Sweet Jesus I hate the Kochs

[marmar]

Koch brothers go after investigative journalists
By John Tomasic | 04.20.11 | 2:24 pm | More from The Colorado Independent


As the journalism industry limps along and public broadcasting comes under attack, the Koch brothers– multimillionaire conservative-politics string-pullers– have taken aim at the Center for Public Integrity, a twenty-year-old nonprofit investigative organization dedicated to making institutional power more transparent. The Center this month posted an influential piece on Koch lobbying activities to which Koch has responded with a targeted campaign of online ads that seek to discredit the Center’s work. It’s just the latest phase in the digital-era media war that has dealt repeated blows to unprepared pillars of professional journalism.

“Public relations has grown so tremendously while journalism has… shrunk,” Mike Hoyt, executive editor at the Columbia Journalism Review, told the Center for Public Integrity. “Combine that with the ability of powerful entities to buy their own gateways to the public and you have a civic conversation that can be skewed. A main job of the press is to examine the powerful and that becomes harder given the PR muscle of the powerful.”

The Koch ads play into a dominant media narrative about the untrustworthy mainstream or “lamestream” media pushed almost constantly on the right, for example, by public figures like Sarah Palin.

“Slanted Reporting on Koch: Bias, Hidden Agenda at the Center for Public Integrity” read the Koch Google ads, which reportedly direct readers to the company website where they can find the real “Koch facts.” ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.americanindependent.com/180060/koch-brothers-go-after-investigative-journalists

[freshwest]

1. Flying Kochroaches actually do attack, they don't scatter. IDK what lesson we're learning here.

[Canuckistanian]

16. God, I hate those things

And I hate those insects, too.

[tallahasseedem]

2. It's insane...

and more disturbing is that I don't see how we can possibly overcome them right now.

[MedleyMisty]

6. Mass civil disobedience is a start

[aquart]

9. What are you planning to disobey?

The Kochs are behind the government, not in it. And none of us works for them.

And how many do you think you can call out for your grand plan?

[SusanaMontana41]

11. The Kochs can't buy the grass roots we saw germinate in Wisconsin.

We can fight. Never give up.

*edited to remove extra punctuation.

[stevedeshazer]

3. Please allow me to join you on that hate train.

I'll ride shotgun.

(note to haters: it's a metaphor. I don't own a shotgun)

[cascadiance]

4. Dispensing their Kochaine "legally" (as they pay for all they do to be legal) I see...

[al_liberal]

5. We should follow the lead of the freepers/teabaggers.

We'll just "allude" to them being assassinated with lots of "jokes", "satire", and comparisons to the Kennedys. Surely there is nothing wrong with exercising our first amendment rights to free speech.

:sarcasm:

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. k&r

[aquart]

8. No man should be so rich he has nothing left to buy but his government.

Which is why we need to tax the rich more than "a little bit" and enact truly punitive inheritance taxes on large fortunes AND tax-dodging family foundations.

[999998th word]

10. K&R+++++

[NCcoast]

13. Amen

[NCcoast]

12. The Koch brothers could buy....

A new Bugatti Veyron everyday for the rest of their lives and never get close to running through the money. But, they need your pension. And they need your son's college fund. And they need your daughter's orthodontic fund. They need it all. Because it should all belong to them. Not that it will make them happy, nothing could.

[fascisthunter]

14. they need to go down... nationalizing their wealth would be justice

in a twisted and unfair way, but it wouldn't sadden me a bit considering the damage they do to US citizens and the country itself. Americans don't like fascists.

[Canuckistanian]

15. Do the Koch brothers get any work done at, like, their companies?

They seem to spend all their time and company funds on fighting RW causes.

Do the shareholders approve of this?

[PA Democrat]

17. They are so filthy rich they have no shareholders.

Koch Industries is I think the 2nd largest privately held company. They answer to no one, not even their consciences, since they obviously have none.