Media Experts Blast New York Times Over Glowing Profile Of Koch Brothers [View all]

[YoungDemCA]

The New York Times published a fawning front-page profile of the Koch brothers last Friday. The article never mentions their efforts to secure unfettered fossil fuel consumption, which would destroy humanity’s livable climate. It was quickly criticized by leading experts as “poor journalism” and “gullible.”

The Times wants you to believe that the Kochs are “very private” but “brave,” that they are “sensitive to criticism,” and that “Charles [Koch] obviously is a classical liberal, who believes in the Bill of Rights.” What’s next for the Times — rehabbing the misunderstood Bernie Madoff?

This 1300-word piece never once mentions the Koch’s insidious efforts to fund climate science denial, block all climate action, and roll back clean energy standards at a state level. The Koch’s belief in the First Amendment extends to being the leading funder in the world of efforts to spread disinformation, smear and harass climate scientists, and generally destroy any honest national discussion of how to spare Americans and billions of people worldwide needless misery for centuries to come. Any classical liberal would do the same.

On Sunday, one of the Koch Brothers’ political groups, Freedom Partners, hosted a political forum for wealthy conservative donors. Charles Koch compared his network’s influence over U.S. elections to past “freedom movements.”

Dr. Robert J. Brulle of Drexel University, whom the Times has called “an expert on environmental communications,” told Climate Progress that “the NYT seems to be acting as if it was a PR agency for the Kochs. It is dismaying to see such poor journalism.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/08/04/3686673/new-york-times-gullible-puff-piece-on-kochs/

Spread this far and wide. The Kochs and their allies are a cancer.