a conference call took place, in which Democracy Now! funder Moyers participated, that began at 5:45 p.m., in which “the President said we were not going to announce anything until they have landed” and “the President said that…he would say help was needed to protect the lives of the Americans,” according to a now-declassified Johnson White House document, titled “Memorandum of Telephone Conversation 4/28/1965 5:45 p.m.”.

Democracy Now! funder Moyers also participated in a meeting on the situation in the Dominican Republic that was held in the White House Cabinet Room from 8:40 a.m. to 10:35 a.m. on May 1, 1965 and in a White House meeting that was held on the following day on the situation in the Dominican Republic. Then on May 6, 1965, Moyers joined future Ford Foundation President Bundy, then-Defense Secretary McNamara, Richard Helms of the Central Intelligence Agency and other top-level Johnson administration officials at another meeting in which the situation in the Dominican Republic was discussed. And, according to a new declassified Johnson White House document, titled “Memorandum for the Record May 6, 1965 3:00 p.m.,” at this meeting:

“The group discussed at some length the problem of the communists. The communists possibly ought to be kicked out of the country…In this regard, we must put more emphasis on rounding-up the communists…The group discussed the problem of the Peace Corps people in the Dominican Republic who are giving interviews that are damaging to our interests. Mr. Moyers said that Sargent Shriver is dealing with the problem…”

In an article by Fred Rosen about NACLA’s history that was posted on September 25, 2007 on NACLA’s website, NACLA founder Mike Locker indicated whose special “interests” the Peace Corps people in the Dominican Republic who Democracy Now! funder Moyers wanted  to stop from “giving interviews,” were actually “damaging” by their interviews:

“Suddenly, the United States invaded the Dominican Republic in a massive, overwhelming way, under the pretext of defeating a Communist insurgency. It was quite obvious to me that the pretext was 99% baloney… But when you look at the Dominican Republic and you look at the Caribbean—more so in that period than now—you see that sugar was the dominant force.

“So I started doing some research on who influenced sugar policy in the United States. What was the ‘sugar power elite’? And who pops up but Ellsworth Bunker. Bunker was Lyndon Johnson’s Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) and special envoy to the Dominican Republic. He was the former president and a large shareholder of National Sugar Refining Corporation, the second largest sugar company in the United States. Right off the bat, this was interesting. Then there was Abe Fortas, Special Counsel to the President: board member of the Sucrest Corporation, very big in Puerto Rico, a large molasses importer. Then there was Averell Harriman, on the Board of Directors and with strong financial ties to the National Sugar Refining Corporation.

“So here was a power structure that I felt was largely influencing what U.S. policy and direction was all about. Was it a conspiracy? No, it wasn’t a conspiracy; it was a culture. Interests were clearly articulated. Preserving interests and preserving environments friendly to those interests was essential, and the U.S. government was obviously making itself available in that capacity.” (end of part 20)

In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media network--Part 19

Foundation funding Democracy Now! owns Microsoft monopoly stock

In The Pay of Foundations—Part 19

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers.

In 2005, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! Productions a "charitable" grant of $150,000 [equal to over $194,000 in 2018] for “general support,” the Glaser Progress Foundation still owned over $5.6 million worth of Microsoft monopoly corporate stock; and in 2006, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! a grant of $100,000 [equal to over $125,000 in 2018], the value of the 215,000 shares of Microsoft corporate stock that the Glaser Progress Foundation continued to own had now increased to over $6.4 million [equal to over $8 million in 2018].

In 2008, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! another grant of $100,000, the value of the Glaser Progress Foundation’s share of Microsoft monopoly corporate stock was over $3.8 million; and in 2009, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! yet another grant of $100,000, the Glaser Progress Foundation still also owned over $6 million worth of Microsoft corporate stock.

Between 2010 and 2014, the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! Productions 5 additional grants, totaling $250,000; and in 2014 the Glaser Foundation still owned over $3.1 million worth of Microsoft monopoly corporate stock.

In addition, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! another $50,000 grant in 2015, it still owned over $1.9 million worth of Microsoft stock; and in 2016, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! yet another $50,000 grant, the Glaser Foundation still owned $810,000 worth of Microsoft monopoly corporate stock.

But on Dec. 20, 2016, Reuters reported that Microsoft had accepted from the U.S. War Machine’s Department of Defense “a $927 million contract to provide technical support to the Defense Information Systems Agency [DISA].” According to a Dec. 21, 2016 Zacks.com article by Madeleine Johnson:

“…The company's contract is noncompetitive, single-award, firm-fixed, and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity.

“Under the contract, Microsoft will provide consulting services that include software developers and product teams…as well as the firm's premier support services like tools and knowledge centers and problem resolution assistance from developers.

“Microsoft's contract with DISA comes in addition to its huge deal with the U.S. Department of Defense earlier this year, which will move all of the federal agency's 4 million employees to Windows 10 within a year, as well as purchasing large quantities of laptops and other hardware….”

And according to DISA’s own website:

“As it enters the second decade of the new century, DISA stands as an operationally focused combat support agency, providing joint and combined warfighting command and control and information technology capabilities. DISA engineers, develops, maintains, and operates a global net-centric enterprise in direct support to joint and coalition warfighters, national-level leaders, and other mission partners across the full spectrum of operations.”

In addition, an Oct. 6, 2016 Business Insider article by Sam Shead noted  that “Zack Weisfeld, the general manager of Microsoft Global Accelerators, said Microsoft had grown its R. and D team in Israel to about 1,000 people since it opened up its first office in the country 25 years ago,.”—despite the call by most U.S. antiwar movement activists for U.S. corporations like Microsoft to support the Palestinian solidarity movement’s BDS campaign.

Nor surprisingly, during the period between 2001 and 2015 when the foundation set up by former Microsoft Vice-President Glaser owned millions of dollars worth of Microsoft monopoly stock while funding Democracy Now!, the total annual compensation that Democracy Now! co-host and producer Goodman received from her “non-profit” and parallel left media firm increased from less than $36,000 [equal to around $50,000 in 2018] in 2002 to over $176,000 in 2015, according to Democracy Now! Productions's  Form 990 financial filing for 2015.

Also, not surprisingly, in addition to owning millions of dollars of Microsoft stock between 2001 and 2015, RealNetworks Inc. CEO Glaser’s Glaser Progress Foundation has also owned millions of dollars worth of his own corporation’s stock during this same period. For example, in 2006 over $20 million worth of RealNetworks stock was owned by the Glaser Progress Foundation; and over $1.9 million worth of RealNetworks stock (as well as over $600,000 worth of Facebook Inc. corporate stock) was still owned by longtime Democracy Now! funder and Real Networks CEO Glaser’s foundation in 2015.

In December 2016, Glaser’s Glaser Progress Foundation still owned 459,101 shares of RealNetworks corporate stock, which was then worth over $2.2 million; and Glaser, individually, still owned 12,970,100 shares of RealNetworks corporate stock in February 2018.

NY Times Company Director's Ariel Investments: Owns 19 percent of Democracy Now! funder's firm.

But 7,236,402 shares of RealNetworks corporate stock in December 2017 (equal to over 19 percent of all RealNetworks corporate stock) was also owned by Chicago-based Ariel Investments—whose Chair and CEO John Rogers sits on the boards of directors of the New York Times Company corporate media firm, McDonald’s, Excelon and the Barack Obama Foundation. In addition, a former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama and current Lyft corporate board member, Valerie Jarett, sits next to New York Times Company board member Rogers on the board of directors of the Ariel Investments firm that owns nearly 20 percent of the stock of Democracy Now! funder Glaser’s RealNetworks. 

Directors of Ariel Investments/RealNetworks Stockowners sit on Obama Foundation board 

And other corporate Establishment folks—like Microsoft Corporation Engineering Director Chris Jones, former Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Corporate Development Bruce Jafffee and a board member of the UK’s Daily Mail right-wing and pro-war media conglomerate named Dominique Trempont—have, coincidentally, also been sitting next to RealNetworks CEO/Chair and Democracy Now! funder Glaser on the RealNetworks corporate board in recent years.

UK Daily Mail  board member: Sits on Democracy Now! funder's RealNetworks board

Yet most folks who listen or watch the parallel left Democracy Now! news show that gets aired on 1,440 stations each weekday don’t think Democracy Now! funders should be involved in business relationships with these kinds of corporate establishment folks. (end of part 19)

In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media network--Part 18

Democracy Now! foundation funder: Owns Microsoft/RealNetworks stock

In The Pay of Foundations—Part 18

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers.

Randall Rothenberg’s Aug.1,1999 Wired magazine article indicated that longtime Democracy Now! funder Glaser developed a “strategic alliance” between his RealNetworks Inc. and Bill Gates’s Microsoft in 1997:

“Bill Gates…eventually came to understand that his former protégé was on to something - something he wanted….In 1997,…Microsoft was becoming a… competitive threat. .Glaser quickly arranged a Friday evening meeting with two Microsoft senior executives, Paul Maritz and Greg Maffei…A strategic alliance was quickly cemented, which allowed Microsoft to license, for $30 million, Real's version 4.0 source code and bundle the client with Internet Explorer. The source code would enable Microsoft to make software capable of playing and serving the enormous amount of Web content available in Real's format. Microsoft spent another $30 million for a 10 percent stake in Real….”

DemocracyNow! funder's firm formed "strategic alliance" with Microsoft monopoly in 1997

As Amy Kover’s 2000 Fortune magazine article noted, in 1997 “Glaser's most richly layered relationship” was “with Microsoft;” and “his relationship with Microsoft seemed fine--the software giant even bought a 10% stake in Real in 1997.”

But after Microsoft “delivered a killing blow” to RealNetworks Inc.’s “main revenue source” by releasing “its own, free version of the Real server,” according to the 1999 Wired magazine article, former Microsoft VP Glaser then testified before a U.S. Senate Committee on July 23, 1998 that “I believe Microsoft is taking actions that create obstacles to the freedom and openness of the Internet” and that “What Microsoft is doing is wrong and must be stopped.” And “a few months later, Microsoft withdrew its investment” in RealNetworks, according to the 2000 Fortune magazine article.

Yet despite Glaser’s 1998 assertion that “What Microsoft is doing is wrong and must be stopped,” his Glaser Progress Foundation was still willing to own 107,520 shares of Microsoft stock, worth $7,123,200 [equal to over $10 million in 2018] in 2001, according to its Form 990 financial filing for 2001, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave the Institute for Media Analysis a $40,000 [equal to over $56,000 in 2018] grant to help fund “Democracy Now! `War and Peace Report.’

And from its 2.107,545 shares of RealNetworks stock that was worth $12,518,817 [equal to over $17.7 million in 2018] and its investment in Microsoft monopoly stock--his Glaser Progress Foundation received $764,356 [equal to over $1 million in 2018] in dividends in 2001.

Since Gates’ Microsoft monopoly was apparently still now threatening the ability of Glaser’s RealNetworks firm to make big money from the digital media market in the early 21st-century, in late 2003 Glaser’s RealNetworks lawyers filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. As Joris Evers and Robert McMillan observed in a Dec.18, 2003 IDG News Service article that was reposted on the PC World magazine’s website:

“RealNetworks has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging the software giant has illegally used its power as a monopoly to control the digital media market.…RealNetworks accuses Microsoft of unlawful tactics including product bundling, restrictive licensing, exclusive dealing, predatory pricing, refusing to sell unbundled operating systems and discriminatory disclosure and withholding of information needed to interoperate with the Windows operating system, according to a copy of the complaint. The lawsuit seeks to recover damages lost because of `Microsoft's illegal conduct,’ according to statement attributed to Rob Glaser, RealNetworks' chair and CEO. He is a former Microsoft official… In 1997, Microsoft had virtually no presence in the digital media space, but by 2002, Microsoft's `anticompetitive conduct’ enabled it to surpass RealNetworks' market share for media players and usage in the U.S., RealNetworks says in its complaint…” 

In response to RealNetworks’ lawsuit, however, Microsoft agreed to pay Democray Now! show funder Glaser’s RealNetworks media firm a settlement of $761 million in 2005 and, according to Elizabeth Montalbano’s Oct. 11, 2005 IDG News Service article that PC World reposted on its website,  Microsoft and RealNetworks then “forged a partnership to promote digital music and games in three agreements.” As the same 2005 article also observed:

“Microsoft will pay RealNetworks $460 million up front to resolve all damages and claims in the suit, and the companies will agree to a series of technology licenses and commitments that will give RealNetworks long-term access to Windows Media technologies to enhance its own media software, according to the companies. Under the terms of the deals, the companies…will jointly promote and market RealNetworks' music subscription service, Rhapsody, on Microsoft MSN. In addition, Microsoft will offer RealNetworks' digital games through MSN Games and Xbox Live Arcade for XBox 360…Microsoft Chairman and Chief Architect Bill Gates said that the settlement spells an opportunity for Microsoft and RealNetworks to collaborate on innovative ways to deliver digital media to consumers on a variety of devices….

“Microsoft also will pay RealNetworks $301 million in cash and provide services over 18 months to support RealNetworks' product development, distribution, and marketing under the music and game agreements. At the same time, RealNetworks will support MSN Search, and the two companies together will promote the use of Windows Media technologies with RealNetworks' Rhapsody to Go service, according to the companies. In addition, RealNetworks also will support Microsoft's Windows Media DRM (digital rights management) format in its RealPlayer media software, a move that helps Microsoft evolve Windows as the platform for a digital media hub, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft.”

And despite his firm’s 2003 lawsuit and his 2003 assertion that Microsoft was still engaging in “illegal conduct” in the early 21st-century, in 2004—when Democracy Now! Productions was given a grant of $100,000 [equal to over $133,000 in 2018] by the Glaser Progress Foundation—Glaser’s foundation still owned 215,000 shares of Microsoft stock, worth $5,745,869 [equal to over $7.6 million in 2018], from which it received a net investment income of $744,197 [equal to over $995,000 in 2018], according to the Glaser Progress Foundation’s Form 990 financial filing for 2004..

DemocracyNow! funder: Received $761 Million from/Partnered with Microsoft in 2005

Thus, after helping to fund Democracy Now! between 2001 and 2004 with 4 grants, totaling $300,000, former Microsoft VP Glaser’s Glaser Progress Foundation, continued to own millions of dollars worth of Microsoft monopoly corporate stock at the same time it funded Democracy Now!; and Glaser's RealNetworks firm continue to collaborate on a business level with Gates' Microsoft monopoly.. Yet, not surprisingly, Democracy Now! did not air many news segments between 2005 and 2018 that examined how Glaser obtained his personal wealth or how his Glaser Progress Foundation obtained its grant money.  (end of part 18)

In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media netowrk--Part 17

Democracy Now! Funder Glaser's RealNetworks Inc. Partnered With Microsoft

In The Pay of Foundations—Part 17

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers.

Even after Democracy Now! funder Glaser finally left Microsoft in 1993 to establish his own for-profit company which, according to Robert Reid’s Architects of the Web book, he “started ramping up” in 1994, that was initially called “Progressive Networks” (but renamed RealNetworks Inc. in 1997), the former Microsoft VP continued to be connected on a business level to Gates, Microsoft and current or former Microsoft executives in the late 1990s. As Randall Stross’s The Microsoft Way book noted in 1996:

“…Among Gates’s advisors, Rob Glaser made the biggest early bet on the Internet…In late 1993, after 10 years, he left Microsoft as a full-time employee and temporarily continued on a part-time, contractual basis while he founded Progressive Networks…”

According to James Wallace’s 1997 Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race To Control Cyberspace book:

“[In September 1993]…Gates phoned, and the two met at Gates’s office to talk about Glaser doing some consulting work on the Marvel project headed by Siegelman. Gates said the work would be only for a few months and no more than 10 to 15 hours a week. Glaser accepted the assignment, even though at the time he was busy preparing a business plan for his own company. He had helped recruit …Siegelman to Microsoft…

“But Gates had another assignment for Glaser in addition to the consulting work on what would become the Microsoft Network. He wanted Glaser to work directly for him, helping evaluate whether Microsoft should create an alliance with cable-TV titans Time Warner and Tele-Communications Inc….Now, Gates’s vision of Microsoft’s dominance included the home television using Microsoft’s software, too…Glaser made 2 rounds of recommendations to Gates… At Microsoft’s insistence, Glaser would not be…specific in an interview about his recommendations…Even though Glaser was no longer working at Microsoft, he and Siegelman had talked several times since that day in mid-September when Gates had asked Glaser to evaluate Microsoft’s on-line service and how it fit with the Internet…Glaser…formed his own company, called Progressive Networks. Several of his Microsoft pals…became investors…”

Charles Ferguson’s 1999 High Stakes, No Prisoners book also recalled:

“In August 1995…Rob Glaser, who had just resigned from Microsoft, visited the Electronic Frontier Foundation…Glaser used Mosaic and the Web for the first time and was impressed. A month later, Glaser was hired by Gates as a consultant to advise on Web/Internet issues…Then Rob Glaser founded Progressive Networks to develop `streaming’ audio technology to permit large-scale audio distribution over the Internet. Glaser was a former Microsoft executive who had recently consulted to Gates on precisely these subjects…Microsoft bought an equity stake in RealNetworks…”

And according to the 1997 Architects of the Web book:

“Rob’s vice president of software development was Phil Barrett…Phil…ran `a couple of product development teams’ over at Microsoft…Rob called a compression-expert that he knew from Microsoft days…The core notions behind Real Audio were fixed in no time…Rob settled firmly on the notion that Progressive would be a for-profit company…He decided that the company…would sell the software that served Real Audio files over the Internet (the Real Audio Server)…Real Audio debuted on the Web on April 10, 1995, along with content from ABC News, National Public Radio [NPR] and others…Within 2 days of Real Audio’s launch, Progressive announced that Microsoft…had agreed to distribute the Real Audio Player with their browser software…By the summer of 1996, Real Audio accounted for an extraordinary 85 percent share of the Web’s audio content…

“Rob…works hard to position himself as a partner, not competitor, to…two important companies. Microsoft is in fact one of Progressive’s biggest customers. This, plus its crosstown location and the fact that Rob has 10 years of relationship to draw on there (including one with the Boss), makes it easy for him to keep the lines of communication and diplomacy open…”

Coincidentally, A co-founder of Glaser’s Progressive Networks/RealNetworks Inc. in 1993 and 1994, David Halperin, had previously worked as former Democratic Johnson Administration Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s research assistant in 1985 and 1986; and, between 1991 and 1993, the co-founder of Glaser’s Real Networks firm worked as a counsel to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.  In addition, between 1997 and 2001, Halperin later worked as the special assistant to the president for national security affairs and director for speechwriting at the National Security Council in the Clinton White House.

Ex-Clinton White House Staff Assistant David Halperin: Co-founded RealNetworks

According to an Aug. 1, 1999 Wired magazine article by Randall Rothenberg:  

“The product of a suburban New York prep school favored by…liberals… Glaser may have seemed like an atypical Microsoftie…. In 1993, after rising to become the company's youngest vice president and gaining a reputation as a demanding boss, Glaser lost a bureaucratic tussle over control of the company's multimedia operations to Nathan Myhrvold, prompting Glaser to resign.

“With a Yale friend, David Halperin, Glaser hatched vague plans for a company that would link television to the nascent Internet...Glaser, with some of his Microsoft millions, quickly hired a trio of engineers to develop the software…. Not long after, the two demonstrated the system to an informal group of liberal advisers at a Washington, DC, hotel…. his friends convinced him to drop the politics, focus on streaming, and donate the resulting profits to their favored causes….Lotus founder Mitch Kapor and Mike Slade, who'd left Microsoft…were early investors. Kapor also introduced Glaser to the venture capital firm Accel Partners. Glaser, who retains 40 percent of his company (currently valued in excess of $1.5 billion [in 1999]), sold more than 10 percent to Accel for $5 million….Shares …have risen almost tenfold since the public offering in late 1997… In fiscal 1998, software licensing fees - primarily from server software - were $47 million. Eighty-five percent of streaming media broadcasts, Real says, use its technology [in 1999]…” 

In a Sept. 4, 2000 Fortune magazine article, Amy Kovner indicated how Glaser’s RealNetworks Inc. firm made some big money in the late 1990s (when its co-founder, David Halperin, was working as a special assistant to Democratic President Clinton for national security affairs):
   
“…Glaser has been expanding RealNetworks' reach into every nook and cranny of the digital-media terrain….Real firmly dominates the $900 million streaming-media business. Over 85% of the streaming content on the Web comes in Real's format. The company has at least four revenue sources, ranging from digital-media players to content-delivery networks. Its sales have grown 135% a year, reaching $131 million in 1999, when Real managed the undot-commy feat of turning a $7 million profit….

“If you're wondering how RealNetworks makes any money at all, you're not alone. … First off, more than 1% of the people who download the RealPlayer…actually buy a souped-up version known as the RealPlayerPlus. At $29.99 a pop, Real has raked in about $40 million from that tiny sliver of users. Real also makes money from the Websites whose songs you listen to….About 600,000 Websites use Real to deliver their audio and video content, accounting for about a quarter of Real's revenues…Last quarter, Real's ad revenues…increased by 350%, to more than $14 million. …`We've really benefited from being able to show streaming-media ads,’ says Lucy Mohl, the head of programming for RealNetworks and a former movie critic for NBC…So Real is rolling in dough. …CNN.com and ABC are both major buyers of Real technology….”

But Randall Rothenberg’s Wired magazine article by Randall Rothenberg article also contained the following reference in 1999 to the RealNetworks Inc. CEO whose tax-exempt Glaser Progress Foundation has been funding the parallel left Democracy Now!  show since 2001:

“Here's what else Glaser knows: The downloadable revolution isn't simply about music…Anything so disruptive is, ultimately, about power, and Glaser is perfectly comfortable with that: His goal is nothing less than ruling the multibillion-dollar future of broadband…. Rob Glaser built his streaming empire...in no small part upon a mastery of the politics necessary…”

And, as David Postman’s July 26, 2004 Seattle Times article, titled “RealNetworks CEO Donates Big Bucks To Politics,” observed in 2004:

 “…So far this year, Glaser has given more than $1 million…making him the top donor in Washington state and one of the most generous givers of any political persuasion in the nation...Through his representatives, Glaser declined to be interviewed for this story….Glaser was an early supporter of America Coming Together (ACT), one of the biggest of the new independent political groups allying themselves with Democrats this year. Glaser has donated $750,000 to ACT and persuaded friends to give as well. When Bill Clinton visited town to promote his book, he had dinner with Glaser...His friends work for the State Department — or did during the Clinton-Gore years…Glaser met with Soros at his Long Island home to discuss funding America Coming Together...RealNetworks has been a political incubator of sorts. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., worked there between her 1994 loss of a congressional seat and her 2000 Senate victory. She largely financed her campaign using money she made at RealNetworks… In 2000, Glaser began to give more serious money — about $95,000, including $50,000 to the Democratic National Committee….He has helped fund Democracy Now…” (end of part 17)

In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media network--Part 16

Democracy Now! Funder/Ex-Microsoft VP Glaser Partnered With IBM

In The Pay of Foundations—Part 16

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers. 

Multi-billionaire Bill Gates and Democracy Now! Productions funder Rob Glaser’s Microsoft had personally enriched both businessmen during the 1980s period, when Microsoft partnered with the transnational corporation, IBM, for 9 years; and when Microsoft apparently also engaged in monopolistic business practices. According to Gary Rivlin’s 1999 The Plot To Get Bill Gates book:

“IBM and Microsoft weren’t that different. At Microsoft they were still company men…IBM…had taken Gates’s measure and deemed him…its kind of man…The chairman of IBM knew Gates’s mother because both served on the national board of United Way…So eager was Gates to remain on good terms with IBM that in 1985 or 1987 he offered Big Blue a 30 percent stake in Microsoft. Executives at IBM brushed aside the offer…”

James Wallace and Jim Erickson’s 1992 book, Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire also recalled: 

“…IBM chief executive John Opel…knew Mary Gates, having served with her on the national board of United Way…Whether this United Way connection helped Microsoft get the IBM deal is not clear. Opel…won’t talk…In early November of 1980, the corporate…couple officially signed the paperwork. Microsoft would develop the `software for IBM’s first personal computer and supply the vital disk operating system or DOS…Chairman Bill sold 5 percent of Microsoft for a million dollars to Technology Venture Investors, a venture capital firm in Menlo, California…David Marquardt, a general partner in TVI, was made a director of Microsoft’s new board…The company went public…in 1986…As the IBM PC gained in popularity, more and more programmers wrote software for that machine and for the operating system Gates had acquired…”

And according to Randall E. Stross’s 1996 The Microsoft Way book:

“The great stroke of luck that provided Microsoft with 10 very good years came in 1980 when it signed a contract with IBM to provide the operating system that would be used on the IBM Personal Computer, introduced the next year…Microsoft, which itself did not have an operating system to offer, bought another, still smaller company’s operating system software to adapt for the project. The contract…worked greatly in Microsoft’s favor. The terms permitted Microsoft to sell the operating system to other companies and to consumers, but IBM, effectively could not…Microsoft’s rivals have raised questions of monopoly that staff members of the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department have largely accepted…Gates is remembered as the precociously outspoken advocate for commercializing the distribution of software.”

James Wallace’s Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race To Control Cyberspace book also noted in 1997:

“…Microsoft and IBM…in August of 1985…signed a long-term joint agreement that guaranteed the continuation of DOS and IBM…At the time, Gates said it was `the biggest contract’ Microsoft had ever signed…Microsoft had become the computer industry’s Standard Oil in the late 20th century…During…November 1989…Microsoft and IBM had jointly issued a…news release, titled `IBM and Microsoft expand partnership…’…FTC staff believed that the agreement between IBM and Microsoft smacked of anti-competitive collusion, and the investigation was on…”

The Microsoft Way book provided an example of how Democracy Now! Productions funder Glaser worked with IBM during his 10 years as a Microsoft “company man” and as Multi-Billionaire Gates’ “trusted lieutenant” during the 1980s:

“In late 1988, IBM executives told Microsoft they wanted to try once again to crack the home personal computer market…Gates suggested that the machine be equipped with an integrated CD-ROM drive and sound card…IBM accepted the suggestion…Gates assigned a team of Microsoft software engineers to work with IBM…Gates had assigned Rob Glaser to be his principal multimedia advisor…He was given senior responsibility by Gates soon after joining the company…Glaser suggested to Gates that Microsoft should launch what Glaser called a `virtual standard’ for multimedia that could be used in all-IBM compatible personal computers…Gates gave his approval…Gates…sent Rob Glaser…off on assignments to learn about new strategic problems--go figure it out’ was the injunction Gates would use—and then report back to him…”

Charles Ferguson’s 1999 book, High Stakes, No Prisoners, described how Microsoft had apparently increased its profitability and power during the 1980s and early 1990s, when Democracy Now! funder Glaser was a Microsoft vice-president:

“The ultimate source of Microsoft power is its monopoly control of the software platform used by PC applications—Windows… Microsoft even owns an equity stake in Apple, has rights to all of Apple’s intellectual property…and holds at least 50 percent market share in application software for the MAC…Microsoft…exploits its monopoly positions ruthlessly…Microsoft’s predatory behavior…, false dealings, and strategic use of monopoly power are integral to its ability to create further monopolies…”

And James Wallace and Jim Erickson’s Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire book had noted in 1992:

“…By mid-April of 1991, Microsoft was forced to acknowledge…that the FTC was looking into allegations that the company `has monopolized or attempted to monopolize the market for operating systems, operating environment, computer software and consumer peripherals for personal computers’…Microsoft has become notorious…not just for capitalizing on the technological advances of others, but, as some claim, for predatory pilfering. They complain that Microsoft repeatedly approaches small companies promising new products, ostensibly to talk about a partnership. After Microsoft is given a glimpse of how the software works, it suddenly loses interest in the deal—only to announce later that it has been working on surprisingly similar, but competing software…At the heart of the FTC probe is…whether or not Microsoft’s dominant position has chilled competition and thus hurt consumers…” (end of part 16)

In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media network--Part 15

Microsoft Founder Gates and Ex-Microsoft VP/Democracy Now! Funder Rob Glaser 

In The Pay of Foundations—Part 15 

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers.

In his 2012 book Philanthropy In America: A History, University of Virginia Commonwealth Professor of History Oliver Zunz indicated why politically progressive people in the United States have, historically, been reluctant to accept U.S. power elite foundation funding of their politically left Movement projects and public libraries:

“…Muckrakers frequently denounced those who gave money away as hypocrites and their philanthropies as fronts to distract the public from illegal corporate strategies…In the 1890s, many communities…were reluctant to accept Carnegie libraries. Twenty of the 46 solicited towns in Pennsylvania turned down the offer…Social gospel minister Washington Gladden denounced `tainted money’…

“The [Rockefeller] foundation was denounced…as a `Trojan Horse’ ready to undo democracy. U.S. Attorney General George W. Wickersham criticized it as `an indefinite scheme for perpetuating vast wealth, ` believing it to be `entirely inconsistent with the public interest.’ Attorney Frank Walsh—who was pro-labor, denounced the Rockefeller family’s `huge philanthropic trusts as a menace to the welfare of society’…”

But between 2001 and 2016, fifteen “charitable grants”, totaling $1.1 million, were accepted from the Glaser Progress Foundation of Seattle-based RealNetworks/Progressive Networks Inc. founder, chairman of the Board and CEO Rob Glaser by the "parallel left" Democracy Now! show producers-hosts.
. 
Yet according to the RealNetworks website, before establishing his Glaser Progress Foundation in 1993 and “prior to founding RealNetworks, Inc.” in 1994 ”Mr. Glaser worked for” Multi-billionaire Bill Gates’s “Microsoft for 10 years in a number of executive positions, including Vice President of Multimedia and Consumer Systems.” As Robert H. Reid’s 1997 book, Architects of the Web, recalled:

“…A lot about Rob said Microsoft, where he had spent …10 years of his career…College was Yale…During Rob’s senior year, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen came to town…Rob…signed up to interview and was soon offered a job…

“He started out by managing the company’s relationships with some outside engineering teams that were helping it develop products. After about a year of that he was staffed to relaunch Microsoft Word…By 1987, Rob’s responsibilities were touching on product planning for all of the company’s application software.

“Around that time…he was invited to join Microsoft’s networking group…He spent 2 years there. Then in the summer of 1989 CEO Bill Gates put him onto a project in the then-new area of multimedia computing…Rob’s task was to help IBM develop the specification of an MPC [Multimedia-enabled Personal Computer]…By the time it was over, Rob was Microsoft’s vice president of multimedia and consumer systems, and a de facto direct report to Gates himself…”

According to James Wallace’s 1997 book Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race To Control Cyberspace:

“…In mid-September 1993, Gates called Glaser, who at the time was on a leave of absence and arranged a meeting at which he asked Glaser to prepare an analysis of how the Internet might affect the Marvel project, Microsoft’s…effort headed by Russ Siegelman to develop an online service…

“Glaser…had arrived at Microsoft in 1983, at age 21…He quickly became one of the key people in the organization who advised Gates...It was Glaser who pioneered Microsoft’s push into multimedia and oversaw Microsoft’s transformation from a software company focused primarily on Windows and DOS to one where content became increasingly important.

“`One of my jobs at Microsoft was to be something of an advance scout,’ said Glaser. `And one of the reasons that I had so much fun at Microsoft was there was a…role to play for being…one of the people who figured out how to get there from here.’

“…After a decade at Microsoft, Glaser…took his millions in stock options…A year earlier, Glaser…dipped into those stock options to buy a multimillion-dollar percentage of the [Seattle] Mariners baseball team…”

Besides using some of the big money he obtained, from his 1980s and early 1990s involvement in helping Bill Gates build his for-profit Microsoft business empire, to buy part of a baseball team and start his RealNetworks/ProgressiveNetworks Inc. for-profit company in 1990s, former Microsoft VP Glaser also used some of his Microsoft-obtained wealth to establish the Glaser Progress Foundation that has helped fund Democracy Now! Productions since 2001. And, not surprisingly, not many news segments letting listeners and viewers know how either Glaser, Bill Gates or Microsoft acquired their personal or corporate wealth during the 1980s and 1990s have been aired or broadcast by Democracy Now! since 2001.

Yet as Gary Rivlin’s 1999 book, The Plot To Get Bill Gates, observed:

“…Rob Glaser, a trusted lieutenant of Gates until he left to start his own company…described [in a 1993 Business Week interview] what he labeled the `Machiavellian poker games he had played as Gate’s designated negotiator on many a deal. `You hid things even if it would blindside people you were working with,’ he confessed.” (end of part 15)