AT&T is now reaping the benefits of making large donations to various liberal groups, now that it needs public support for its acquisition of T-Mobile.

 

In recent years, AT&T has provided funding to the following, all of which have publicly declared their support for the T-Mobile takeover: the NAACP ($1 million), the National Education Association teachers union ($75,000) and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation ($50,000).

 

The organizations insist their public positions have nothing to do with the AT&T money. But a watchdog group isn’t buying that claim.

 

“The money that nonprofits receive from their corporate sponsors sticks not only in their bank accounts but in their minds,” Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, told Politico. “This is what I think of as deep lobbying — there is an expectation that when push comes to shove, these groups will come out in favor of their benefactors.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

AT&T Gave Cash to Merger Backers (by Eliza Krigman, Politico)