Koch brothers spooked by forthcoming story

[Ichingcarpenter]

Here's a rule of thumb about public relations: When P.R. pros begin furiously spinning a story before it has even come out, there's a pretty good chance the story is going to be damaging to the reputation of said P.R. pros' bosses.

And that's exactly what we're seeing right now, as an anonymous person or persons in the orbit of the billionaire conservative donors Charles and David Koch try to discredit a forthcoming story in Bloomberg Markets magazine.

Based on the prebuttal items appearing this week in the Washington Examiner, the Daily Caller, and U.S. News and World Report, the Bloomberg story focuses on alleged malfeasance and/or fraud and/or bad behavior by the conglomerate Koch Industries.

One of those episodes apparently involves bribery by a Koch subsidiary in France, according to the piece by Washington Examiner editorial page editor Mark Tapscott. He reports that "Bloomberg reporters have been trolling among former Koch employees overseas in search of disaffected voices willing to talk," but Tapscott suspects the story may be animated by bias against the Tea Party. And he notes that, "Koch USA officials say they were as surprised and angered as anybody else when they were first apprised of the bribery allegations, and moved as quickly as possible to get to the bottom of the situation and fix it."


http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/09/29/kochs_bloomberg


I hope it hurts them bad..

[ixion]

1. I hope the lot of them wind up like Duke and Duke at the end of Trading Places.

destitute and disgraced. They certainly deserve it.

[C_U_L8R]

6. Or better... like Clarence Beeks

[ixion]

7. that would be okay, too

:rofl:

[louslobbs]

14. and +1 with a kicker lol.......n/t

Lou

[Enthusiast]

34. Great idea.

[kayakjohnny]

12. That's so funny you say that. I've been thinking the same thing for months now.

Cool to see it from someone else.

:)

[louslobbs]

13. +1 n/t

Lou

[tsuki]

21. Duke & Duke is good, but I like the Ferengi Brothers. nt

[pitchforksandtorches]

27. The fuckers should be eaten first when the "American Fall"

gets underway full swing.

[Enthusiast]

33. That movie is more relevant today

than when it was released.

[tcaudilllg]

35. DUKE IS HEALTH

I hope to see an episode of the Critic where Duke meets the Koch Bros.

[Oceansaway]

2. K&R...n/t

[HughBeaumont]

3. Oh don't worry. Our crack well-funded "Fourth Estate" will protect them lovingly.

The story about how the rugged individual Galtist Kochs depend on government largesse gained approximately ZERO traction, so I'm expecting this to do about the same.

[barbtries]

4. "alleged" malfeasance

i'm sure that must be an oxymoron, or something. reminds me of something i read relating to the Troy Davis travesty. something about the "alleged" murder. dude, they had the body.

[highplainsdem]

5. K&R

[Overseas]

8. K&R.

[LiberalEsto]

9. Tapscott! That POS.

He once worked for the right-wing Washington Times. Got canned after he was found to be involved in this scandal:
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2006/10/27/foley-gannon-gay-scandals-are-minor-compared-with-1989-wh-call-boy-ring/

I once had the extreme misfortune to work under his supervision.

[truthwillout777]

10. The Nazi Era is OVER you freaking dinosaurs!!!!

oh sorry, excuse me....

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. Ruh Roh!

[southernyankeebelle]

15. Gee, they must be Sarah Palins relatives. They sure get mad when someone

catches them with their hands in the cookie jar.

[wizstars]

24. they's cuzzins........

prolly kissin' cuzzins.

If Sarah an' the Koch brothers git a divorce, are they still bruthas an' sista??

[DaveJ]

16. Is it really damaging for Koch's to bankroll the Tea Party?

Sorry to go off on a tangent here. But 3rd parties have destroyed Democratic elections in the past. So logically supporting the Tea Party could kill off the Republicans. I have ancestry that was in politics, a couple generations ago, with the last name Koch, who were Democrats.

[TexasTowelie]

17. Lo siento. n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

18. "Koch" is after all a fairly common German name--

It simply means "Cook," like Schmidt means Smith.

[NEOBuckeye]

20. Retranslated as "Crook" in the case of David and Charles n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

22. Ja, sicher.

[dogmoma56]

25. yea, like this Koch..?. .Link>>

http://unknownjournal.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/%E2%96%BC-report-the-kochs-their-nazi-past-american-oil-the-foundation-of-republican-ideology/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilse_Koch

[Jackpine Radical]

26. Ich hatte über den vergessen.

But now that you remind me…

[liberation]

32. The "Tea Party" is not a 3rd party

at all.

[autorank]

19. k*r You bring good things to light!

I like Bloomberg News and I'll bet a Franklin that they've got a solid case. They know wht to do when stalking
the big boys. Very helpful!

[pacalo]

23. I love this "whatever they say we did, we didn't do" part...

UPDATE: And here, on the right-wing blog Powerline, is the fourth prebuttal, this one directly sourced to Koch Industries. Powerline argues that whatever Bloomberg is writing about Koch -- and no one really knows at this point -- it's probably not true because "Koch is a remarkably ethical company" that lists "Integrity" in its official list of "Guiding Principles."

[KOfan]

28. Oh my

what a tangled web they have weaved.

[jjkurt25]

29. Koch problem

Bribery at Koch industries? Nooooo. Isn't bribery what they are doing nationwide via elected officials and the government contracts that they are pushing to land? David and Charles Koch have really become the face that represents corporate greed, and it's ability to influence politics through enormous campaign donations. Government officials in Europe should be even more desperate to receive contributions than they are stateside. Why invest in your workforce, when a politician can be so much more efficient?

[beac]

30. "I'm shocked--shocked-- to find that gambling is going on in here!"

And WELCOME to DU! :hi:

[Firebrand Gary]

31. Let them burn right along next to News Corp!

[Turborama]

36. K&R&Thanks for Posting. Can't wait to read what Bloomberg have uncovered. n/t

[SpiralHawk]

37. Republicon Family Cesspool Values

Embodied in the Koch Billionaire Puppetmasters.

What skankery.

[Exilednight]

38. "Koch USA officials say they were as surprised..." The only thing they were surprised about is that

they were caught. How dare their money not buy someone else's silence.

[defendandprotect]

39. kr