Guess What? Civitas OWNS Carolina Plotthound.
For those of us who thought something funny was 
going on at “North Carolina’s go-to political news web site”, a simple search of whois records confirms our suspicions.
According to whois records — a database showing the ownership of various websites across the Internet — The Civitas Institute of Raleigh, North Carolina is — and has been — the owner of www.carolinaplotthound.com . In fact, it looks like Civitas may have created the news site. Records show the domain name was registered by Civitas in June 2012 — right about the time the Plotthound launched, if my memory serves me.
The Joh
n William Pope Civitas Institute is primarily funded by businessman Art Pope. Pope is also behind the John Locke Foundation and believe to be behind (1) the elevation of Dallas Woodhouse at NCGOP, and (2) the mutiny against former NCGOP chairman Hasan Harnett, among other political shenanigans. Mr. Pope worked as Gov. Pat McCrory’s budget director, and remains a hugely enthusiastic supporter of the governor.
John Hood — apparently the only “conservative” the driveby media can find, as well as a promoter of Jim Martin and Phil Kirk as great “conservative leaders” — 
as head of the John William Pope Foundation oversees the distribution of Art Pope’s cash. Civitas — as you might guess, with the Pope name as part of its formal nomenclature — is a major beneficiary of Mr. Pope’s generosity.
We reported earlier — based on information from current and former employees within the Pope political empire — that Hood, on orders from Pope, has been aggressively using the Pope Foundation’s cash as leverage to control the editorial content at Civitas, Locke, and other like-minded organizations. What does that mean? Silencing criticism of Mr. Pope’s friend, the governor, and keeping the governor’s communications operation happy.
We used to be frequently highlighted on the Plobthound site. We had — and, apparently, still have — many fans within the Pope empire. But, apparently, someone with control of the pursestrings didn’t like our frequent pointing-out of ethical lapses and various strayings from conservatism over on Blount Street. So, links to our stories began to creep from the Plotthound masthead, down the page, to eventually disappear into the ether. (Personally, we think this is all due to a jealous fit by Mr. Hood. He WISHES his stuff had even HALF the eyes on it that our stuff does.)
So, instead of promoting conservatism and government, the modus operandi in the McCrory era appears to be control what the people hear while a whole lot of Myers Park country club Republicanism and business-as-usual continues inside the Raleigh beltline.
Well, I can live without the Plotthound and John Locke. Time to make a statement and withhold the clicks.
Yes, I’ve stopped frequenting CP, as well as ignoring any communications from Civitas and the Locke Foundation. Anti-conservative sellouts, one and all.
So should I cancel my subscription to the free Carolina Journal newspaper as well? Are DH readers supposed to now rely solely on this site and the blogs linked in the blogroll for any and all “real” conservative news?
Put it this way, the corporate wing of the NCGOP has gone to a great deal of effort to minimize conservative criticism of their activities. I tumbled to the fact that JLF, for example, was seriously compromised, when their chief spokeswoman showed up at one of our meetings and started positively spinning the General Assembly’s budget hikes.
I wouldn’t canx the “free” subscription. I costs them something to publish and distribute. Let’em spend their money. Of course, you can always use the CJ for something useful. I light my grill with it. I can think of a few other things to do with it.
Art Pope has done a lot of good things for conservatives over the years, but these days he seems to be tacking more ”Republican” than conservative. Pope helped finance the campaigns to oust the Richard Morgan traveling circus, and he financed an effort for the grassroots to take down the Bill Cobey dynasty at the NCGOP convention some years ago. Both Locke and Civitas have done a lot of good things, too, although Civitas has always been the more dependable of the two. Some of the higher ups at Locke have pushed some bizarre ideas like ”non-partisan redistricting” (ask a Republican in California or Arizona how ”non-partisan” those schemes turn out to be. California had its most heavy handed Democrat gerrymandering ever under one of those ”non-partisan redistricting commissions”). When Locke brings one of the most hated establishment scumbags, Haley Barbour, to speak at one of their functions, it really opens your eyes.
Pope, himself, caused conservatives some heartburn this presidential year in backing one of the big establishment players, Marco ”amnestyman” Rubio , who was Jeb Bush’s protege, in the presidential primaries with a big check. Why back an establishment hack like Rubio when there are solid conservatives running?
I am not willing to write off Pope and his foundations yet, but one has to look carefully at their activities these days. And is Art REALLY the one behind that incompetent buffoon Woodhouse? I always gave Pope credit for more judgment than that. Or is running the NCGOP into the ground part of an agenda?
Running various entities and organizations “into the ground” and rebuilding them as one sees fit is a popular modus operandi it seems, these days.
All of the Art Pope funded entities and Pope himself lost me when Pope told his sycophants to stand down on the horrible Bond/NC Connect vote. Pope actively supported it and told the Locke people not to write anything negative, trashing decades of good will and trust in the process.