Charles Koch

NYT Visits Hometown of Koch Brothers, Surprised to Find Opposition to Them 'Dissipates Markedly'
By Curtis Houck | June 18, 2014 | 3:40 PM EDT

An article appearing in the Wednesday print edition of the New York Times (“In Wichita, Koch Influence Is Revered and Reviled”), reporter Carl Hulse traveled to the hometown of businessmen and libertarian donors Charles and David Koch in Wichita, Kansas. 

Much to the dismay of the newspaper that has an obsession with peddling Democratic attacks on the Koch brothers, Hulse was unable to find anyone besides three progressive activists that had anything negative to say about them. Instead, he found that the Koch brothers are held in high regard in the community where, among many generous donations, the Wichita State University basketball arena was renamed the Charles Koch Arena in 2003 after he gave $6 million to have it completely renovated. Here’s more from Hulse:

MSNBC's Matthews, Guests Blast Koch Bros., GOP: 'Hurting the Planet's Health' for Money, Partisan Gain
By Ken Shepherd | June 2, 2014 | 9:22 PM EDT

President Obama's newly-announced EPA regulations on coal-fired electric plants are engendering opposition from red-state Democrats hoping to win crucial Senate elections this November. For her part, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who says she favors "reduc[ing] carbon in the atmosphere," criticized the president's end-run around the legislature. "Congress should set the terms, goals and timeframe" for the policy, she insisted in a statement quoted by The Hill newspaper.

But you'd know nothing about this if you only got your news from MSNBC's Hardball, where on his June 2 program, host Chris Matthews used the new EPA regs simply as an excuse to team up with two liberal guests -- Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Center for American Progress's Neera Tanden -- to blast Republicans as know-nothings on climate change who are motivated sheerly out of partisan animus in opposing the president's push for curbing carbon dioxide emissions. Matthews also worked in a swipe at the Left's favorite fraternal bogeymen, assailing the Koch brothers as moral monsters for "hurting the planet's health so they can have more money." [Listen to MP3 audio here; Watch video below page break]

Jon Stewart Calls Out Hypocritical Harry Reid for Defending Wealthy Backer of His Own
By Randy Hall | May 14, 2014 | 11:58 PM EDT

The old saying goes that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder," but during Tuesday night's edition of  Comedy Central's The Daily Show, the same principle was applied to hypocrisy.

Jon Stewart charged that Senate majority leader Harry Reid has criticized Charles and David Koch more than 140 times this year but said during an interview that people shouldn't “pick on” Sheldon Adelson, a gambling billionaire and supporter of the Nevada Democrat. [See video below.]

MSNBC's Sharpton: GOP 'Demonizes the Working Class'
By Brad Wilmouth | April 30, 2014 | 8:23 PM EDT

On the Wednesday, April 30, PoliticsNation, Al Sharpton charged that the Republican Party "demonizes the working class" and that GOPers "attack the working poor" as the MSNBC host trashed Republicans for opposing a minimum wage increase. [See video below.] 

Ed Schultz Likes Big Money Being Spent on Politics -- When It Comes From Rich Liberals
By Randy Hall | April 22, 2014 | 8:46 PM EDT

The host of MSNBC's weekday afternoon program The Ed Show has often hammered the donations to GOP candidates and projects made by wealthy conservative brothers David and Charles Koch, but does he feel the same when rich Democrats enter the political fray?

We got our answer on Monday, when Schultz happily interviewed Tom Steyer, a prolific Democratic donor who has pledged $50 million of his own money -- which will be matched by other members of “the party of the little guy” -- to support candidates who oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline and attack Democrats who support the project, which has interestingly been delayed by the Obama administration until after this November's midterm elections.

Ed Schultz Parrots Left-Wing Lie of Koch Brothers as 'Main Beneficiary' of Keystone Pipeline
By Jack Coleman | April 8, 2014 | 7:36 PM EDT

"Koke adds life where there isn't any," warned the Clash about cocaine back in 1980, a year that shook the ground under American politics. The Koch -- pronounced "Koke" -- brothers, David and Charles (though not sibling Bill, for the time being) serve a comparably stimulative role for liberals in 2014, another election year with seismic potential.

In recent weeks, self-proclaimed working-class hero Ed Schultz has shown he can barely pass a waking hour without vilifying the cursed Kochs. Yesterday Schultz regurgitated a persistent leftist falsehood about them and did so in a way that showed he wasn't even sure about the claim. (Audio after the jump)

2009: Chuck Schumer Thanks 'Un-American' Koch Brothers for Campaign Contribution
By P.J. Gladnick | April 8, 2014 | 1:50 PM EDT

Remember the extreme discomfort Senator Chuck Schumer displayed recently when pressed by Joe Scarborough on MSNBC's Morning Joe as to whether he agreed with Harry Reid's description of the Koch brothers as "un-American?" After much evasion, Schumer finally agreed with Reid that the Koch brothers were un-American due to the political ads they are running.

It now turns out that Schumer's uneasiness with calling the Koch brothers "un-American" didn't have as much to do with casting aspersions upon their character as it had to do with something in his past that he probably knew would expose him as a hypocrite. And that something was a 2009  letter from Schumer thanking the Koch brothers political organization, KOCHPAC, for a contribution to his campaign. The letter can be seen after the jump.

NYT Touts More Democratic Attacks on Koch Brothers on Sunday Front Page
By Clay Waters | April 6, 2014 | 8:42 AM EDT

Congressional reporters Jeremy Peters and Carl Hulse touted Democratic attacks against the paper's favorite enemy, libertarian donors Charles and David Koch, on the front of the National Edition of the Sunday New York Times, in "To Hit Back at Kochs, Democrats Revive Tactic That Hurt Romney."

It's just the latest in a series of Times reports and editorials highlighting and tacitly approving Democratic attacks against the Koch brothers in the run up to the 2014 elections, while avoiding mentioning Sen. Harry Reid's false allegations against them, some documented by Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler.

CBS Touts Dem Effort to Make Koch Brothers 'Public Enemy Number One'
By Kyle Drennen | April 1, 2014 | 4:41 PM EDT

Teasing an upcoming story Tuesday on a left-wing smear campaign against conservative donors Charles and David Koch, CBS This Morning co-host Norah O'Donnell proclaimed: "Battling the Koch brothers, Democrats are fighting back against the family that spent more than $150 million trying to shake up Congress." Introducing the segment, fellow co-host Charlie Rose announced that "one of the best-known families in big-money politics is once again in the spotlight." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

In the report that followed, correspondent Nancy Cordes told viewers: "They are the Koch brothers, both in their 70s and two of the wealthiest men in America. They've been giving to conservative and libertarian causes for a long time. But now, Democrats are trying to make them public enemy number one." The headline on screen read: "Big Money Brothers; Democrats Target Billionaires David & Charles Koch."

NYT Approves of Harry Reid's 'Un-American' Slur of Koch Brothers
By Clay Waters | March 11, 2014 | 3:14 PM EDT

Tuesday's lead New York Times editorial attack on the paper's favorite conservative bogeyman, the Koch brothers ("The Democrats Stand Up to the Kochs") followed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's political playbook, denouncing Obama-care horror stories as "phony," while approving of Reid's Senate-floor smear of donors Charles and David Koch as "un-American."

And a recent Times report on Reid's push by Ashley Parker (pictured) skipped completely the slur by Reid, who stated in a February 26 speech on the Senate floor denouncing Koch-funded ads publicizing ObamaCare horror stories: "The Koch brothers are about as un-American as anyone I can imagine."

PolitiFact Rates Maddow's Recent Smear of Koch Brothers 'Mostly False'
By Noel Sheppard | January 10, 2014 | 11:29 AM EST

As NewsBusters previously reported, the Koch brothers on Monday accused MSNBC's Rachel Maddow of misrepresenting their political contributions to falsely claim that they have been pushing for the drug testing of welfare recipients.

On Thursday, fact-checking website PolitiFact largely agreed with the Kochs - and NewsBusters - rating Maddow's assertions "Mostly False":

Kochs Accuse MSNBC’s Maddow of Misrepresenting Their Donations and Refusing to Retract
By Noel Sheppard | January 7, 2014 | 5:29 PM EST

As NewsBusters has reported for years, the conservative-leaning Koch brothers are a routine target of the liberal media for their contributions to causes that don’t fit the left’s agenda.

On Monday, Koch Industries accused MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow of misrepresenting its donations to falsely assert the billionaire brothers are supporting laws in Florida to drug test welfare recipients.

In researching this accusation, NewsBusters has discovered that neither Maddow nor anyone at MSNBC bothered to contact the organization the Kochs are alleged to be connected to.

Maybe even worse, Maddow didn't bother informing viewers that Comcast, the media conglomerate that owns NBC Universal which includes MSNBC, is actually a contributor to the same alleged conduit the Kochs are.