The Lincoln Project's national press secretary, RC Di Mezzo, is leaving the scandal plagued super PAC for a new gig as communications director for Good Information Inc., a for-profit investment firm that aims to counter media "disinformation." The firm, launched in October 2021, is backed by George Soros and other left-wing billionaires, including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
Good Information Inc. is the brainchild of Tara McGowan, a veteran Democratic operative who has spent the last several years funneling millions of dollars from Democratic megadonors into a complex web of dark money groups with the goal of influencing elections while skirting federal transparency requirements. Reports announcing the group's formation noted that McGowan planned to raise $65 million for the venture in an effort "to counter the right's disinformation machine."
McGowan previously ran ACRONYM, a left-wing nonprofit that funneled money to media sites and activist-run digital firms, including Shadow Inc., the "progressive" technology company best known for completely botching the Iowa caucus results in 2020. ACRONYM, with the help of funding from Apple widow Laurene Powell Jobs, also operated Courier Newsroom, a network of left-wing media websites posing as local news sources.
Courier, which has been accused of peddling "hyperlocal partisan propaganda," is now owned by Good Information Inc. after being acquired from ACRONYM for an undisclosed sum. McGowan has insisted that Courier isn't a "partisan" enterprise, a claim that doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Her new venture is not focused on electing Democrats, she said. Its mission is to "invest in immediate solutions to counter disinformation and increase the flow of good information online" via Courier and other partners.
Di Mezzo, who joined the "Republican" Lincoln Project in 2020 after serving more than two years as communications director for the Democratic Party of Vermont, is a natural fit for the "nonpartisan" company being funded by some of the wealthiest Democratic activists on the planet.
Both ACRONYM and the Lincoln Project raised tens of millions of dollars from liberal billionaires during the 2020 election cycle. Both were criticized for their lack of financial transparency. Both groups were heavily involved in the 2021 gubernatorial election in Virginia. Courier, the "nonpartisan" news conglomerate, ran ads attempting to link GOP nominee Glenn Youngkin to neo-Nazi groups. The Lincoln Project went a step further by getting a bunch of interns to dress up as neo-Nazis at a Youngkin campaign event.
Youngkin went on to score a decisive victory over Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe.
Update, Feb. 16, 10:50 a.m.: A previous version of this story stated that Laurene Powell Jobs was involved in funding Good Information, Inc. A spokeswoman for Powell Jobs says she is not a donor.