Correction Request: Koch brothers did not “help finance” TEA party movement

The New York Times today stated the Koch brothers “helped finance the Tea Party movement.” That implies they were sending checks or supplying banners or PA systems to the small groups of grass-roots individuals to help them fund TEA parties. That’s totally false.

Certainly there may be some TEA party organizations that get funds from various sources including the evil Koch brothers – especially starting prior to the 2010 election – but that certainly was not the case during the first year of the movement. (I’m arguing it was a “start-up” movement for for the first year and barely funded.) It’s a total and complete fabrication of what really happened.

In Hartford, Conn., nobody was offering funds to help pay for tables or sound systems. In Naples, Fla., groups didn’t even have former names or checking accounts. Those events were not astroturfed and for the NYT to say it over and over again in no way makes it true. That first TEA party in Hartford on Feb. 27, 2009 certainly did not get any funding, and you can pretty much assume the attendees and even the organizers – who paid expenses out of their own pockets – never even heard of the Koch brothers.

From the NYT Democrat mouthpiece, in an article discussing the non-existent strife between former President Bush (43) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R).

Mr. Perry, who aides say will make a decision within weeks, has been meeting around the country with potential fund-raisers, went to Colorado last week for a gathering of prominent conservative rainmakers held by members of the Koch family, which helped finance the Tea Party movement. An inevitable question is whether Republicans will be willing to nominate another Texas governor so closely connected to the last one.

So yes, their entire news article – it was not an opinion piece – was a total fabrication. They go out and push a non-existent feud between Bush and Perry and drop in the normal Koch brothers dig.

SOP for the NYT.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

6 Comments

  1. Plainvillian on July 6, 2011 at 12:47 pm

    More proof that the NYT, like the Noble prizes should be printed on two ply rolls.



  2. Dimsdale on July 6, 2011 at 7:02 pm

    I think single ply would suffice: perfect for fish wrap, parrot cage liners and emergency toilet paper.? As a respectable news source, not so much.??
    ?
    The NYTimes is the REAL “Faux news”.? “Pinch” would be better named “Putz”.



  3. winnie888 on July 7, 2011 at 5:32 am

    I get really aggravated when an op ed piece is trotted out like an actual news story.? It’s intentionally dishonest & misleading on the part of the writer/reporter and the publication (which is why I don’t subscribe to the Courant).? I sincerely believe that it’s all part of dumbing down our populace…



  4. Lynn on July 7, 2011 at 7:27 am

    The motto of NYT, when in doubt make it up



  5. NH-Jim on July 7, 2011 at 11:47 am

    As one who attended the very first rally on that sunny day, February 27th, ’09 on Capital Avenue in Hartford, I had not at the time ever heard of the Koch brothers.? This was a group of strangers united in the same true belief of liberty and less government.? This grassroots movement was only organized through the chatter in the conservative and libertarian chatrooms of America inspired by the rant by Rick Santelli on the Chicago Trade Floor during a CNBC show.? The NYT is part of the grand scheme to subvert the freedom of Americans for the Orwellian Totalitarian dictatorship known now as Progressivism.



  6. Tim-in-Alabama on July 8, 2011 at 7:48 am

    It’s become well-known on The Left (aka The Wrong) that the Koch Bros. killed little Calee Anthony so nothing can be done to repair their image in the crossed-eyes of the lunatic fringe, even if the NYT’s apologizes for lying. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for The Old Gray Demented Lady to apologize: the paper still hasn’t denounced its Communist ?stooge Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty who won a Pulitzer Prize for dispatches in the 1930s that lied about Stalin’s deliberately starving to death millions of Ukrainians; or more recently reporting and commentary blaming Pope Pius XII (instead of Hitler) for the Holocaust.



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