By Collin Roth

On Wednesday, the Janesville Gazette reported on a lawsuit by the Center for Media and Democracy and Common Cause, two left-wing organizations suing a handful of GOP lawmakers for their personal emails. The story details the lawsuit against Rep. Tyler August, whose office claims they complied with an open records request that is now seeking private email correspondence between the lawmaker and the American Legislative Exchange Commission.

In the Janesville Gazette, the two organizations are simply described as “watchdogs.” But what the reporter doesn’t detail for the reader is that the Center for Media and Democracy and Common Cause are not simply a “watchdogs” with innocuous sounding names but far left-wing groups that receive funding from the likes of Barack Obama mega-donor George Soros.

The Center for Media and Democracy is based in Madison and has been described by the Isthmus as a “progressive powerhouse,” while both the Washington Post and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have labeled the organization as “liberal” or “left-leaning.” For the past year, the organization has taken the offensive against the American Legislative Exchange Commission (ALEC), attempting to “expose” the organization and it’s connections to conservative lawmakers. The lawsuit against Rep. August and other GOP lawmakers is part of this ongoing effort. The Center for Media and Democracy is funded in part by the far-left Open Society Institute, the Proteus Fund, and the Tides Foundation.

Common Cause was started in the 1970′s and has always been labeled as a liberal or left-leaning organization. Today, the organization is led by former Democratic Congressman Bob Edgar and feature former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich as the Chair of their National Governing Board. Common Cause has taken to fighting money in politics and corporate ownership of the media. They are funded by far-left foundations such as Soros’ Open Society Institute, the Tides Foundation, and the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation of which President Barack Obama used to be a Board member.

All of these details about the money and ideological leanings behind these two “watchdog” groups were skillfully omitted by the Janesville Gazette.