John Hinderaker on the Media-Leftist-Government Complex
On Thursday, the Washington Post published an article by Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin titled “The biggest lease holder in Canada’s oil sands isn’t Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It’s the Koch brothers.” The article’s first paragraph included this claim:
The biggest lease holder in the northern Alberta oil sands is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately-owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative Koch brothers Charles and David.
The theme of the article was that the Keystone Pipeline is all about the Koch brothers; or, at least, that this is a plausible claim. The Post authors relied on a report by a far-left group called International Forum on Globalization that I debunked last October.
So Thursday evening, I wrote about the Post article here. I pointed out that Koch is not, in fact, the largest leaser of tar sands land; that Koch will not be a user of the pipeline if it is built; and that construction of the Keystone Pipeline would actually be harmful to Koch’s economic interests, which is why Koch has never taken a position on the pipeline’s construction. The Keystone Pipeline, in short, has nothing whatsoever to do with the Koch brothers. […]
The Keystone Pipeline is by no means the only energy-related controversy these days. “Green” energy is also highly controversial. “Green” energy is controversial, in part, because, unlike the Keystone Pipeline, it harms the consumer: solar and wind energy are inefficient, and therefore raise energy costs to consumers. “Green” energy is also controversial because it harms taxpayers: because they are inefficient, solar and wind energy can survive only through taxpayer-funded subsidies. Further, the federal government has invested in numerous “green” energy projects that have gone bankrupt, sticking taxpayers with the tab. Solyndra is only one of a number of such debacles.
“Green” energy is also controversial because it has been used to enrich government cronies. Let’s take, for instance, the billionaire Tom Steyer. Steyer has made much of his fortune by using his government connections to secure support for uneconomic “green” energy projects that have profited him, to the detriment of consumers and taxpayers. See, for example, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. As is explained here, Tom Steyer is a bitter opponent of the Keystone Pipeline. His financial interests, in “green” energy and perhaps also in pre-pipeline oil sources like BP, stand to benefit if Keystone is killed.
Haven’t heard much about Tom Steyer, you say? Maybe that’s because he isn’t heavily involved in politics. Heh–just kidding. Steyer, as you probably know, is one of the biggest donors to the Democratic Party and its candidates. This year, he has pledged to contribute $100 million to the campaigns of Democratic candidates, as long as they toe the line on environmental issues–which includes, presumably, taxpayer support for “green” energy and opposition to Keystone.
So the Post could have written a very different story about the Keystone Pipeline. The Post could have written that opposition to the pipeline is being funded in large part by a billionaire who has a personal financial interest in the pipeline not being built. And that’s not all! The billionaire is a political crony who has used his connections in Washington to get rich and to fleece consumers and taxpayers. Now, with Keystone, he is doing it again! How is that for a story that would “stir and inflame public debate in this election year? […]
Oh, yes–one more thing. Guess who sits on the board of the Center for American Progress? Yup. Tom Steyer.
This kind of incest is common in Washington. You can’t separate the reporters from the activists from the Obama administration officials from the billionaire cronies. Often, as in this instance, the same people wear two or more of those hats simultaneously. However bad you think the corruption and cronyism in Washington are, they are worse than you imagine. And if you think the Washington Post is part of a free and independent press, think again.
The libelous attacks on the Koch family are not just about demonizing them alone. What it is, is a warning to other people of what will happen to them if they dare to publicly oppose Leftwing policies.
It’s part and parcel of crude and outrageous remarks made by Democrat politicians, such as Harry Reid or Charlie Rangel, that then can be carried as “news” by the Democrat PR department, aka Mainstream Media. A campaign of The Big Lie to tie scurrilous labels and motives to The Other in the public square. Also, to make certain topics, such as “poverty”, wholly owned by the Leftist Democrat party by attacking any non-leftists who dare speak about it.
I only wonder if voters will actually pay attention or if this Grand Experiment is finally going to end … not with a bang, but with bread, circuses and “free” soma.
h/t newrouter
I blame the demise of Code Duello.
The Post also could have written about Warren Buffet who has a shitload of money invested in moving all that North Dakota shale oil by railcar. Keystone II, were it to be approved and actually built, would compete with him.
Beat me to it, Ernst.
Think of the WaPozians as Jimmy Cagney’s character Tom Powers in The Public Enemy and the attack on the Kochs as a grapefruit in the face of the majority of Americans who would complain. The WaPozians do it because they can. What’s anybody going to do to stop them? And that atteetude, to enlist a Philadelphia speech product, goes all the way to explain the carefree response (a “have some more of the same”) to Hinderaker’s critique.
This part is delicious.
BAMN!
Incestual infestation.
I’ve said it before: my starting assumption nowadays is that journalists are liars.
Hug me till you drug me, honey;
Kiss me till I’m in a coma:
Hug me, honey, snuggly bunny;
Love’s as good as soma.
j. alder of volokh conspir. post this at wapo
Are the Koch brothers the “biggest lease holder” in Canada’s oil sands?
[…] Click on Protein Wisdom: “This kind of incest is common in Washington,” and Ho hum, Amanda Marcotte hates babies and demands you […]
Is this really all the progressives have? A Harry Reid initiated attack against the koch bros? This is obviously just a lame extenstion of the occupy wall street bullshit.
>Is this really all the progressives have?<
being bossy is proggtardia.
What a magnificent takedown. It addresses each salient issue, each bit of malinformation, giving the lie to each point, each counter-counterpoint, ping ping ping, then steps outside the discussion and looks back at who is doing the talking there, who is doing the misleading, who’s zooming whom, it unravels the unseemly network, names the principals ping ping ping with a photo, a large one, a good one too, as to say, “so remember these names.”
Damn, I wish I was smart like that.
I know everybody is married to on another and the incest is quite disgusting, their children Washington bastards all schooled at the same places, the dynasties that form naturally are disgusting. On Fox too. Mike Wallace. Is that the guys’s name? The guy who’s dad died. Weeks of the guy’s dad oeuvre, and now the son, the guy on Fox covers Washington as if entitled by being “in the know” presumably by family connections. He’s good. But I don’t like him. He was born there. Born in the facehugger that sits on the weary face of America. I am developing a seriously foul attitude regarding the so-called entitled class. Criminal enterprises. It is appallingly unAmerican. And I say resolutely, “Down with this sort of thing.”
Cheers to John Hinderaker for being so smart.
the bour3 gets a tasty “swiss cake roll”!!11!!
When inanimate objects in Japan reach the ripe old age of one-hundred, they become Tsukomogami (???), or artifact spirits.
oh. the “???” was the japanese characters written in japanese, which is the native language of japan
anyway I love this idea
I have some tsukomogami around here and I never knew it til today
thank God for the internet
the God of Abraham i mean, not some kooky Japaneser one
Another incestuous mating approved of on high.
Huh. I was expecting new revelations about Harry Reid. Or Bill Clinton. Or both.
The more conventional variety of incest would explain Joe Biden. And Harry Reid. And…
“The Media-Leftist-Government Complex” is not the only place where there are incestuous relationships. Where all sides agree to secretly cooperate and build a Potemkin competition which is sold as reality to all those outside the, literal in this case, nomenklatura, aka names on the list.
It seems one thing uniting both these secret “non-aggression pact” groups (shades of Molotov-Ribbentrop) is that all the parties involved are heavily supportive of Democrats and the left in general.
Via Powerline, Mark Steyn: What made Buddy Run?, celebrating Budd Schulberg and his efforts to tell the truth.