Koch Facts Home
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
As a follow-up to an interview published in the Palm Beach Post on February 18, David Koch is providing these further remarks:
“We have always supported and will continue to support voluntary associations. As we’ve stated before, unions represent many Koch companies’ employees and I am proud of the productive, mutually beneficial, and respectful relationships we have with these unions.
My comments about unions to the Palm Beach Post referred to government employee, taxpayer-funded unions. It is a fact that the deficits facing many local and state governments are caused in large part by the wage, pension and benefits packages these unions have negotiated with politicians, at the expense of taxpayers. These unions contribute to the growing government debt and they threaten private sector jobs and growth.
In addition, as the Palm Beach Post story indicated, my comments concerning support for Governor Walker related solely to Americans for Prosperity and its activities in Wisconsin.”
Friday, February 17th, 2012
The following letter was sent by the Charles Koch Foundation to senior editors at the New York Times:
Despite the Times’ own explicit standards on sourcing, the Charles Koch Foundation received no opportunity to verify or react to the assertions made about us in a piece by Justin Gillis and Leslie Kaufman [Leak Offers Glimpse of Campaign Against Climate Science; Feb 15, 2012]. Your reporters called other companies to verify or comment. Why not us?
The piece reported, “documents say that the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation contributed $25,000 last year and was expected to contribute $200,000 this year.” That is not true. As stated in a public statement released yesterday, the $25,000 grant that the Charles Koch Foundation gave Heartland last year was specifically directed to a healthcare research program and has nothing whatever to do with the climate research program at issue. The statement also made clear that the Foundation has made no further commitments of funding to Heartland. Had anyone from the New York Times contacted the Charles Koch Foundation, these points could have been mentioned in the story, or perhaps, your paper would not have made the false statements in the first place.
In addition, as noted in your story, the Heartland Institute itself has issued a statement declaring that at least some of the cited documentation is fabricated. In light of that, it is disappointing that the Times failed to make any effort to verify the numbers in relation to outside parties like ours that were cited.
I would appreciate some explanation for why we were not contacted. I also would appreciate that the Times set the record straight with respect to the assertions about us.
Regards,
Tonya Mullins
Director of Communications
Charles Koch Foundation
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
There has been a troubling pattern in the public discourse where left-leaning and, in particular, environmental activists have sought to connect Koch to whatever cause is agitating them — no matter how tenuous or even non-existent the connection to Koch actually is.
Documents and analysis about the Charles Koch Foundation’s support for The Heartland Institute, posted on February 14 by a partisan blog calling itself “DeSmogBlog” are demonstrably FALSE in several key respects.
The documents presented by the blog indicate “[the Foundation] returned as a Heartland donor in 2011 with a contribution of $200,000. We expect to push up their level of support in 2012…if our focus continues to align with their interests.” But this is not so. The Foundation gave just $25,000 to Heartland in 2011 (the only such donation to that organization in more than 10 years) and that funding was specifically directed to a healthcare research program, and not climate change research, as was erroneously reported.
Statistically speaking, the Foundation’s contribution represents approximately one-twentieth of one percent of Heartland’s total funding over that ten year period. The Foundation has made no further commitments of funding to Heartland.
In addition, The Heartland Institute has issued a statement declaring that the documents cited in the blog (and re-transmitted in subsequent news stories) were stolen from Heartland and that one document in circulation is a total fake. Heartland says it intends to seek criminal charges and damages against whoever stole the original documents.
We would urge readers to exercise high skepticism about reports from sources like the blog we’ve cited.
The Charles Koch Foundation’s statement about this issue can be found here .
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
A fundraising letter sent out this week by Sierra Club activist Bill McKibben contains an outright fabrication about Koch. Urging opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, McKibben writes, “the only argument for the pipeline comes from folks like the Koch Brothers — ‘we can make a lot of money.’ … but that money buys votes in Congress, unless we stand up.”
Koch has never made any such statement or argument. McKibben is citing something that simply doesn’t exist in an attempt to make money for his own partisan activist group. Koch has stated publicly and repeatedly that we have no stake in the Keystone pipeline. It is troubling that the Sierra Club and McKibben are somehow taken seriously by news media covering this issue when they have such brazen disregard for the truth. Even Sierra Club’s executive director, Michael Brune (a cohort of McKibben), had to be formally corrected by the Los Angeles Times this past July when he tried to mislead readers into thinking Koch had some connection to Keystone.
It’s worth noting that the Sierra Club was just exposed for surreptitiously taking $26 million from a natural gas company to fund criticism of competing industries. It now seems obvious that this tainted funding has also been used to drive Sierra Club’s activities on the Keystone issue.
Given that the Sierra Club secretively took millions of dollars from a natural gas company in return for attacking other energy industry participants and that McKibben is willing to invent statements from others out of whole cloth and pass them off as legitimate, no one should believe anything else that he or the Sierra Club has to say.
Monday, February 13th, 2012
A blog post by Wall Street Journal writer Jacqueline Palank contains an error in its opening paragraph. Ms. Palank writes that Koch is “funding an ad campaign criticizing the Obama administration’s support of bankrupt solar company Solyndra LLC.” This is false. The fact is that Koch is among the tens of thousands of contributors to Americans for Prosperity, the group that is running the ads. Koch has no control over the ad campaign and has not directed funding toward it. We pointed this out to Ms. Palank who refused to take responsibility for the error.
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
The Media’s Shameful, Inexcusable Distortion Of The Supreme Court’s Citizens United Decision
Mediate – Dan Abrams
It’s hard to imagine that, in this day and age, the mainstream media could repeatedly misstate the holding of one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions without being roundly excoriated. Not a matter of opinion or a partisan viewpoint, but, simply parroting a mistake or lie about the holding in that crucial ruling.
Click Here For Full Post
Friday, February 10th, 2012
We will exercise our First Amendment rights and not be intimidated or silenced by the President’s aides and his allies who criticize private citizens that disagree with the President’s policies.
The Obama campaign’s decision to embrace Super PACs is similar to the President’s hypocrisy in 2008 when he broke his promise to use public campaign financing, and became the first major party presidential candidate in history to turn down public financing in a general election. It is worth noting that President Obama outraised and outspent his opponent by hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2008 Presidential campaign, relying in large part on the same corporate executive funding sources whose productivity, business practices, and profitability he pretends to denounce.
Apparently, the President and his allies do not want to lose that perceived fundraising advantage during the 2012 Presidential campaign, and are trying to intimidate into silence those who may disagree with them and who may decide to support other candidates.
Philip Ellender, President and COO
Government and Public Affairs
Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Law.com
As House Republicans are pushing for a committee vote on a bill to move the Keystone XL pipeline project forward, opponents keep dragging Koch Industries, Inc., into the controversy—even though it claims no interest in the bill.
“It’s political theater,” complains Koch general counsel Mark Holden, as a vote on the bill was scheduled for Tuesday before the House Energy and Commerce committee. Wichita-based Koch operations include refineries, chemicals, and related technology.
Holden, a 17-year veteran with the company, said in an interview with CorpCounsel.com on Monday, “As Koch has stated consistently since last year when the issues first arose, Koch is not involved in the Keystone Pipeline XL project, it has no ownership interest in the proposed pipeline, and it is not a proposed shipper or customer of the proposed pipeline.”
Click Here For Full Post
Saturday, February 4th, 2012
Politico - Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-Kanas)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72379.html#ixzz1lRs1fY2j
President Barack Obama and his allies, including those in Congress, have shown what a nasty, personal and abusive reelection campaign we are about to experience. A recent sideshow in my committee in Congress provides yet another clear and shocking example.
Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) recently wrote a letter demanding a live witness and testimony from “a representative of Koch Industries” at a hearing on the Keystone XL pipeline, scheduled just two days later. The request’s frivolous nature is proven by that unreasonable deadline. But the partisan tactics go far beyond that.
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Bill Press, a liberal media figure, has a new book that contains a rehash of numerous false statements and distortions about Koch Industries, Charles Koch, and David Koch that have been made by partisan, fringe activists and bloggers over the past few years. A clue to the type of sloppy and dishonest smear that appears in Mr. Press’ book is found in the introduction where he thanks his “good friends” at the Obama Administration front group, ThinkProgress, and laughably describes them as “one of the country’s most dependable sources of information on public policy.” Mr. Press also lauds former Center for American Progress staffer Lee Fang, whose own shoddy reporting has been derided by observers from the left, right, and center.
Below is just an initial sample of of the distortions, false statements, and dishonesty in Mr. Press’ new book.
Click Here For Full Post
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Wall Street Journal – Theodore B. Olson
How would you feel if aides to the president of the United States singled you out by name for attack, and if you were featured prominently in the president’s re-election campaign as an enemy of the people?
What would you do if the White House engaged in derogatory speculative innuendo about the integrity of your tax returns? Suppose also that the president’s surrogates and allies in the media regularly attacked you, sullied your reputation and questioned your integrity. On top of all of that, what if a leading member of the president’s party in Congress demanded your appearance before a congressional committee this week so that you could be interrogated about the Keystone XL oil pipeline project in which you have repeatedly—and accurately—stated that you have no involvement?
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Ted Olson Compares Obama to Nixon McCarthy
Washington Examiner – Conn Carroll
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/ted-olson-compares-obama-nixon-mccarthy/352991
“Olson doesn’t mention it, but there is a very simple reason Obama is targeting the Koch’s: he can’t run on his record. With unemployment still higher than when he took office, and the Congressional Budget Office now certifying he will fail to cut the deficit in half as he promised, he has no accomplishments to run on. All he can really do is identify villains and ask his supporters to punish them. That is what Obama’s Buffett Rule is really all about. And that is why he is attacking the Koch’s.”
Click Here For Full Post
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
“A series of ongoing, politically motivated attacks by Representative Waxman and others are part of an orchestrated campaign to demonize an American company with 50,000 U.S.-based employees. This should be concerning to all Americans who exercise their Constitutional right to free speech.
At a hearing of the Committee on Energy and Commerce on January 25, Rep. Henry Waxman repeated several demonstrably false statements he had made earlier this year, asserting that Koch has some financial stake in the Keystone Pipeline project. In particular, Mr. Waxman said at the hearing, ‘We learned that [Koch] told the Canadian government they have a direct and substantial interest so something does not add up.’
As we have previously stated, Koch Industries has no financial stake in the Keystone pipeline and we are not party to its design or construction. We are not a proposed shipper or customer of oil delivered by this pipeline. We have taken no position on the legislative proposal at issue before Congress and we are not cited in any way in that legislation.
Click Here For Full Post
Friday, January 20th, 2012
“President Obama’s first TV advertisement of the 2012 political season refers obliquely to Koch while claiming credit for a thriving energy sector. It’s a message that is divorced from the facts, and only makes sense to a federal bureaucrat or a campaign focus group. In reality, the Administration has been ambivalent or, more often, outright hostile to many of the affordable and practical solutions that would increase America’s domestic energy supplies, including pipelines and offshore drilling permits.
While the Obama2012 campaign pays political consultants to create misleading ads and talking points, Koch employs nearly 50,000 American workers who create value every day and contribute to the economic prosperity of their communities and our nation. With the nation’s unemployment rate at more than eight percent, it is unfortunate that the President demonizes Koch and other job creators for political gain rather than create an environment that will promote job growth and help businesses and the people they employ flourish.”
–Philip Ellender, President, Government and Public Affairs, Koch Companies Public Sector
Friday, January 20th, 2012
To Koch, Brisbane talks Times opinion bias
Dylan Byers – Politico
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/01/to-koch-brisbane-talks-times-opinion-bias-111007.html
“I have no problem stating here that in the domain where opinion writers ply their trade for The Times, the liberal view is overwhelmingly dominant,” he wrote in an email to Melissa Cohlmia, corporate communications director at Koch, last Tuesday. ”In my view, it makes for predictable and sometimes very dull reading. But others apparently don’t agree.”
Click Here For Full Post
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
Pamela McCarthy, Deputy Editor
The New Yorker
Pamela – thank you for your note. We are surprised that your apparent understanding of the word “preemptive” does not match the dictionary definition, which is this:
pre·emp·tive : taken as a measure against something possible, anticipated, or feared; preventive; deterrent.
All the best,
Melissa Cohlmia
Director, Corporate Communication
Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC
Click Here For Full Post
Monday, January 9th, 2012
The Left Sees the Koch Brothers Everywhere
Peter Roff – U.S. News
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2012/01/09/the-left-sees-the-koch-brothers-everywhere
“Mayer has been right along side, chronicling the Kochs’ activities with an intense scrutiny usually reserved for elected officials and movies stars. Her interest, whether sparked by a desire to please the left, to curry favor with the Obama administration, or to develop material for a new book means that little they do escapes her gaze—even if she has to reach to make a connection.”
Click Here For Full Post
Sunday, January 8th, 2012
From: Cohlmia, Missy
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 10:43 AM
To: Art Brisbane
Cc: Cohlmia, Missy
Subject: RE: Koch Industries
Dear Mr. Brisbane:
I appreciate your offer of continued dialogue and thank you for your time. Your candor, especially on the Times’ liberal leanings and how that lack of diversity of perspective can lead to “very predictable” and “dull” reading, deserves praise and we certainly share your view of it.
In answer to your question on specific examples of bias in the news coverage, here is a link to more than a dozen such instances which reveal the Times provides a frequent and high platform for the grievances of left-wing advocacy groups and the Democratic party about us.
We would still like to hear some justification from senior Times editors about why the articles involving us are so heavily weighted — in topic, frequency, and content — toward the left wing perspective. I would be grateful if you could endeavor to get an answer from them about that.
Kind thanks,
Melissa Cohlmia
Director, Corporate Communication
Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC
