Reply #6: Leadership Institute...also graduated Jeff Gannon.

[madfloridian]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200502120002

"According to its website, The Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism is "n intense two-day seminar ... designed to give aspiring journalists the skills necessary to bring balance to the media and succeed in this highly competitive field." It costs $50, for which attendees receive "two days of instruction, meals on Saturday and Sunday and all course materials," as well as free housing "on a first-come, first-served basis."

The Leadership Institute's annual budget of $8 million has been financed by contributions from wealthy conservatives -- including major conservative financier Joseph Coors, a June 2001 New York Times article reported. Numerous conservative foundations, such as the Coors-funded Castle Rock Foundation, the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, have also provided funding to the Institute."

The founder

"Morton Blackwell is a former Reagan White House staffer, a lifelong Republican activist and a member of the executive committee of the Republican National Committee. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, Blackwell passed out adhesive bandages marked with Purple Hearts to mock Senator John Kerry. The discredited anti-Kerry group Swift Vets and POWs for Truth (formerly Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) questioned Kerry's receipt of medals for his service in Vietnam, including Kerry's three Purple Hearts. The Navy's chief investigator concluded that all of Kerry's medals were "properly approved." Republican leaders "publicly repudiated" Blackwell's actions, as did the Military Order of The Purple Heart, a wounded veterans organization, according to a September 1, 2004, New York Times article."