In a recent column entitled \u201cThe Campus Climate Crusade,\u201d The Wall Street Journal \u2019s Kimberly Strassel spent over 800 words arguing the basic conceit of UnKochMyCampus , a campaign uniting students at universities around the country who are working to increase transparency on their campuses and fight attempts by corporate donors like Charles and David Koch from influencing their education. Her core arguments?<\/p>\n
The left is wielding transparency as a \u201cweapon,\u201d and efforts to access information through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are \u201cshutting down debate across the country.\u201d Unfortunately for Strassel, that couldn\u2019t be farther from the truth. Our work with UnKochMyCampus has shown us that transparency removes the smoke and mirrors that cloud the debate, leaving ordinary people ill-equipped to develop informed opinions on research and policy around the most important issues of the day. Our policy is being shaped by corporations, for corporations – and that\u2019s a huge problem.<\/p>\n
There was a time when the public engaged in a seemingly-legitimate debate about whether smoking caused cancer. Then we learned that the studies claiming cigarettes were safe were funded by the tobacco industry.<\/p>\n