The Secret Task Force

Summary

Master Plan Podcast: Episode Summary – "The Secret Task Force"

Introduction

In "The Secret Task Force," the second episode of the award-winning series Master Plan by The Lever, host David Sirota delves deeper into the intricate web of political manipulation and corruption that has been orchestrated over the past five decades in the United States. Building on the foundation laid in the previous episode, this installment uncovers the pivotal meetings, key figures, and strategic implementations that have systematically undermined American democracy, transforming it into what some describe as a kleptocracy.

Background: The Powell Memo and Its Significance

The episode begins by revisiting the Powell Memorandum, a critical document authored by Lewis Powell, a Supreme Court Justice and former corporate lawyer. The memo, which Powell sent to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1971, outlined a comprehensive strategy to counteract the growing influence of leftist movements and to bolster the power of corporations in shaping public policy and opinion.

Lewis Powell (00:57): "It just might be the most important single document regarding the free enterprise system."

Powell's memo emphasized the need for organized, long-term planning and substantial financial investment to secure the interests of big business against perceived threats from various social and political movements.

The Formation of the Secret Task Force

In March 1973, a clandestine meeting was convened at Disney World's Polynesian Village Resort in Orlando, Florida. This gathering marked the first significant assembly of the "Task Force on the Powell Memorandum," bringing together influential business leaders and lobbyists committed to implementing Powell's recommendations.

Jared Jakang Mayer (09:19): "This was the first big meeting of a group called the Task Force on the Powell Memorandum."

Key Figures and Their Roles

• William G. White (10:51): A top lobbyist for United States Steel and the chairman of the Powell Memo Task Force. White was instrumental in coordinating the efforts to translate the memo's recommendations into actionable strategies.

• Gerald Ford (13:58): At the time, Ford was a congressman who would soon ascend to the vice presidency and then the presidency. His involvement in the meeting underscored the deep political connections that the task force cultivated to advance their agenda.

• Roger Ailes (24:36): An emerging television producer who would later found Fox News. Ailes' ideas on media influence were quickly recognized as pivotal in shaping public perception in favor of free-market capitalism.

Strategizing for Influence: Meetings in Florida and Dallas

The Florida meeting served as a foundational event where task force members discussed strategies to enhance corporate influence over politics and media. A critical outcome was the push to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), aiming to relax restrictions on corporate political action committees (PACs).

Jared Jakang Mayer (15:54): "We should be able to get many companies to follow our own pattern of political fundraising."

Simultaneously, a rival meeting was taking place in Dallas, Texas, organized by the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO). Here, Roger Ailes presented his vision for leveraging advertising dollars to influence television programming, laying the groundwork for what would become a powerful media empire.

Jared Jakang Mayer (24:24): "That young man's name was Roger Ailes."

Implementation: Legal and Media Strategies

Post-meetings, the task force swiftly moved to execute their plans:

1. Political Action and Campaign Finance Reform: The amendment of FECA facilitated increased corporate spending in elections through PACs, effectively creating a legal loophole for significant campaign contributions from big businesses.

   David Sirota (17:10): "Under the guise of post Watergate campaign finance reform legislation, the master planners from this Powell memo meeting ended up creating their first corruption loophole."

2. Media Influence and Propaganda: Collaborations with advertising executives like Bart Cummings led to extensive public service advertising campaigns promoting capitalism. Additionally, media ventures spearheaded by Roger Ailes sought to shape public opinion by controlling news narratives.

   David Sirota (41:30): "They put up billboards, ran magazine ads and aired radio spots. Cummings and the Ad Council highlighted all of this as one of their best PSA campaigns ever for how effective it was in building the American public's support for free market capitalism."

3. Judicial Actions and Litigation: Inspired by the Powell memo's emphasis on the courts, the Chamber of Commerce established entities like the Pacific Legal Foundation to influence judicial outcomes in favor of corporate interests.

   William G. White (38:03): "We have been successful in gaining our point of view and important instances, and we expect these judicial actions to be one of the most far-reaching and productive elements resulting from task force recommendations."

The Ripple Effect: Building Institutions

The dissemination of the Powell memo ignited a surge in conservative activism and institutional development:

• Heritage Foundation: Funded heavily by industrialists like John Olin, Heritage became a cornerstone of conservative policy advocacy, shaping Republican agendas from Reagan to Trump.

  David Sirota (31:14): "The Heritage Foundation, leading this draconian and at times extreme policy plan, Project 2025, a... wish list or proposal for the second term."

• Federalist Society: A legal organization that played a crucial role in placing like-minded judges in the federal judiciary, further cementing corporate-friendly rulings.

Conclusion: Consolidating Power and Legalizing Corruption

By the mid-1970s, the strategies outlined in the Powell memo had been meticulously implemented. The Supreme Court included its author, Gerald Ford had become President with strong ties to the task force, and media outlets like Fox News were emerging as powerful tools for conservative messaging. Simultaneously, legal organizations were positioned to influence court decisions, thereby embedding corporate interests deeply within the American legal and political framework.

David Sirota (43:00): "By the end of 1974, after all these secret meetings, the Master Plan's key pieces are now in place."

As the episode concludes, Sirota hints at the imminent opportunities that would allow the task force to further their agenda, setting the stage for future developments in the series.

Notable Quotes

• David Sirota (10:52): "The Chamber of Commerce is not like your local Chamber of Commerce. This isn't a gathering of mom and pop shops from Main Street America. This is like the elite of the elite."

• Roger Ailes (24:33): "I don't believe anyone will ever be elected to a major public office again without the skillful use of television."

• Lewis Powell (57:00): "Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation. Inconsistency of action over an indefinite period of years in the scale of financing available only through joint effort."

Implications and Reflections

"The Secret Task Force" sheds light on the often-overlooked strategic maneuvers that have significantly shaped the American political landscape. By systematically organizing, funding, and influencing various institutions, the task force not only advanced corporate interests but also redefined the democratic process to favor a select few. This episode serves as a critical examination of the erosion of democratic principles in favor of entrenched corporate power, urging listeners to recognize and understand the long-term consequences of such orchestrated efforts.

Final Thoughts

David Sirota masterfully unpacks the complex interplay between business interests, political maneuvering, and media control that has undermined democratic integrity in the United States. "The Secret Task Force" not only uncovers historical facts but also connects them to contemporary political dynamics, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of how past strategies continue to influence today's political climate.

Transcript

[David Sirota]

Before we dive in, just a reminder that this is the free version of Master Plan. But our paid subscribers get episodes early and ad free and you get bonus content, interviews, documents and videos. More importantly, if you become a paid subscriber, you'll help fund this show and the investigative journalism we do at the Lever. Right now we're offering a huge 50% off forever discount on a paid subscription. If you want bonus content and if you want to support our journalism, please go right now to lever news.com/50, that's lever news.com/50 to get the deal. Right now again, that's lever news.com /50. Now onto the episode the Lever. Let's imagine for A minute it's January 1973. You're in your car, driving home after a long day. Let's say it's a wood paneled Buick. You're stressed about work, you're scanning through radio stations. But all of the news coming out of Washington is bad. Nixon, days away from his second inauguration, is trying everything he can to distance himself from a growing scandal.

[Gerald Ford]

Senate Democrats have chosen North Carolina's Sam Ervin to investigate the Watergate bugging case. The committee would have full subpoena power and a half million dollar budget.

[David Sirota]

There are new protests every day. It's exhausting. So you flip the radio over to the AM dial. You find Warm 590, a station that serves northern Pennsylvania and parts of New York.

[Lewis Powell]

Mr. Businessman, have you read the Powell memorandum?

[David Sirota]

You're thinking the Powell memorandum? What the hell is that?

[Lewis Powell]

It just might be the most important single document regarding the free enterprise system.

[David Sirota]

And who is this guy they're talking about? Lewis Powell.

[Lewis Powell]

The same Lewis F. Powell who is now a member justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, prepared an in depth study entitled Attack on American Free Enterprise System.

[David Sirota]

Okay, so this is a recreation, but we based it on the actual word for word transcripts of a series of radio editorials that warm 590 presented on.

[Lewis Powell]

The topic of a growing menace in this country which threatens to choke to death our system of free enterprise.

[David Sirota]

You rev the Buick engine and squeeze the steering wheel. The speaker describes how this new threat is not from your typical commies and radicals. No, no, no. This new enemy is even more dangerous.

[Lewis Powell]

People in college classrooms. People who reach the public through radio and television and newspapers and magazines. People in our own community. Their numbers aren't all that big yet, but their weapons are powerful. An ability to talk, to write and to influence public opinion. They match this with an almost religious devotion to one goal. Destroy free enterprise in America.

[David Sirota]

You and your buick are the Mr. Businessman this editorial is talking to. You work hard, you pay your taxes. You think the American system is pretty great. This Powell memo they're talking about is stirring something in you. You realize it's time to get off the sidelines and join the fight. In the last episode, we told you about how Lewis Powell came to write his manifesto. And we ended with the did it actually mean anything? Was it just Lewis Powell's early version of an angry Reddit thread that went into the ether? Or as some claim, was it much more? Did oligarchs and activists use it as their step by step blueprint for the takeover of major American institutions? Well, after two years of research and the discovery of some documents that have never seen the light of day, we finally have the answer. We all know the history of the many social movements in the 60s and 70s. Civil rights, the environment, Women's Lib. But in this episode, we're going to tell you about the movement you've probably never heard of, the Powell Memo movement that began the process of legalizing corruption in America. I'm David Sirota and this is Master Plan.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

What about the master plan, huh? Money, money, money, money, money, money. Making up a master plan. Money, money, money, money.

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[David Sirota]

When we left off in the previous episode, Lewis Powell's memo had been leaked to the media and it stirred a minor controversy because the FBI did not include it in its report to the senators voting on Powell's Supreme Court nomination. I'm here with our producer, Jared Jakang Mayer. So, Jared, fill us in on what happened to Powell after the memo became public.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

So that was in the fall of 1972, and Powell had only been on the Supreme Court for less than a year. And in his personal papers, I found letters from business executives and other high profile friends offering their support. And some of them asking, hey, can I get a copy of this memo? But Powell was always careful about maintaining the appearance of impartiality. He called it part of his, quote, sterilization as a judge. And he would always refer inquiries to his buddy Gene Sydner over at the Chamber of Commerce and say, go get copies from them.

[David Sirota]

And as we've said before, Powell never addressed the memo publicly, right?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

No, he didn't really need to, because the controversy only stayed in the news for a couple weeks and then basically went away. Powell never talked about it, and it doesn't seem like he was ever even asked about the memo for the rest of his life.

[David Sirota]

Like, it almost never even happened.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Yeah, and it was frustrating because when I was at the Powell archives, digging through his papers, I could see these little snippets, these references where you could tell something more was going on. Meetings, campaigns, things that had been set up around the memo at the Chamber of Commerce. Yeah, and I looked there at the public archive for the US Chamber, and it goes back more than 100 years, but I couldn't find much. I had to start looking further afield at other archives and libraries around the country, just connecting the dots between people who might have been involved at the time. And eventually, I came up with a pretty clear picture of what transpired in the years after the Powell memo was leaked.

[David Sirota]

You mean the vast, shadowy conspiracy?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Yeah. Well, it does involve the names of powerful people that you would probably recognize. To be fair, some of these figures were already part of the conservative movement that was emerging in the 1970s. But it does seem like the memo came at the exact right moment in time to steer many of these folks in the same direction. The business round. Take the head of Procter and Gamble, Charles Koch, Roger Ailes.

[David Sirota]

Dude. Dude. Dude. Are you about to say Pepe Silvia? Because this kind of feels like it's that scene in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia where Charlie covered the office walls with those sheets of paper connected with red lines.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Pepe Silvia. This name keeps coming up over and over again. Every day, Pepe's mail is getting sent back to me.

[David Sirota]

Pepe Silvia.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Pepe Silvia. I look in the mail. Well, this whole box is Pepe Silvia. David, have you been spying on me in my basement? Okay, but you're right. This is all very expansive and interconnected and a lot of names keep showing up. So for the purpose of this episode, I want to hone in on three previously unknown gatherings that were specifically focused on the Powell memo. We're going to go from Florida to Dallas and then to D.C. okay, so.

[David Sirota]

Let'S start in a place where everything seems to break bad. Florida.

[Gerald Ford]

Walt Disney World is more than just a place. It is a complete vacation destination where guests, tourists may stay as long as they like. At the Polynesian Village, there is a leisurely atmosphere of the South Seas and trade winds.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Orlando, March, 1973. The U.S. chamber of Commerce's Public Affairs Committee organized a three day conference at Disney World's Polynesian Hotel. And it was the first big meeting of a group called the Task Force on the Powell Memorandum.

[David Sirota]

Come on, man. There was actually a Powell memo task force and they met at the Polynesian Resort in Disney. Like, for real? For real, for real, for real.

[Gerald Ford]

The great ceremonial house dominates the scene in a setting that is lushly tropical. And for each guest, there is a feeling of coming to a tiny island in the South Pacific to stay and play.

[David Sirota]

I'm imagining newly planted palm trees and white sand beaches. The tiki torches are burning. The Cinderella Castle is off in the distance. The super futuristic monorail is gliding along an elevated track. And in the middle of all this magic and joy, you're telling me there are a bunch of stuffy white dudes in wide lapel 70s suits wandering around the lobby of this new hotel.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And imagine that everyone is clutching their copies of the Powell Memorandum.

[David Sirota]

So how did this happen?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Well, the main coordinator behind this gathering was a guy named William G. White. He was the top lobbyist in Washington for United States Steel, one of the biggest steel producers in the world. He was also picked to serve as chairman of this newly created Powell Memo task force. We'll talk more about White in a minute, but first I want you to check this out. It's a roster of other task force members.

[David Sirota]

Okay, let's see.

[William G. White]

There's.

[David Sirota]

I'm looking here. Okay, there's Richard Jenks, president of cbs. There's Jay Van Andel, who co founded Amway with the notorious Richard DeVos. Let's see, there's top brass from Phillips Petroleum. I also see a bunch of Executives here from J.C. penney, 3M, the American Medical Association, General Motors, deans from a couple universities. This is a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce. But not like your local Chamber of commerce. This isn't a gathering of mom and pop shops from Main Street America. This is like the elite of the elite. The masters of the corporate and political world hanging out at Disney World.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

It really is a small world, David. It's a small world after all. And you've got to read this, too. Here's a copy of the actual agenda.

[David Sirota]

So it looks like attendees were first greeted at a reception aboard the Eastern Winds, an authentic Chinese junk ship that apparently doubled as a floating cocktail lounge. As their spouses and families took in a hula performance or hit the water slides, the corporate guys got down to business in the Micronesian conference room. One session was called Interpreting Business, a think tank session on how to, quote, enhance the image of business. They also exchanged ideas for how to sway public opinion through, quote, economic education.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Which was a big theme of the Powell memo.

[David Sirota]

Okay, so then there's a 9am to noon session on political action. It was a workshop focused on the Powell memo's recommendations to increase political effectiveness and, quote, what more the chamber and business community can do to develop more political clout.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Political clout. Another core message of the Powell memo. And it was the most pressing topic of this meeting. Now let's go back to the organizer of this event, U.S. steel lobbyist William White. This wasn't some everyday hack. One observer described him as, quote, the dean of the corporate Washington establishment. And White was not just a fixture on K Street. He was the ringleader among a new breed of corporate public affairs specialists. These were guys that brought together lobbying, legislative, know how legal pressure and media skills, all in service of growing a client's political influence.

[David Sirota]

And the lobbyists know the truth. The easiest way to pull strings in Washington is to control politicians with campaign money.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And here's where it gets really interesting. Midway through the conference, White left the Polynesian Hotel and jumped in his car.

[David Sirota]

I bet it was something like a wood paneled Buick.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And jumped in his proverbial wood panel Buick and headed to the Orlando airport for an important pickup.

[David Sirota]

He wasn't picking up bags of dirty cash like in episode two. White was there to give a lift to his longtime friends, Jerry and Betty. Jerry was once an obscure Republican congressman from Michigan. But at this point, he was on a glide path to something much bigger.

[Gerald Ford]

I, Gerald R. Ford, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.

[David Sirota]

Yes, that Jerry Gerald Ford, who is still in Congress, but later that year will become Vice president. And soon after that, President officially, Congressman Jerry came to Florida to take part in another Work related junket on the invitation of William White. A junket paid for by US Steel, of course. But instead of heading to a golf course, Gerald Ford was going to the happiest place on earth to schmooze and collaborate with the Powell memo task force.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

It's a small world after all.

[David Sirota]

According to the conference schedule, the Honorable Gerald R. Ford was the official speaker at the luncheon on Friday. But there may have been an ulterior motive for his participation in that day's session. Strategizing about the upcoming congressional elections and about how to deal with legislation that was problematic for the master plan, the Federal Election Campaign act.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Fika. So remember back in episode two, we told you that Ford signed the amendments, seeming to make FIKA even stronger when he became president. So this is right before that when they are discussing those amendments.

[David Sirota]

When Ford did sign those amendments, it was seen as a big win for the reformers, not the master planners there at Disney World.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And for the most part, FIKA was a win for Common Cause and the reformers. But the master planners were desperate to get around fika's restrictions on corporate funded political action committees that funnel money to politicians and political parties. This Powell memo meeting at Disney World was where they perfected their plan. I got a letter for you to read, David. This was written by one of the attendees a week before he went to Disney World on behalf of his boss, John Merrill. Olin.

[David Sirota]

Olin the wealthy industri. We'll talk more about him later.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

In this letter, the executive writes about the Powell memo task force in intimate detail, especially their lobbying effort to amend the regulations around corporate campaign donations. He wrote, quote, we should be able to get many companies to follow our own pattern of political fundraising.

[David Sirota]

He's talking about political action committees, PACs. And without getting too far into the weeds, the corporate guys at this Orlando meeting wanted an exemption to an older law that was standing in the way of huge multinationals like the Olin Corporation from dumping money into corporate PACs. The effort was being opposed by Common Cause and a senator from Wisconsin named William Proxmire who was threatening to filibuster.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Check out this line. Quote, I have suggested to some of my corporate associates that we might contribute to a special fund to have Senator Proxmire get a few more hair transplants, provided the operator drills a little deeper this time.

[David Sirota]

Okay, so they're like, joking about murdering Senator Proxmire, basically, Or at least lobotomizing him.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Yeah, and we know that Ford was there. We know that amending FICA was a Major item of discussion at the meeting. And we know that the meeting took place right before Ford's keynote speech to the Powell memo task force.

[David Sirota]

So let's review. While drinking Mai tais at Disney World's Polynesian Hotel, the master planners are specifically scheming to end restrictions on corporate packs. And they're schmoozing directly with Gerald Ford, the then House Minority Leader, on his way to becoming president.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And then guess what? A provision killing those restrictions ended up in the FICA reform bill that Gerald Ford first dealt with in Congress and then later signed into law as president.

[David Sirota]

Wow, what a shocking coincidence. Remember what Ford said in episode two when he signed the bill into law?

[Gerald Ford]

All the compromises that were necessary in the process?

[David Sirota]

I guess now we know where some of those compromises came from. So, under the guise of post Watergate campaign finance reform legislation, the master planners from this Powell memo meeting ended up creating their first corruption loophole. And as soon as that law took effect, there was an immediate explosion in campaign spending by corporate America. No more secret bags of dirty cash smuggled through airports a la Nixon. The Chamber wanted all of its members to write checks for millions of dollars to totally official, totally legal and extremely powerful business PACs. But back to Disney World. The master planners honed their plan to keep the money flowing into politics. But what else did they decide?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Well, the vision laid out in the Powell memo was so multifaceted and expansive that they realized that executing it would be really hard. It needed to be more sophisticated and broad based than any effort previously undertaken by the business community.

[David Sirota]

It probably seemed super daunting.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Yeah, well, if you're going to wish upon a star, this is the place to do it. But either way, they got down to work. The documents we unearthed show that the task force members there were about 50 of them were divided up into subcommittees. For each of the core tenets of the Powell memo. You had communications, education, political action and judicial action. They were instructed to spend the next several months intensively analyzing and considering Powell's words. They were told to quote to reach beyond to blue sky their thinking and not to limit themselves just to the Powell memo as they developed their ideas for the Chamber.

[David Sirota]

Remember that key line in the Powell memo?

[Unknown Speaker]

Strength lies in organization, in careful long range planning and implementation. Inconsistency of action over an indefinite period of years in the scale of financing available only through joint effort.

[David Sirota]

In other words, to borrow a phrase from the civil rights movements of the previous decade, they needed to do some coalition building and spread the gospel. The mid 20th century was fertile ground for political manifestos. It seemed like you couldn't walk 10ft without tripping over some pivotal work inspiring a new social and political movement. There was the Feminine Mystique by Betty Frieden for the feminist movement. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring for the environmental movement. There was Saul Alinsky's Rules for radicals. There was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. S letter from Birmingham Jail, which became a galvanizing text for the civil rights movement.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And don't forget the granddaddy of them all, the Little Red Book by Mao Zedong.

[Gerald Ford]

They always carry Chairman Mao's works with them and study them everywhere and anytime.

[David Sirota]

But this was the challenge for corporate conservatives in this era. They didn't have anything like the Little Red Book, and this was a problem for them.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Although I do like the idea of the conservative mystique.

[David Sirota]

Well, they did have books like Barry Goldwater's the Conscience of a Conservative, and they did have figures like William F. Buckley on TV and radio. But if they were going to create a movement to counter the left, they needed something that would not only inspire the insiders and power brokers and elites, but also something that would motivate the masses.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And this is why I'm skeptical about whether the Powell memo was leaked to the Washington Post without the knowledge of the top leadership at the Chamber of Commerce. Because right after the memo went public in 1972, you see that the Chamber is immediately publishing it and distributing it far and wide. They mailed thousands of copies to members. They printed it in their official magazine with a elaborate design treatment, like it was some mysterious quasi religious text that must be read.

[David Sirota]

It really was kind of like the conservative movement's version of the Anarchists Cookbook. It was kind of like contraband, a publication that everyone had heard about but wasn't on the newsstand.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And even though the Powell memo was never an officially published book, according to the Chamber's estimates, hundreds of thousands of copies of it were circulated, reaching millions of Americans and sparking numerous discussions and speeches and articles. It was an underground bestseller.

[David Sirota]

And by early 1973, activity around the memo was intense.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

So intense, in fact, that at the same time, Gerald Ford was at Disney World delivering his keynote address to the Powell Memo Conference. It turns out there was another event, a rival event about the Powell memo that was happening at the Marriott Hotel in Dallas, Texas, at the same time, the Same exact day, March 30, 1973. I want to show you this. These are notes taken by a man named John A. Howard. Howard came from the world of academia, and he was the president of Rockford College in Illinois. He was an influential figure in the emerging conservative movement at the time.

[David Sirota]

This Dallas meeting looks like it was organized by members of something called the.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Ypo, the Young President's Organization. It was a social club for executives and and owners of smaller businesses, and it's still around today. In early 1973, the YPO orchestrated a series of gatherings, Powell memo parties, if you will, for members who wanted to fight the fight.

[David Sirota]

That sounds like a hippie lovin for angry middle managers.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Yeah, pretty much. And Howard was one of the attendees at the Dallas meeting, and he saw the Powell memo as a way to build a new ideologically driven movement. At the YPO meeting, there was a focus on the part of the Powell memo that talked about the seeming paradox.

[Unknown Speaker]

Of how most of the media, including the national TV systems, are owned and theoretically controlled by corporations, which depend upon profits and the enterprise system to survive.

[David Sirota]

So at this Dallas meeting, the assembled businessmen start asking, why couldn't corporations leverage their power as advertisers to shape the news coverage from media outlets they sponsor?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And on this topic, Howard was impressed by a young TV producer who had helped Richard Nixon get elected. He noted, quote, this man appears to be a potential secret weapon and the chamber would be wise to enlist him as a consultant. And that young man's name was.

[David Sirota]

Hang on, hang on, hang on. Don't say the name yet. Can we get some more ominous music here? Okay, there we go. Okay, go ahead.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

That young man's name was Roger Ailes.

[Gerald Ford]

I don't believe anyone will ever be elected to a major public office again without the skillful use of television.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Roger Ailes.

[David Sirota]

Roger Ailes.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Roger Ailes.

[David Sirota]

Wait, wait. Like the Roger Ailes?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Yep. Roger Ailes, the founder and former CEO of Fox News. It's a small world after all. Here's what John Howard wrote about Ailes presentation and David, you should read this part.

[David Sirota]

Okay, let me take a look. Quote Roger Ailes outlined the power which advertisers would be able to exert upon TV programming if they were moved to do so. The chamber members not only need to understand the problem, but be informed about where and how they can apply leverage and be given the tools to exert the leverage. Wait, wait, whoa, whoa. In my time working in politics and media, I have been eye rolled and depicted as some sort of deranged conspiracy theorist whenever I've suggested that corporate advertisers at times try to and have the power to influence the news with their advertising dollars. But here at this meeting, it looks like the future founder of Fox News spelled that out as an explicit political strategy.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Yeah, and John Howard loved this idea. At the time, Ailes was an up and coming TV producer turned political consult. His ideas about shaping public perceptions through media. It found a receptive audience at this Dallas meeting as well as other meetings that he attended. About the Powell memo.

[David Sirota]

Dear listener, if you've ever looked at the Republican Party of today and wondered, how did country club Republicans and the Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln wind up in bed with hard right libertarians? And how did Fox News become the obnoxious bullhorn of the conservative movement? But this is the moment when those coalitions started to form. The Powell memo served as the connective tissue.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And to be clear, the hard right libertarian faction was different from the Chamber of Commerce crowd at Disney World.

[David Sirota]

The Libertarians had previously felt marginalized in the Republican Party. While the pro business Republicans at Disney World wanted favors from the government, the Libertarians were anti government ideologues who wanted to tear it all down.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

We're talking about direct descendants of the robber barons of the Gilded Age who were committed to the destruction of the federal government bureaucracy that was expanded under the New deal. But in 1973 and 1974, you had these convergences, some bigger and more formal, some smaller and more intimate, where the Powell memo served as a unifying document. Its promise of freedom and enterprise went. Went viral among both groups and brought them together.

[David Sirota]

So how did something go viral before the Internet? It's not like this was at the airport bookstore.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

No, it wasn't something you could get at the newsstand. The Chamber of Commerce sent the memo to its members directly, and then it spread organically from person to person, probably using snail mail and lots of Xerox copies.

[David Sirota]

Imagine some vice president of a company opens up his mailbox and finds a copy of the memo. He loves it so much that he makes a copy.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Then the memo arrives at the mansion of wealthy industrialist John Olin, who inherited his fortune from his family's chemical and munitions empire in the 1930s.

[David Sirota]

So Olin is like, oh my God, this guy, Lewis Powell. This guy is saying everything that I've been thinking.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Olin would go on to dump hundreds of millions of dollars into conservative think tanks, media organizations, and become a main backer of a conservative legal group called the Federalist Society.

[David Sirota]

We'll talk about the Federalist Society in depth later in this series.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Then the Powell memo shows up in Wichita, Kansas, at the estate of Charles and David Koch, the Koch brothers. I don't even think we need to explain the impact of the Kochs. But the Koch brothers are recognized as some of the biggest financiers of conservative politics. Politics. Their father built an empire in oil and gas and they inherited his business along with his hardcore libertarian ideology. And Charles, we know, found inspiration in the Powell memo. In 1974, he read an excerpt of the Powell memo to a group of like minded conservatives and said he didn't think it went far enough actually. So he co founded the Cato Institute, another think tank dedicated to stuff like deregulating campaign finance.

[David Sirota]

These guys really took to heart Powell's urging to play the long game, to invest money in creating alternative institutions, to shift the country in a whole new direction.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

At every level, another copy gets made. Now imagine the memo arriving at the estate of Richard Mellon Scaife, the mogul who inherited his family's oil and banking fortune.

[David Sirota]

Wait, wait. Scaife's name came in episode two. He was one of Nixon's secret donors who got exposed by that common cause lawsuit.

[Gerald Ford]

$800,000 from Richard Scaife of the wealthy Mellon family.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Yeah. And after reading the Powell memo, Scaife began a decades long mission to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into conservative causes and organizations.

[David Sirota]

That includes the Heritage Foundation.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Yes, exactly. And this brings us to our last figure. A copy of the memo arrives in Golden, Colorado at the headquarters of Coors Brewing Company. Joseph Coors, a grandson of the company's founder, told a historian that the Powell memorandum stirred him and made him realize American business was ignoring a crisis. So he tapped his family's brewing fortune for a venture led by Roger Ailes, which laid the groundwork for what would evolve into Fox News. But his biggest investments were put toward making radical changes to the intellectual and policy landscape of Washington D.C. he became one of the first and biggest funders of the Heritage foundation, which was founded in February 1973.

[David Sirota]

For listeners who vaguely recognize the name of the Heritage foundation, it's probably because the organization and its policy agenda have been touted by Republican presidents for the last four decades. You don't have to trust me that. The 2024 Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. vance explicitly said that writing, quote, the Heritage foundation isn't some random outpost on Capitol Hill. It is and has been the most influential engine of ideas for Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump. And Vance wasn't exaggerating when he wrote that. Here's Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

[Ronald Reagan]

I mentioned the things that were on the minds of conservatives at the moment. The importance of the Heritage foundation, the remarkable work of Joe and Holly Coors and so many of you in this room in bringing to Washington the political revolution.

[David Sirota]

And here's what you've been hearing in the news about Donald Trump, the conservative.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Heritage foundation, leading this draconian and at times extreme policy plan, Project 2025, a.

[David Sirota]

900 page sort of wish list or proposal for the second term.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Heritage does such an incredible job and they're going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.

[David Sirota]

So there it is, another direct line from Lewis Powell's manifesto to the present era. In this case, from the Powell memo in 1971 to Project 2025 today. The Powell memo inspires oligarchs to fund the Heritage foundation. And the Heritage foundation then became the author of the agenda of the entire conservative movement all the way into this current moment that we're now living through.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

But back here in 1973, this was all still underground, just a bunch of ideologues, eggheads, activists and oligarchs cross pollinating with one another.

[David Sirota]

So the question for the master planners at this early moment in the 1970s was how do they take the Powell memos ideas and start implementing them? How do they begin infiltrating the courts and infiltrating American culture? That's where we're going next. Let me set the scene. It's November 12, 1974, 19 months after the meeting at Disney World with Gerald Ford and the meeting in Dallas with Roger Ailes. The last leaves are dropping off the trees and Richard, I'm not a crook. Nixon is gone.

[Gerald Ford]

I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

[David Sirota]

Congressman Jerry from the Disney World meeting is now President Gerald Ford, and he's given Nixon a get out of jail.

[Gerald Ford]

Free card, a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States.

[David Sirota]

At this point in 1974, Lewis Powell has settled into his job on the Supreme Court, developing a reputation as a reasonable moderate. And the general public has forgotten about the leak of his memo. The Powell memo task force, however, has been busy implementing the recommendations of the memo. And here at this meeting in 1974, there was likely a deep sense of urgency. Just days before the gathering, the master planner's Republican allies in Congress saw historic midterm losses in the post Watergate election, sweeping in a new wave of liberal reformers.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Earlier I said I wanted to talk about three important meetings, and this is the third and final one. It doesn't have tiki torches and Mai Tais. This gathering is being held at The Chamber of Commerce's headquarters in Washington, D.C. located right near the White House. And I found the actual seating chart. Check out the names around this table.

[David Sirota]

Let's take a look here. Okay, there's William Baruti, president of the conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And he's sitting next to Barton Cummings, the bow tie wearing head of one of the nation's biggest advertising agencies and chair of the Ad Council.

[David Sirota]

I see Gene Sydner, the Richmond, Virginia businessman who first got Lewis Powell to draft his infamous memo to the Chamber of Commerce.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And two seats away from him is John Howard, the president of Rockford College, who attended the Dallas meeting.

[David Sirota]

Of course, there's a representative from Jay Van Andel, who co founded amway with Richard DeVos.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And all around the table, you can see top brass from pro industry lobbying.

[David Sirota]

Groups, the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the National association of Manufacturers, and the newly formed Business Roundtable, that, along with the Chamber of Commerce, would define a new power structure on Capitol Hill for decades to come. So, Jared, did you find audio from the meeting?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Sadly, no. But I did find the typed out speaker's notes from the presentation. So how about we do another reenactment?

[David Sirota]

All right, through the magic of podcasting, let's go now into the room where this secret meeting took place.

[Gerald Ford]

Who controls the British crown?

[David Sirota]

Who keeps the metric system down?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

No, it wasn't quite like the Stonecutters on the Simpsons. No purple robes or weird symbols. These VIPs were probably all wearing suits and ties.

[David Sirota]

As the men settle into their seats, everyone turns to the head of the table to listen to the convener of the meeting, William White, the US Steel lobbyist who'd coordinated that previous meeting at the Polynesian Hotel and who just finished assisting with his friend President Gerald Ford's transition into the White House.

[William G. White]

All right, gentlemen, let's get started. Please have a seat.

[David Sirota]

White begins by explaining how, after a year of closely studying the Powell memo, the Chamber's board officially approved a plan of action around the conclusion that there.

[William G. White]

Were, quote, for mandatory areas in which business must concentrate its efforts. Efforts if it is to achieve acceptance with the general public.

[David Sirota]

Yeah, you heard that right. America's corporate titans are sitting at a giant table in a Roman columned fortress just one block from the Oval Office, where their pal Jerry is now literally the leader of the free world. And somehow they perceive themselves as the victims struggling for acceptance. Imagine Darth Vader and the Emperor at the control panel of the Death Star, lamenting that they're unpopular and have no power anyway. White addresses the big question, how are things progressing with the master plan? Quite well, it seems. The room goes dark and a beam of light from a slide projector shines onto the screen. White explains how the task force's lobbying helped convince Congress to amend the new election laws to allow for corporate PAC spending, just as they had planned back at Disney World.

[William G. White]

Congress has enacted most of the reforms we sought, and notably we helped to stave off that drive for public financing of congressional races.

[David Sirota]

Now White moves on to the next issue, judicial action. You may recall that the Powell memo recommended mimicking Ralph Nader's focus on the courts, filing lawsuits designed to get specific policy outcomes and amicus briefs, pressuring judges to deliver specific rulings.

[William G. White]

Since expanding the program, the Chamber has participated, or is in the process of doing so, in 13 cases.

[David Sirota]

White brags that the Chamber has participated in cases over things like whether unemployment benefits should be paid to striking workers or changing the guidelines for how chemicals can be discharged into waterways.

[William G. White]

We have been successful in gaining our point of view and important instances, and we expect these judicial actions to be one of the most far reaching and productive elements resulting from task force recommendations.

[David Sirota]

White says. The Chamber has educational programs, symposiums and conferences going on nationwide to create a.

[William G. White]

Rapport and a better understanding of our private enterprise system among youth and educators.

[David Sirota]

They're giving lesson plans to teachers, a.

[William G. White]

New package of audiovisual materials to increase economic understanding that includes slide presentations about profits and productivity. Our profits kit is a best seller.

[David Sirota]

White mentions a pilot television program with the Texas Council on Economic Education entitled.

[William G. White]

Everybody Knows what Profit Is. The entire series may run to 30 films with a budget of $5 million.

[David Sirota]

Sounds like Must See TV. Their media outreach effort is massive now.

[William G. White]

Including a weekly column to more than 500 press and 300 radio and television outlets, public service spots to over 700 radio stations, a monthly cable television feature used by more than 200 stations with a viewing audience of more than 4 million and monthly editorials used by 70 television stations, 225 radio stations and 300.

[David Sirota]

Newspapers just like the one on AM radio that we heard at the top of this episode.

[William G. White]

White concludes, a lot has happened since last November, but of course much more needs to be done.

[David Sirota]

Okay, so here's the question. What then was done after this meeting? What specifically?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Well, on the media front, they launched an operation to change the hearts and minds of normie Americans. One guy in that room, a powerful advertising executive named Bart Cummings, spearheaded a massive PSA campaign through the Ad Council.

[David Sirota]

Wait, wait, wait. I thought Ad Council ads weren't political. I remember them being really mom and apple pie kind of stuff. Like Smokey the Bear.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Right. But in the 1970s, Jerry Ford's administration partnered with Cummings and the Ad Council to do a comically ideological ad campaign promoting capitalism. The Ad Council's membership included corporate giants like Procter and Gamble, Mobile Oil, Exxon and William White's own US Steel. Again, this campaign was all done in partnership with the US government architect Dolores Gould. What's your IQ?

[David Sirota]

138.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And your EQ?

[David Sirota]

EQ? Your economic squash?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Oh, I don't know much about economics. The ad seemed ripped right out of the Powell memo itself, touting the American economic system. Who makes the American economic system work?

[Lewis Powell]

I don't know.

[Gerald Ford]

Right. And that's a problem.

[David Sirota]

Yeah. And the ad sponsors had a solution to this problem. More Powell memo inspired propaganda. They put up billboards, ran magazine ads and aired radio spots. Cummings and the Ad Council highlighted all of this as one of their best PSA campaigns ever for how effective it was in building the American public's support for free market capitalism.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

And remember the film projects that the Chamber of Commerce said it was putting into production as part of the Powell Memo task force? Well, this is one that the chamber released in 1976 for the 200th anniversary of America's founding.

[Gerald Ford]

Happy Birthday USA.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Narrated by Jimmy Stewart.

[Gerald Ford]

What do you get for a country that has everything? Well, almost everything. Government bureaucracy is becoming a paternalistic monopoly that is burying us in paperwork and red tape. It stifles the initiative and it erodes the basic self reliance which is our American legacy.

[David Sirota]

So Jimmy Stewart, the guy who in 1939 played an earnest government reforming outsider in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He was working with Washington insiders in 1976 to convince the public that the government is the problem.

[Gerald Ford]

If allowed to continue, it could bring an end to freedom and enterprise.

[David Sirota]

Okay, so in less than five years, a secret manifesto has mushroomed into a nationwide celebrity studded multimedia propaganda machine that's literally reshaping how Americans think about capitalism. But what about the plan to legalize corruption? How's that going?

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

Well, they're definitely working on it. You heard that they helped weaken fika, but they weren't stopping there. Remember this part of the Powell memo?

[Unknown Speaker]

Neglected opportunity in the courts.

[David Sirota]

The master planners knew that they had to solidify their agenda in the courts. Right around this time, the Chamber of Commerce began building the foundation of what would become the National Chamber Litigation center and other groups that now routinely secure favorable court rulings on stuff like campaign finance.

[Jared Jakang Mayer]

An Example of one of those new Powell memo inspired groups is the Pacific Legal foundation, which becomes a litigation powerhouse thanks to an early boost from this guy.

[Ronald Reagan]

Some time ago I talked about an organization called the Pacific Legal Foundation. It's a non profit public interest law firm which dedicates itself to upholding the Constitution and protecting the public interest against such special interests as the so called welfare rights groups, government bureaus and those ultra environmentalist organizations which would deny you and me the right to swat a mosquito. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.

[David Sirota]

By the end of 1974, after all these secret meetings, the Master Plan's key pieces are now in place. The Supreme Court now includes the author of the Powell Memo. The President is a guy who attended the meeting to organize the memo's implementation. The public is being immersed in the memo's ideology. And now outside organizations like the Pacific Legal foundation have been built and they're ready to begin moving the justice system towards legalizing corruption. Now it's just a matter of finding the right opportunity. And here in the mid-1970s, that opportunity is about to present itself.

[Gerald Ford]

We'll hear arguments today in Buckley against Galileo and others. Counsel, you may proceed whenever ready.

[David Sirota]

That's next time on Master Plan.

[Gerald Ford]

I earned everything I well, I'm not a crook I earned everything I.

[David Sirota]

Master Plan is a production of the Lever. This episode was written by Jared Jakang, Mayor and me, David Serota. Our production team includes Laura Krantz, Ula Culpa, Arjun Singh and Ronnie Rico Benny. Editing, sound design and voiceovers by Ron Doyle. Fact checking of this episode by Chris Walker. Thanks to Kevin McLeod for the song Secret of Tiki Island. All original music is by Nick Byron Campbell. Mixing by Louis Weeks. Special thanks to Bradley Wiles at Northern Illinois University, Lewis Black and Brett Saunders. You can listen and subscribe to Masterplan on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube Music and wherever you get your podcasts for ad Free episodes, exclusive bonus content, transcripts with links to our sources and access to the Levers entire archive of investigative journalism. Please visit Levernews.com to become a subscriber.

[Gerald Ford]

I earned everything I got Got, got.

[David Sirota]

Got got got got got got got got got got got got got got.