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This week, 
Moyers & Company  reports on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has  never heard of – 
ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council . A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a “nonpartisan public-private partnership”. But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge. Using interviews, documents, and field reporting, the episode explores ALEC’s self-serving machine at work, acting in a way one Wisconsin politician describes as “a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests.” In state houses around the country, hundreds of pieces of boilerplate ALEC legislation are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote, and limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers – each accomplished without the public ever knowing who’s behind it. “All of us here are very familiar with ALEC and the influence that ALEC has with many of the [legislative] members,” says Arizona State Senator Steve Farley. “Corporations have the right to present their arguments, but they don’t have the right to do it secretly.” Watch the broadcast on Friday on your local PBS station.

Watch a preview from the broadcast. In Wisconsin, Lisa Graves, a former Justice Department attorney now with the Center for Media and Democracy, shares documentation of various ALEC-inspired boilerplate laws, versions of which are showing up in statehouses across the country.

Democracy Now!  premiered the special video report on Thursday. What follows is a transcript of Moyers’ special report on ALEC.