Think Tanks

Overview 

"We've got think tanks the way other towns have firehouses," Washington Post columnist Joel Achenbach once said.

In Washington, think tanks have become a genre all to themselves. We are a city of experts, from the number of them -- a good 220 according to The National Journal.

But “think tanks” as a name does not include the research arms of various conservative and liberal advocacy groups, lobbies and trade associations who are also going to help you on deadline.  

Members of Congress rely on think tanks to help them draft budget bills and health legislation -- always good to ask members of your delegation whom they turn to for advice, or which think tanker is consulting for them as they draft legislation to say, drain the oceans.

Think tanks can be a godsend to veteran and new Washington journalists, alike. They are the source of stories, provide quotes, and often have just the research you were looking for, in a usable form – and will explain it all to you if you give them advance requests.

Their research can provide context:  For example, it's one thing to write a story saying former Sen. Ted Stevens won billions of dollars for his state, Alaska. But how much better that reads to your regional audience if you can also cite that Alaska is 49th in population, but first in getting federal money, or note how little your own state ranks in federal funding compared to Alaska. Context is a great service think tanks provide.

They also will send you to other think tanks. Covering the estate tax battles with your delegation? The pro-repeal think tank people will usually give you the names of the anti-repeal groups, and vice-versa. 

Think tanks behave like good lobbyists in that they track members, especially swing votes, pretty carefully. When you can't get your delegation members or leadership to tell you when a controversial bill is really coming to the floor, check the relevant think tank and you may find that answer.

Tips on Using Think Tanks

The biggest issue with think tanks is understanding and appreciating their biases beforehand, and then making your own decision on what to use, or how to identify them to readers.

The identification issue is a particularly difficult one, in that some think tanks resist being labeled conservative or liberal. Politicians, and researchers from the governmental Congressional Budget Office (CBO) or Congressional Research Service (CRS), will sometimes complain if you have reported information from a think tank at odds with their own appraisals of a bill or an issue and you haven't adequately disclosed the think tank's bias.

That said here's some ways to find the right think tank for your stories.

The National Journal's “Capital Source” annual book lists about 220 think tanks, with their websites. Congressional Quarterly, Roll Call, The Hill and National Journal and The Washington Post also have frequent columns updating the changes at different think tanks – a good way to find specific people

And you may also find a story in those blurbs about, say, a lobbyist group or existing think tank bulking up personnel on a specific topic. How and why that is may play into something you are covering for your regional paper.

You may also find information about a large grant going to a think tank. If it's from a corporation or advocacy group based in your state, that's worth a look. Ultimately, it probably means they want to fund research to support an issue they have or will have in front of Congress.

Resources 

For tracking bills involving money, two very useful advocacy groups are Taxpayers for Common Sense, http://www.taxpayer.net, and Citizens against Government Waste, http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer.

The Center for Media And Democracy, publishers of PR Center, has a useful website on various think tanks, http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Think_tanks.

This web site lists a couple dozen key issues with advocacy group, acting sometimes as think tanks, http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/kfountain/

FAIR, a leftwing media watch magazine, (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=21&extra_issue_id=189) does an annual survey on THINK TANKS. Past surveys are posted online.

In addition, one group, the Northeast-Midwest Institute (http://www.nemw.org) studies the "economic vitality, environmental quality, and regional equity" for Northeast and Midwest states. They are terrific at finding out when a state from those areas has been "cheated” of government favors or funds, and can also find you advocates for other state groupings. 

Finally, the University of Michigan has a terrific web site that lists many of them, with relevant descriptions to help you, http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/psthink.html

Does this agency's information need updating? programs@nationalpress.org