which are especially relevant now following Matthew Continetti's laughable defense of the Kochs as victims of mean progressives, which I posted about here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x754181ThinkProgress shows why the Weekly Standard is so eager to defend the Kochs:
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/28/koch-weekly-standard/By Lee Fang on Mar 28th, 2011 at 11:00 am
Weekly Standard Publishes Hagiography To Koch Brothers, Doesn’t Disclose Financial Ties To Kochs
In over 8,000 words of hagiography, Continetti did not find space to disclose that his fellow opinion editor at the Weekly Standard, Michael Goldfarb, is
currently employed by Koch Industries to help improve the company’s political image. Or that the Weekly Standard’s reporters
routinely attend Koch’s secret political strategy and fundraising meetings. Or that Continetti had
received a fellowship funded by the Phillips Foundation, a nonprofit heavily reliant on Koch funds. Or that the Weekly Standard is
owned by billionaire Phil Anschutz, a friend of the Koch brothers and an attendee of Koch donor events.
-snip-
All the talk about Charles Koch as a selfless libertarian is a bit silly. Of course, not every dollar Koch donates is linked to the Koch bottom line. But it should be noted that the libertarian thinker who supposedly inspired Charles, F.A. Hayek, wrote that government has a duty to regulate pollution. Charles apparently disregards this aspect of libertarian philosophy as he directs donations to “libertarian” outfits obsessed with slashing environmental safeguards. Moreover, the term “Kochtopus” was invented by libertarians — not progressives, as Continetti’s piece seems to suggest — to decry the Koch brother’s moneyed takeover of the libertarian movement.
Continetti’s piece, and more articles like it, are to be expected as Koch’s public relations machine moves into gear and contacts more friendly journalists. As ThinkProgress has reported extensively, Koch hired a small army of communications consultants to spin the facts about the brothers and their role financing the Tea Party, climate change denial, and various front groups dedicated to making companies like Koch richer. Recently, ThinkProgress revealed that one of Koch’s most stalwart defenders in the conservative blogosphere works at a law firm that counts Koch as a major client. We also uncovered the fact that Koch employs a company called New Media Strategies to unethically air brush Koch’s Wikipedia page.
Ed Schultz mentioned some of this on his show tonight, too.