Of course transparency is partially subjective and the definition of a think tanks is also partially subjective.
There were two interesting thing about the study:
1. They found that one of the least transparent think tanks was an organization called "Open Society Foundations" which advocates for transparency.
2. After some additional research they were able to determine that Open Society Foundations is 100% funded by George Soros (the website of Open Society Foundations states that Mr. Soros is the founder of Open Society Foundations but gives no information on the source of funding.
3. Open Society Foundations funded an organization called "The Think Tank fund of the Open Society Foundation". The Think Tank Fund is the only funding source of Transparify, the organization which did the study (the image shows interlocking interests in media companies in the USA).
With respect to Mr. Soros being a hypocrite, the analysis would have to deal with the issue of whether a primary funding source (Mr. Soros himself is not a 'think tank' I presume) needs to deal with the same standards as the various directly (or indirectly) funded organizations.
For now I just appreciate the oddity of the situation.
Study result here.
