Business & Media Institute

The Business & Media Institute (BMI) was founded in 1992 as the Free Market Project by the conservative media watchdog group Media Research Center whose President is L.Brent Bozell. BMI describes itself as an organization "devoted solely to analyzing and exposing the anti-free enterprise culture of the media." 

Publications
In the 2007 report, "Bad Company III: For American Businessmen in the News, the Defense Never Rests" by Managing Editor Amy Menefee and Research Analysts Paul Detrick, Stuart James and R. Warren Anderson,, the Institute charged that network TV newscasts hold a “natural antipathy” toward the free enterprise system that biases how they cover corporate executives and corporate executive pay. TV viewers, says the Institute’s report on anti-business bias, see 1½ times more criminal businessmen on the news than philanthropist-businessmen. The Institute recommends that “the major media refrain from reflexively viewing money as evil in and of itself” and “maintain a sense of perspective on the issue of CEO compensation.”

Staff
On its website the group lists current staff as :
 * Dan Gainor, director
 * Matt Philbin, managing editor
 * Jeff Poor, staff writer
 * Julia A. Seymour, assistant editor/analyst

Former staff

 * Amy Menefee, managing editor

Board of Advisers
From the group's website:
 * Herman Cain, BMI National Chairman; Former president and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, Inc. and President and CEO of T.H.E. New Voice
 * Bruce Bartlett - Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, U.S. Department of Treasury under Ronald Reagan.
 * John Berthoud - President, National Taxpayers Union
 * Dr. Donald Boudreaux - Chairman, Department of Economics, George Mason University
 * John Drescher - Executive Director, TechNet Northwest
 * Dr. Richard Ebeling - President, Foundation for Economic Education
 * David Goodnow - Columnist; Former CNN anchor
 * Dr. Jeffrey Herbener - Chairman, Department of Economics, Grove City College
 * Dr. Felix Livingston - Professor of Economics and Business, Flagler College
 * Dr. Daniel J. Mitchell - Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
 * Dr. Elizabeth Whelan - President, American Council on Science and Health
 * Dr. Walter E. Williams - John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University
 * Dr. Gary Wolfram - Munson Professor of Political Economy and Professor of Economics, Hillsdale College

Contact Information
Business & Media Institute 325 South Patrick Street Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone: 703-683-9733 Fax: 703-683-9736 Website: http://www.businessandmedia.org

BMI's website states, "To schedule an interview with [BMI Director] Dan Gainor or BMI National Chairman Herman Cain, please contact Tim Scheiderer at 703-683-5004, ext. 126." Scheiderer is with Creative Response Concepts, formerly the public relations firm of a controversial 527 group active in the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. 

SourceWatch Resources

 * Creative Response Concepts
 * Media Research Center
 * Swift Boat Veterans for Truth