Citizen Koch focuses on Americans for Prosperity in backing Wisconsin Gov. Scott

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http://www.truth-out.org/video/item/16679-did-public-television-commit-self-censorship-to-appease-billionaire-funder-david-koch

Listen to interview by the film makers... and threats that were made.. for koch to be scrubbed out of the film...

Amy Goodman: The story of how this happened is detailed in a piece published last week inThe New Yorker magazine. Written by Jane Mayer, it's headlined "A Word from Our Sponsor: Public Television's Attempts to Placate David Koch." It begins by describing another film critical of the Koch Brothers that did air on PBS, Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney's documentary, Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream, which contrasted the lives of residents who live in one of the most expensive apartment buildings in Manhattan, 740 Park Avenue, with those of poor people living at the other end of Park Avenue, in the Bronx. This is a clip from that film.
NARRATOR: This stretch of Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is the wealthiest neighborhood in New York City. This is where the people at the top with the ladder live, the upper crust, the ultra-rich. But this street is about a lot more than money. It's about political power. The rich here haven't just used their money to buy fancy cars, private jets and mansions; they have also used it to rig the game in their favor. Over the last 30 years, they've enjoyed unprecedented prosperity from a system that they increasingly control.
Amy Goodman: In Jane Mayer's New Yorker article, she details how Neil Shapiro, president ofPBS station WNET here in New York City, called David Koch, a resident of 740 Park Avenue, to warn him that the Alex Gibney film was, quote, "going to be controversial." Koch was a WNETboard trustee at the time. Over the years, he has given $23 million to public television. Jane Mayer writes that Shapiro offered to show him the trailer and include him in an on-air discussion that would air immediately after the film. The station ultimately took the unusual step of airing a disclaimer from Koch after the film that called it "disappointing and divisive." Jane Mayer reports this exchange influenced what then happened to Citizen Koch, which was set to be aired on the same PBS series called Independent Lens. The film's funder and distributor, ITVS, has now said it, quote, "decided not to move forward with the project."

[midnight]

1. "On my best days, I feel I am directly involved in a vital dialogue with the American people"

"On my best days, I feel I am directly involved in a vital dialogue with the American people, telling them truths they need to know for our democracy to work. Without facts, deception will win. Free people need a free press." Jane Mayer