JONATHAN CHAIT JANUARY 14, 2011
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The many beneficiaries of Koch libertarian largesse bridle at their portrayal as sinister, self-interested moguls pulling strings behind the scenes. But then you read things like this:
Last week, the New York Post's Keith Kelly reported that The Daily Caller, a right-wing news site run by Tucker Carlson, had spent "several weeks" pursuing false allegations that Mayer had committed plagiarism in at least two articles. One of the allegations involved Mayer's landmark expose about Charles and David Koch -- billionaire brothers who have funded conservative organizations tied to the Tea Party movement.
Kelly tells Media Matters that the plagiarism charges were also pitched to the Post, apparently by a different source than the one that tipped off the Daily Caller. The Post investigated and ultimately reported that the allegations were untrue.
After first saying that the plagiarism story would result in an "extensive piece," The Daily Caller ultimately told both Kelly and The New Yorker that the article had been spiked.
Kelly has reported that "the person or persons behind the allegations remains a shadowy mystery," and both Carlson and Daily Caller reporter Jonathan Strong have declined to identify the original source of the smear.
The shocking and actually somewhat encouraging thing is that, while the Koch brothers or their minions got a couple reporters to investigate this smear, they didn't get anybody to actually publish it. You'd have to think they could find somebody pliable enough. Hey, I've got two kids and a mortgage. Pay me enough money and I'll swear that I was in a secret Marxist cabal with Jane Mayer.
5 comments
Finger Barack Obama, too, and you will haul in a lot more moolah, Jonathan. Tell the Koch brothers that you have been tutoring Barack in Marxist theory and praxis.
- liberal reformer@gmail.com
January 14, 2011 at 12:33pm
You better ask for enough money to defend yourself against a slander and libel suit, and to pay the judgment that would result. I am sure there are first amendment and tort lawyers aplenty frothing at the opportunity to depose both the author of such a piece and the Koch brothers. A deposition by a good lawyer provides little room to move. I have long said that no present day Republican could survive a deposition without being exposed as a fool and a liar. Unfortunately, politicians are not subject to the same parameters when questioned by journalists.
- spd1955
January 14, 2011 at 1:25pm
Lib, you're advertising your email address now?
- tnmats
January 14, 2011 at 1:47pm
Another reason to be glad we live in the good ole USA. If this were Russia, the Koch brothers might well have hired a hit man rather than a reporter or two--and Jane might be six feet under as several of her Russian counterparts are.
- sjberke1
January 14, 2011 at 3:37pm
That is not my email address. I am mystified as to how it took as my email address. And when I tried to change it back, TNR wouldn't let me. My wife, the techie, took over, and after quite a bit of effort she got most of my username back.
- liberalref
January 14, 2011 at 5:15pm