Via a letter from the Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC to NBC News Senior Producer Marian Porges, a pre-released statement from Koch Industries made it clear they were not involved with Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop Democrat fund raiser Karen Finney from claiming that very thing on air, while passing herself off as a political analyst.
Once again a MSNBC host has falsely and maliciously disparaged Koch Industries.
Because we saw this dishonest story line developing and were concerned other extremists would pick it up, we put out a public statement the day before Ms. Finney’s rant explaining that this story line was totally false and irresponsible. First, Koch has had no involvement in this legislation. We have had no discussions with anyone at ALEC, the legislative policy group at issue, about the matter either. In fact, the only lobbying on firearms issues we have ever undertaken in Florida was in opposition to the National Rifle Association’s support for a bill that mandated employers must allow employees to bring firearms onto company property.
As seems to be a continuing practice at NBC, Finney was allowed to pass herself off as merely a “political analyst,” despite her formal ties to the Democrat Party. That news apparently went undisclosed on March 23, when Finney sat in as guest host for Martin Bashir. The network has a history of Koch bashing. In this instance, not only did they conceal a logical bias of a supposed host; they misrepresented facts to malign the Koch name. If the truth will set one free, NBC via MSNBC may have to start paying people to watch their dishonest and disingenuous view of the day’s news.