Having been wildly unsuccessful last election, what better than to buy a newspaper chain and control the misinformation doled out to the dumbed-down Americans?
Omitted from the list below: The Dirty Energy Koch Brothers have generously funded the opposition to Cape Wind, the offshore wind farm that would provide most of the energy to Cape Cod - CLEAN energy.
Do we want our future and information controlled by Dirty Energy Kochs?
Please add your name and speak out against further media consolidation.
The great struggle of our time is to prevent the United States from becoming an oligarchic form of society in which the economic and political life of the nation is controlled by a few extraordinarily wealthy families -- including the Koch brothers who are worth over $50 billion.
Fact: The Koch brothers spent up to $400 million in the 2012 elections attempting to elect right-wing candidates to the White House, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House and governorships. Those efforts will continue in the future.
Fact: The Koch brothers have established or funded dozens of right-wing organizations dedicated to providing huge tax breaks to the rich and multi-national corporations, destroying trade unions and workers’ rights, privatizing Social Security and Medicare and making massive cuts to programs of vital importance to the middle class and working families. Those efforts will continue in the future.
Fact: The Koch brothers, who have made their fortune in the fossil fuel industry, are strongly supporting a massive disinformation campaign to deny the reality of the planetary crisis of global warming. Those efforts will continue in the future.
And now, the Koch brothers want to expand their power by taking over the Tribune Newspaper chain -- the nation’s second largest newspaper publisher. The Tribune Company chain includes such newspapers as the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Hartford Courant, the Orlando Sentinel, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Baltimore Sun, the Daily Press and The Morning Call -- among other papers.
We must not allow that to happen. Please join 65,000 other Americans in urging the Tribune Company not to sell their newspapers to the Koch brothers. Enough is enough!
Senator Bernie Sanders
Charles and David Koch don’t need an introduction -- they’re the billionaire brothers that tried to buy last year’s election for right-wing Republicans.
Well, they’re at it again. This time, though, they have a different target: the Tribune Company.
Apparently they’ve realized that they can’t buy an election with ads alone, so they’re trying to take over the news media -- the Tribune Company owns The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, and a host of other papers across the country.
That’s why DFA and Sen. Bernie Sanders are joining forces today. We’re calling on the Tribune Company to not sell out to the Koch Brothers.
Peter Liguori, Chief Executive Officer
Tribune Company
435 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
Dear Mr. Liguori,
Earlier this year, media outlets announced the exploration of the sale of several of the Tribune Company’s daily newspapers including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel, The Sun Sentinel, and Hoy, amongst others.
Given your large readership (The Los Angeles Times, fourth-largest circulation in the country; The Chicago Tribune, ninth-largest circulation; Hoy, second-largest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the country), it concerns us that one of the potential buyers, Koch Industries, is interested in the purchase of your print media outlets.
As you no doubt know, Charles and David Koch, owners of Koch Industries, are right-wing extremists who already exercise enormous economic and political power in our country. As a family worth some $50 billion dollars they have reportedly spent at least $400 million attempting to influence the 2012 national elections. They have also established and funded dozens of organizations that actively support the privatization of Social Security, massive cuts in programs for working families, attacks on workers' rights, more tax breaks for billionaires and large corporations and other causes benefitting the rich and powerful.
As the owners of a major fossil fuel company, they have also been leaders in providing substantial funding for organizations that spread misinformation about the reality of global warming -- a growing crisis which threatens our entire planet.
Too much power resting in too few hands is not what America is supposed to be about. We remain deeply concerned that one extremely wealthy family, because of an absurd Supreme Court decision, is able to have enormous influence over our political life and elections. We are unalterably opposed to that same family expanding its power by controlling the news and information that millions of Americans receive.
We are writing, therefore, to voice our opposition to the Tribune Company selling any of its media outlets to Koch Industries. As you begin to narrow down potential buyers, we urge you to reject any offer from Koch Industries.
Thank you,
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Jim Dean, Chair, Democracy for America
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