Evan McMorris-Santoro March 30, 2011, 10:38 AM

On her show last night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow followed up on our story about the labor studies professor FOIAs in Michigan. She found the conservative donors who fund the think tank asking for emails from Michigan professors about, among other things, Maddow herself, less than willing to talk about where they sent their money.

Quick refresher: the Mackinac Center, a Michigan think tank funded by big names in the conservative movement ranging from the Kochs to the Wal-Mart Waltons to the family that founded Blackwater, used the Freedom Of Information Act to request copies of every email sent or received by labor studies professors at state universities that mentioned Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), the city of Madison and Maddow. The universities have not decided how to respond, but the professors say the FOIAs suggest Mackinac is trying to catch them in illegal political advocacy. Mackinac has declined to speak on the record about the requests.

On last night’s episode of her show, Maddow described the response she got from Mackinac and the donors that fund it when she asked about the FOIAs: nervous silence.

The Prince Foundation, which is owned by the parents of the founder of Blackwater, were particularly uninterested in discussing the story.

“The Prince Foundation did not so much say ‘no’ to us as they did say ‘we have no idea what you are talking about,’ and then they seemed very alarmed that we had called them,” Maddow told viewers. “And then they hung up on us.”

Watch (video starts at 40 seconds):

Maddow also discussed the story at the top of her show:

Ed. Note: This post has been updated from the original.

Mackinac Center, Michigan, Rachel Maddow