Koch funding is the common denominator behind a series of recent anti-clean energy op-eds that have been published without referencing the Koch connection. Fortunately, eagle-eyed readers (and media watchers) have called out the authors and publications for their lack of adequate disclosure. When you see something, say something!

Back in November, many articles were written about an influential paper on the important role that Exxon Mobil and Koch funding played in the climate science denial movement. As the Huffington Post reported, one of the key findings was that:

corporate funding influences the actual thematic content of these polarization efforts, and the discursive prevalence of that thematic content over time

In laymen’s terms, corporate funding helps shape and amplify messaging. As a result, it is important to know whether a given article or op-ed received corporate funding, and by whom. It has become common practice for corporate funded researchers and op-ed writers to hide behind the innocuous names of the think tanks or academic institutions that they are affiliated with (or even to hide such affiliations, if they would could cast doubt on their independence or integrity). Fortunately, eagle eyed readers (and media watchers) have called out such articles in letters to the editor, online comment pages, or elsewhere. Below are a couple recent examples:

Strata/Salt Lake City Tribune

The Salt Lake City Tribune ran an op-ed entitled “Government forces taxpayers to subsidize alternative energy” written by two “researchers” with the following disclosure:

Ryan M. Yonk, Ph.D., is an assistant research professor in Economics at Utah State University and is executive director of academics at Strata, a public policy think tank in Logan. Josh Smith is a student research associate at Strata.

According to the Energy and Policy Institute:

The Utah State University’s (USU) Institute of Political Economy and Strata are affiliated organizations run by Dr. Randy Simmons. Simmons was the “Charles G. Koch Professor of political economy” at USU from 2008 through 2013, and is the President and Director of Research for Strata, which describes itself as the "premier research hub on environmental, energy and public land issues.” The Koch Bothers have provided Utah State University with at least $1.6 million in funding. USU is also the fifth-biggest recipient of money from Koch-linked foundations among all colleges since 2012. In addition to serving as the Koch Professor at USU, Simmons also runs the “Koch Scholars” Program, which receives an annual grant from the Charles Koch Foundation.

It seems that Randy Simmons, himself, authored a similar op-ed in Newsweek attacking clean energy last year. That article provoked such a backlash from commenters, who recognized the undisclosed Koch connection, that Newsweek belatedly added the following disclosure:

Unfortunately, the Salt Lake Tribune did not add such a disclosure, even belatedly. In addition, it inspired staff member George Pyle to follow up with an article of his own—“Propaganda can be obvious, whatever the source”, in which he punted on the question of disclosure requirements:

After getting some reader blowback from a previous Strata op-ed, we asked the thinkers in that tank about the Koch connection, whether it was ongoing and should be disclosed. We were told that Strata has many sources of funding these days that they would prefer not to detail. Fine. We publish opinions representing all sorts of views all the time. We don't have the time, or perhaps even the right, to ask each of them for a full disclosure of all their funders.

Astute Salt Lake City Tribune reader Anne McCulloch Nelsen, however, did the right thing and called a spade a spade in her Letter to the Editor:

I read another op-ed in the Jan. 6 Tribune of so-called academics, supported by the Koch brothers, with no acknowledgment of that connection by your paper or the authors. ... Surely it is important for your readers to have that information when presented with opinions by such individuals as Ryan M. Yonk, executive director of academics at Strata, and Josh Smith, student research associate at Strata. It is only with that important background information that your readers can reach conclusions about the credibility or lack of credibility of your op-ed authors.

Freedom Partners/New York Times

Even the venerable New York Times op-ed page can be attained by undisclosed Koch affiliates. An anti-tax incentives op-ed with the headline “Giving Billions to the Rich” contained the following text:

Another provision gives wind-energy producers a tax credit for the electricity they generate during a facility’s first 10 years of operation. This is one of the largest provisions, expected to cost nearly $10.5 billion over the next decade. The supporters of this 23-year-old credit initially argued that it was necessary to kick-start a nascent industry. Yet Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and others say wind power is cost-competitive with other energy sources. So why are taxpayers still forced to subsidize it?

and ran with the following disclosure:

Marc Short and Andy Koenig are the president and senior policy adviser, respectively, at Freedom Partners, which advocates for free-market policies.

While none of the “NYT Picks” comments address the Koch connection, the top “Readers Pick” with 270+ recommends was from R. Law of Texas:

Since the authors are part of Freedom Partners, whose wikipedia entry discloses it is funded by the Koch Bros. and 200 members who pay at least $100,000 each for membership:



en.wikipedia.org/...



having a board composed primarily of ex-Koch staffers that helped Freedom Partners oppose the ACA and provide Tea Party support, we can't reconcile this piece with what the Kochs reportedly did in Arkansas regarding the Big River Steel Plant and public welfare for the Kochs:



www.nytimes.com/...



Such incongruities remind us why it's necessary to remember lots of interests in the U.S. are way more concerned with lambasting government over piddling (in the grand scheme of things) issues designed to feed their ' government can't do anything right ' band-wagon, than those interests are concerned about stopping benefits that they themselves line up for and pressure government to provide.



Class, this is an example of what your parents would call a character defect known as ' lack of principle '.

In addition, the Huffington Post ran a dedicated follow up called “Koch Brothers' 'Bankers' Sneak Anti-Wind Op-Ed Past the New York Times”:

So who are Marc Short and Andy Koenig? The Times identified them only as "the president and senior policy adviser, respectively, at Freedom Partners, which advocates for free-market policies." What the Times neglected to explain is that Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce (its full name) is a major pass-through funding arm of billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch -- owners of the coal, oil and gas conglomerate Koch Industries -- and Short and Koenig's Times op-ed is just a small part of a Koch brothers-financed campaign targeting wind and other renewable energy technologies.

Conclusion

“The best defense against bullshit Is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something!” — Jon Stewart