Koch Bros Tribune Co? Climate change denial in Koch-friendly media

Brothers Charles and David Koch have spent decades and millions of dollars to influence the news we read in newspapers, see online and watch on TV. The Kochs regularly convene high security meetings with high society attendees, many of whom work in the media, influence it, or own it.

Now reporters across the country are eyeing the Koch’s first attempt to directly own media themselves.Last weekend’s New York Times confirmedKoch Industries’ bid for the Tribune Companyas a way for the Kochs and their allies to“make sure our voice is heard.”Tribune’s newspapersreach tens of millionsof U.S. citizens, an ideal captive audience for Charles Koch’s self-serving philosophy to promote “economic freedom,” and to end “crony capitalism,” an ironic choice of words for the one of country’s most infamous corporate political manipulators.

Tribune Co. owns eight newspapers and 23 TV stations across the country including the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribuneand Hoy, the country’s 2nd largest daily Spanish newspaper, a clear asset for conservative politicians still reeling from their underwhelming rapport with the U.S. Hispanic population in the 2012 election.

Reaching Hispanic and Latino voters will be a major topic at the Kochs’ secretive “billionaires caucus”next week, which was delayed three months so the Kochs could audit the results of their 2012 electioneering activities, bolstered by hundreds of millions of dollars raised at previous Koch meetings. It’s worth noting that the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council distributed Arizona’s controversial racial profiling law, SB 1070, to states around the country so private prison companies can rake a profit off the incarceration of immigrants.

Existing Kochtopus Media Publishes Climate Science Denial

Preceding their bid for the Tribune Company, the Koch brothers’ network ties them to media outlets promoting theclimate change denial campaign infamously bankrolled by the Kochs. Read the slaughter of science yourself at the Wall Street Journal opinion page, the Weekly Standard, the National Review, the Washington Examiner, and Breitbart.com.

A Greenpeace investigation detailed key media outlet owners and pundits with ties to the Kochs through their secretive strategy meetings, as did Lee Fang’s ThinkProgress article on the Kochs’ pet “journalists.”Here are some of the Koch’s key allies that own or work in the media:

• Stanley S. Hubbard, the billionaire chairman and CEO of Hubbard Broadcasting, which owns TV and radio stations in major cities across the country, including Washington DC’s WTOP and WFED.

• Karl Eller, whofoundedthe worlds largest outdoor advertising company,Clear Channel Outdoor, and launched numerous TV, radio and newspaper outlets that were absorbed by Gannett Company.GannettownsUSATODAYand dozens of other U.S. newspapers and television stations, and Clear Channel Outdoor stemmed from a Gannett advertising subsidiary purchased by Eller. Karl Eller served on the board of Turner Broadcasting, which owns CNN. He was chosen by the American Advertising Federation for its Advertising Hall of Fame in 2004.

• Ramesh Pannuru, the senior editor of the National Review, an outlet funded by the Charles Koch Foundation. National Review’s “Planet Gore” blog is dedicated to dismissing global warming.

• Foster Friess, the billionaire who provided money to launch the Daily Caller, a conservative news outlet. The Daily Caller has criticized the Obama 2012 campaign’s “anti-Koch” activity.

• Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal editorial board,contributor to the National Review and frequent TV news pundit. Stephen Moore used toworkat theCato Institute, which was founded by Charles Koch in the 1970’s and continues to be directed by David Koch and other Koch Industries associates.Moore advises the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)and regularly collaborates withthe Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity. In 2009, Moore told attendees of the 2009 RightOnline conference, “What would we do without the Wall Street Journal and FOX News, Right? And Americans for Prosperity?”Moore is a former director of Donors Capital Fund, according to 2010 IRS tax filings.

• Steven Hayward, who is affiliated with numerous groups financed by the Kochs as well serving as treasurer and board member to Donors Capital Fund. DCF and sister group Donors Trust hide money from the Kochs and other corporate interests to groups like the Heartland Institute, the Franklin Center, CFACT, Americans for Prosperity, and many other groups connected to Hayward–read more on Steven Hayward and the Donors Trust network. Steven Hayward frequently dismisses global warming in the Weekly Standard, the National Review, and Powerline Blog, run by attorneyJohn Hinderaker, whose firm has represented Koch Industries.

• Glenn Beck, the former FOX News hysteric whothanked Charles Koch on airfor providing misinformation on climate change he presented during his show.

• DixonDoll,the co-founder and General Partner of DCM, a venture capital firm involved in telecommunications. Dixon Doll sits on the board of directors ofDIRECTV.

TheNew YorkTimesincluded the brothers’ connection to oil and gas billionairePhilip Anschutz, who owns the Weekly Standard, the Washington Examiner, and other outlets through Clarity Media Group (check out the Weekly Standard’s puff piece on the Kochs). Phil Anschutz, a fellow financier of climate science denial groups,is one of many elites who attends the Kochs’ twice-annual strategy meetings, where millions of dollars are raised to influence politics through groups like the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, the Franklin Center, and the other members of theState Policy Network.

TheState Policy Networkand its affiliates often gin up their own astroturf media, with the Franklin Center’s “Watchdog” websites dishing out content to bolster the campaigns of Koch’s flagship SPN operations like Americans for Prosperity and ALEC. TheFranklin Centeris 95% funded by Donors Trust, the “Dark Money ATM” that hides money from the Kochs and other secretive political manipulators.