Rallies in 12 U.S. Cities Protest Koch Brothers' Tribune Takeover Bid

onMay 29, 2013 @ 15:49 PDT

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

By Steve Horn

Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

How Italy’s largest fossil fuel company uses 'green' bonds as a loophole to keep financing hydrocarbons

ByStefano Valentino and Giorgio Michalopoulos

onSep 16, 2024 @ 12:39 PDT

Both private and institutional investors have poured billions into Eni's "green-labelled" bonds, under terms and conditions that enable it to continue to fund carbon-emitting activities.

uk/Nigel Farage Goes on Pro-Fossil Fuel Rant at Fundraiser for Climate Denial Group

BySam Bright and Adam Barnett

onSep 14, 2024 @ 03:44 PDT

Tickets at the event in Chicago cost up to $50,000 for the chance to have dinner with the Reform UK leader.

us/Violations Discovered at Nation’s First Carbon Capture and Storage Project

BySharon Kelly

onSep 13, 2024 @ 12:29 PDT

Corrosion issues in a deep monitoring well were discovered in March, raising concerns that early issues could be a sign of major problems to come as CCS and monitoring wells age.