newspapers and the punditocracy -- and put little faith in any of them. I do a lot of checking...

If you meant that good writing or a good sensible article remained that, good, no matter where it was published or by whom, we can agree. OTOH if you meant what you said to start that thought by you:
"I could care less where people publish their work - CDI is just fine, as good as any other think tank - to get new ideas introduced."
We can disagree. Like I used to have to tell my kids, "you're judged by the company you keep..." That probably should not be true -- but it is.

My point is that MacGregor hurts his own credibility with many due to that association -- and that adversely impacts his ability to get his message across. No more.

I still think that, as I said, he's got the right idea and that it's a good briefing.