SHOCKER: Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks.

More than a dozen prominent Washington research groups have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

The money is increasingly transforming the once-staid think-tank world into a muscular arm of foreign governments’ lobbying in Washington. And it has set off troubling questions about intellectual freedom: Some scholars say they have been pressured to reach conclusions friendly to the government financing the research.

Here’s another shocker: Foreign money affects research in academic institutions, too. Especially money from Saudia Arabia and the Gulf States. Maybe the NYT will do a story on that next.

UPDATE: Heh: “So says the Paper of Record that will soon be nearly 20 percent owned by a Mexican billionaire with vast holdings.”