Today, 12 groups sent a strong message to the Koch Brothers consisting of over 500,000 signatures delivered to Tribune Company Newspapers protesting the prospective “Kochtopus” buyout of the news outlets, which are up for sale by CEO Peter 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. 

The “Save Our News Coalition” leading the day of action included 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 – 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 “Fox News-style propaganda machine.” 

Others noted the troubling prospect of climate change deniers owning a major newspaper conglomerate. 

“Billionaire oil barons David and Charles Koch are major funders of the Tea Party and right-wing think tank politicians, ” Shani Smith, a spokesperson for Stand Up Chicago said at a rally outside of the Chicago Tribune office. “We don’t want a historic Chicago newspaper to become their mouthpiece for destroying unions, defunding public education and denying global warming.”

Check out photos provided to 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. 

Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron leads a rally in Baltimore

Rally in front of the Chicago Tribune, led by Stand Up Chicago

Forecast the Facts rally in Denver

Photo on top courtesy of Josh Stearns of Free Press