EU-funded think tanks defend their credibility
It’s not just that they are government funded, it’s the whole idea of think-tanks and credibility being juxtaposed.
Maybe the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute, and of course the original wanker think tank, the Brookings Institution, have soured me on the whole concept.
I just see them as exercises in cronyism.
Think tanks have no credibility.
[on edit]
There are any number of advocacy organizations that do good things, but they aren’t think tanks, they actually work in the context of the regulatory process to get things done, rather than just crank out paper for whoever pays their bills.
A good example is Public Knowledge, where they spend a lot of time actually doing things like making arguments before the FCC on regulatory issues.
There are good people in think tanks, but they do their good work elsewhere.