October 23, 2015

Meet Citizens United, Another Right-Wing Group Driving The Clinton Email Narrative

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/10/20/meet-citizens-united-another-right-wing-group-d/206280
"Citizens United was created in 1988 by conservative activist Floyd Brown. Early on, the organization ran political campaigns promoting the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas, as well as campaigns against Democratic presidential candidates like Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton.
Brown was behind the infamous race-baiting Willie Horton political ad that was used to attack Dukakis in the 1988 presidential campaign. He was chairman of Citizens United until 2006, a position former congressional investigator and anti-Clinton activist David Bossie now holds.
Since leaving Citizens United, Brown has promoted the birther conspiracy that President Obama was not born in the United States, and demanded his removal from the White House for trying to construct a "totalitarian regime." Brown also ran political attack ads falsely claiming that President Obama is Muslim.
In 2008, Citizens United produced an anti-Clinton film called Hillary: The Movie. After the group was barred from advertising the film due to its political content and possible influence on the election, the resulting 2010 Supreme Court case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, opened the floodgate of money now influencing elections.
Citizens United also engaged in deceptive campaigns against the Affordable Care Act, and distorted the beliefs of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.
In addition to Hillary: The Movie, the organization has produced films attacking the left and promoting the right. These include Occupy Unmasked, Battle for America with Dick Morris, and Hype: The Obama Effect.
Citizens United also has an affiliated political action committee, Citizens United Political Victory Fund, that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars between 2006 and 2014 to support Republican candidates and attack Democrats. They also have a super PAC, Citizens United Super PAC, which has already spent $128,199 so far in the 2016 election cycle."