Today, 12 groups sent a strong message to the Koch Brothersย consisting of over 500,000 signaturesย delivered toย Tribune Company Newspapersย protesting the prospective โKochtopusโ buyout of the news outlets, which are up for sale by CEO Peterย Liguori.
Major funders of right wing causes and politicians, David and Charles Koch are also notorious climate change deniers and funders of the climate change denial echo chamber.ย
The โSave Our News Coalitionโ leading the day of action includedย Forecast the Facts, Courage Campaign, AFL–CIO, Climate Reality Project, Common Cause, CREDO, Daily Kos, Democracy For America, Free Press, Greenpeace, The Other 98, Progress Florida, SEIU, United New York, Working Families Party and yours truly –ย DeSmogBlog.
AFL–CIO head Richard Trumka weighed in on the prospective deal, too, saying if the Kochs take over the Tribune Company, it could morph into another โFox News-style propagandaย machine.โย
Others noted the troubling prospect of climate change deniers owning a major newspaperย conglomerate.ย
โBillionaire oil barons David and Charles Koch are major funders of the Tea Party and right-wing think tank politicians, โ Shani Smith, a spokesperson for Stand Up Chicagoย said at a rally outside of theย Chicago Tribuneย office. โWe don’t want a historic Chicago newspaper to become their mouthpiece for destroying unions, defunding public education and denying globalย warming.โ
Check out photos provided toย DeSmogBlog of today’s rallies in various cities below. Also check out the photos from a rally last week in Los Angeles up on Facebook.ย
Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron leads a rally inย Baltimore
Rally in front of theย Chicago Tribune, led byย Stand Upย Chicago
Forecast the Facts rallyย inย Denver
Photo on top courtesy of Josh Stearns of Freeย Press
