If you’d never heard of Elizabeth Warren these headlines would make you think she’s a pretty scary person:

Elizabeth Warren’s Misplaced Wrath

Elizabeth Warren Claims Another Scalp

Don’t Cross Elizabeth Warren

So what did the Massachusetts senator do to prompt this hysteria? Throw shade on the Senate floor? Haze her interns?

Nope. She did what our elected officials are supposed to do: hold the powerful accountable.

Last week Warren called out an allegedly independent Brookings Institution economist for writing an allegedly unbiased study that challenged a plan to boost basic protections for investors. Turns out investor giant the Capital Group paid Robert Litan $85,000 to write the industry-friendly report for Brookings — which prides itself on producing “high-quality independent research” (emphasis added). After Warren raised her concerns, Brookings — in an attempt to salvage its reputation — showed Litan the door.

And as soon as that happened, the anti-Warren backlash ensued, with Litan’s fellow hired guns publishing a flurry of Op-Eds in his honor.

Litan’s work isn’t confined to taking Wall Street’s money to attack financial-industry regulation. He’s also attacked the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules with the help of another for-hire think-tank economist, Hal Singer, who has his own well-earned reputation as a purveyor of bogus “research.”

But this time the truth prevailed. And in a nation where corporate influences hold way too much sway, this is a really big deal.

So take a moment to thank Sen. Warren for speaking out — and exposing industry-funded “experts”.

Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund do not support or oppose any candidate for public office.