January 3, 2014

So David and Charles Koch want Rachel Maddow to read their prepared script on the air admitting her "error" and apologizing for it?

Excuse me while I clean the spewed coffee off my screen.

Here's how this whole thing started. In late December, Rachel did a segment on how the Kochs buy their economic studies reinforcing conservative ideas. They do this by donating huge sums to universities and demanding the right to hire faculty who think like they do. That report is here.

Apparently the Kochs didn't appreciate her reporting, because for some bizarre reason they don't mind throwing billions around the political universe but shy away from receiving credit for it. So they had their lawyers send Rachel a letter, and boy was it a doozy, as you'll see in the segment. It included a demand that she read a prepared script by the lawyers retracting her report and apologizing for it.

She did not apologize. I believe her exact words were "I will not renounce or retract reporting that is true, even if the subjects of that reporting don't like it." As for the script, she let them know she does "not read scripts provided to me by anyone else. I don't do requests."

She also reminded them that if they don't like it when the truth is brought to light, they should just stop doing those things that generate attention.

The only thing she forgot was the part where she informed her audience that the Kochs are a couple of libertarian thugs with big wallets and emptier heads. The only thing bigger than their own egos might be their bank accounts.

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