Lee Fang

Early life and career

Fang's hometown is in Prince George’s County, Maryland. He attended the University of Maryland, College Park, graduating with a B.A. in government and politics in 2009. In college, Fang served as President of the Federation of Maryland College Democrats, editor of the Maryland College Democrat blog, and on the Campus Progress Advisory Board. Fang interned with ThinkProgress and served as a researcher for Progressive Accountability. As an undergraduate, Fang also interned for Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD), for progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America, and for the lobbying firm Westin Rinehart.

ThinkProgress

In 2011, Fang published several articles where he alleged that special interests manipulated the media reaction to the Occupy Wall Street protests.

United States Chamber of Commerce article

An article posted on ThinkProgress on October 5, 2010, authored by Fang, attracted attention and some controversy. Fang wrote a story where he alleged that the United States Chamber of Commerce funded political attack campaigns from its general fund, which solicits funds from foreign sources. Fang stated that the Chamber is "likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections."

The story was repeated by The Huffington Post and the progressive activist group MoveOn.org asked the Department of Justice to launch a criminal investigation of the Chamber's funding.

The fact-checking website FactCheck.org analyzed the claim that "foreign corporations are 'stealing our democracy' with secret, illegal contributions funneled through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce," noting that ThinkProgress made the initial allegations. FactCheck concluded that "It’s a claim with little basis in fact." Others also questioned the claims made in the article. Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times wrote that the article "provided no evidence that the money generated overseas had been used in United States campaigns."

Reporting on Koch Industries

In April 2011, Fang wrote an article titled "The Contango Game: How Koch Industries Manipulates The Oil Market For Profit," in which he said "Koch Industries occupies a unique role in manipulating the oil market." The story was picked up by CBS.

Fang had previously written about Charles and David Koch, and he was involved with a Robert Greenwald documentary titled Koch Brothers Exposed. In March 2011, he revealed that New Media Strategies, a firm employed by the Kochs, had been caught manipulating Wikipedia content and were banned from the website for sockpuppetry. Politico wrote that "Fang’s relentless chronicling of the Koch brothers have made him something of a star on the left," while noting his "efforts to portray the political activities of the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch as motivated by a desire to boost their profits - an argument even some liberals reject as an overly simplistic caricature."

The Intercept

Fang started working with The Intercept as an investigative reporter in February 2015.

Political views

Fang has been described as a "liberal" by The New York Times, and as both "liberal" and "progressive" by Salon. According to Fang, "I like hanging out with fully grassroots Tea Party activists because, for the most part, whatever their motivations are, they’re just upset about society and they want to do something about it which, at the core, I respect even though I pretty much disagree with their worldview."