Bradley Foundation

Can I just say, in my research, now I do have to go here.

In my research, one of the things we uncovered was that a number of the editorial board members for the Wall Street Journal had been given a $250,000 prize by the Bradley Foundation, one of the most regressive right-wing foundations in America.

And so you have these people who, their title in essence is journalists, they're the editorial writers for the Wall Street Journal, and at least two of the major players are that have been helping to steer the Wall Street Journal have accepted these $250,000 gifts.

And let me just say, in the world of journalism, like a $10,000 gift would be something amazing.

Hello and welcome to Voices of Freedom, a Bradley Foundation podcast.

I'm Rick Graber, President and CEO of the Bradley Foundation.

On the podcast, we'll explore issues that affect our freedoms with a focus on free enterprise, free speech, and educational freedom.

So let's get started.

Absolutely.

And Yaffa is just doing fantastic work on that front.

Scott, you recently joined the board of the Bradley Impact Fund, which is a donor advised fund affiliated with the Bradley Foundation.

What led you to join that board and what excites you about serving?

So if you remember, Miller Brewing stepped up with a $40 million, uh, naming rights commitment, and then there was the so-called $50 million club.

Um, the Bradley Foundation loaned 20 million, uh, the city of Milwaukee loaned 15 million, our organization, MMAC, loaned 14 million, and the Helfer Foundation loaned one million.

So that was the other 50 million, along with the naming rights from Miller Brewing of 40 million that came up with a contribution to match the public sector, uh, piece of financing.

And again, that took 11 months.

Um, and I'll remember one contentious meeting the day this got announced in our offices.

We had the governor's representatives, we had the stadium board, we had the Brewers, we had the Bradley Foundation, and everybody was jockeying for the financing package.

And the whole deal was around this large conference room table, and it almost blew up.

And Jack McDonough, who was the CEO of Miller Brewing, pulled out a Miller, can of Miller beer, slid it across the table, broke the ice, the deal got done, and as they say, the rest is history.

You being lobbied as a prize.

Now, you've mentioned this before, so it's no surprise that you are a member of the Bradley Foundation, and the Bradley Prize is given out every year.

And I know that you are lobbied by people who want that, or they have surrogates lobby you.

Yes.

I, I would say, I would say yes.

I believe that is more than the Bradley Foundation, which is the largest sort of ideological conservative foundation Or certainly the most prominent of the ideological conservative foundations.

So they're, they're big, and they can fund a lot when they choose to.

Um, and this was a program, this Freedom Scholars program has not been around as long as the Genius Grants.

The Koch political operation, K-O-C-H, from the Koch Foundation.

Brothers, the Bradley Foundation, which is a big, big, big, big right-wing funder.

And then, of course, the big oil itself.

The Manhattan Institute, by the way, won the prize.