Secret politics pervade popular companies
Watch your Netflix show, wear your Ralph Lauren shirt, brew your Keurig coffee and deposit your paycheck at M&T Bank.
Just know that you're patronizing some of the nation's least politically transparent companies, according to a new study to be formally released this morning by the nonpartisan Center for Political Accountability and the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Twenty of the nearly 300 companies studied didn't score a single point on the survey's 70-point scale measuring political disclosure and accountability policies, including Netflix Inc., which produces political thriller "House of Cards," and K-Cup maker Keurig Green Mountain Coffee, which says it uses the "power of business to make the world a better place."
Other basement dwellers include Whole Foods Market Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., DirecTV and Berkshire Hathaway, billionaire Warren Buffett's holding company.
But overall, the nation's largest publicly traded companies are growing more politically transparent, the study concludes.
"Although surging secret spending has fueled public suspicion and even allegations of political scandal, many of the nation’s leading public companies have announced opposition to the practice," the survey concludes. "By standing up for sunlight and adopting public disclosure policies, they are laying the foundation for a new route to political disclosure."
Railroad giant CSX Corp. and Noble Energy Inc. — each with 68 points — led about three-dozen companies that scored at least 60 points out of a possible 70. Other top scorers included energy company Exelon Corp., tech giant Microsoft Corp. and tobacco company Altria Group Inc.
Related: Top U.S. corporations funneled $173 million to political nonprofits
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
This story is part of Primary Source. Primary Source keeps you up-to-date on developments in the post-Citizens United world of money in politics. Click here to read more stories in this blog.
Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
