New Yorker article on Koch deconstructed, again

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Today Elaine Lafferty contributes an interview with David Koch and helps to deconstruct the recent News Yorker magazine piece about him, his brother Charles Koch, and Koch Industries.

One of the most baseless claims made in the New Yorker article is that Charles and David Koch have sought to operate secretly. This charge has been made in other contexts, too. This article quotes David Koch’s assessment of this: “If what I and my brother believe in, and advocate for, is secret, it’s the worst covert operation in history.”

Lafferty also touches on a subject that needs more illumination: the political tone-deafness of those who describe Charles and David Koch as “Republican right-wingers.” One of the institutions associated with the Kochs is the Cato Institute. In describing its philosophy as “libertarianism” or “market liberalism,” the Cato website says: “It combines an appreciation for entrepreneurship, the market process, and lower taxes with strict respect for civil liberties and skepticism about the benefits of both the welfare state and foreign military adventurism.”

Any organization that believes, as Cato does, in opposition to the war in Iraq, ending the prohibition of drugs, and marriage equality, is far from what is usually deemed to be “right-wing” or even “conservative.” Many observers and commentators are not able to make these distinctions.

The article also addresses the issue of Koch Industries being a polluter, and explains David Koch’s advocacy for, and financial support of, cancer research.

David Koch Fires Back at the New Yorker

By Elaine Lafferty

David Koch is steaming.

“It’s hateful. It’s ludicrous. And it’s plain wrong.”

The object of his ire is a 9,963 word story in The New Yorker magazine, published last week which accuses David, his brother Charles, and Koch Industries of … well, just about everything: Secretly funding the Tea Party movement, secretly manipulating the Smithsonian, along with, not-so-secretly polluting the planet, stealing oil from Native American land, denying the existence of climate change, and promoting carcinogens — all in the self-interest of making further billions.

Continue reading at David Koch Fires Back at the New Yorker

Comments

One response to “New Yorker article on Koch deconstructed, again”

  1. Rothbard

    This doesn’t exactly pertain to this piece, but seems to be as good a place for this comment as any since it references CATO and the FED-loving Kochtopus.

    CATO’s publishes an op-ed advocating more money printing (QE) and references monetary-crank Friedman to justify it.
    http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12502

    Rockwell comments on the CATO op-ed:
    http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/67923.html

    CATO: Bernake is not printing enough money
    http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/10/cato-bernanke-is-not-printing-enough.html

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