Hollywood, Google cozy up to conservatives amid dispute

Source: Los Angeles Times

The days of Hollywood and Silicon Valley aligning their charitable giving with mostly liberal causes are long gone. Doing so may be too politically costly as each is trying to get leverage over the other on a divided Capitol Hill.

The big movie studios, whose executives rank among the Democratic Party’s most effective fundraisers, have lately been stepping up their contributions to think tanks more commonly associated with the Republican-supporting Koch brothers. Google, the tech giant and cash cow for Democrats, has been doing the same. Both the studios and Google also now count among their lobbyists some of the most connected GOP insiders in Washington.

... The flow of funds to conservative think tanks amid the fight highlights the influence those organizations have over the GOP-controlled House. Several of them are actively involved in the copyright dispute through lobbying and other advocacy.

... In November, the Center for Media and Democracy took aim at Google with its report “The Googlization of the Far Right.” Google reveals far less about its giving than the MPAA, which as a nonprofit organization is subject to strict disclosure requirements. But the center noted that voluntary disclosures show that since late 2012 Google has given “substantial” grants to the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, the CATO Institute, Heritage Action and others.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-pn-hollywood-google-koch-brothers-20140228,0,5799388.story