8/7/2019 Koch Response to Media Attacks August 2010

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August 27, 2010

Our society and political system are built on the principles of free speech and dissentingideas. All Americans have a Constitutional right to lawfully support, debate and advancepublic policy issues. Charles and David Koch have engaged in such activities for morethan 40 years. During that time they have voiced concerns with both Republican andDemocrat Presidents and legislators.

Earlier this week, the New Yorker published a lengthy article criticizing Charles andDavid Koch for their longstanding support of core principles – including their belief in

individual and economic freedom. The many factual inaccuracies, misrepresentations andmisleading statements in the article are disappointing – especially coming from such astoried publication.

We provided the New Yorker with a tremendous amount of information in hopes it wouldenable the publication to produce a balanced and accurate portrayal of our company.Unfortunately, that information was largely omitted or ignored, resulting in inaccuraciesand misstatements. A catalog of all these errors would take up more space than the articleitself. For a more accurate review of the issues, please go to www.kochfacts.com.

Even the title of the article is a mischaracterization. It accuses the Kochs of being

“covert” in their support of free markets. Koch Industries' website, along with many otherpublicly available documents, clearly state the philosophies and institutions we support,such as the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Indeed, Koch Industries has repeatedlyacknowledged that David Koch is Chairman of the Board of the Americans for ProsperityFoundation. David Koch’s participation in a recent AFP event was televised on C-SPANand reported in several articles. This is hardly a “covert” approach. Allegations of “hidden” or “underground” activities, a recurring theme throughout the article and storiesthat have followed it, are belied by the extensive public record referenced in them.Meanwhile, the New Yorker quotes numerous unnamed sources to attack the Kochs.

The article also smears the good name of Koch Industries, whose companies employ

more than 50,000 Americans at hundreds of sites around the country. Those companiesand employees have received more than 180 environmental and safety honors sincePresident Obama took office. No mention of those honors – or of Koch’s commitment tocomplying with environmental regulations – is included in the article, even though weprovided this information to the publication. Instead, the author asserts that Koch is thetenth-largest “polluter” in the nation. The more accurate and less sensational term is“emissions.” Those emissions, which are all regulated and legally permitted, aregenerated by the industrial processes that enable us and other companies to provide

8/7/2019 Koch Response to Media Attacks August 2010

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Americans and the world with essential products – including the very ink and paperneeded to publish periodicals, such as the New Yorker .

David Koch is a cancer survivor who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars towardcancer research. The article gives short shrift to his commitment to supporting medical

and scientific research to help save lives. Instead, it makes the assertion that David Kochhas a conflict of interest regarding the regulation of formaldehyde because he sits on theNational Cancer Institute’s national advisory board. His role on the board has nothing todo with NCI making scientific recommendations or approvals regarding industrialproducts. In fact, during his six years on the NCI national cancer advisory board, he hasnever engaged in a discussion of formaldehyde.

It is important to note that Koch companies meet all government standards currently setfor formaldehyde in a wide variety of applications. Any comments on formaldehyde’sclassification have been provided as part of the established U.S. regulatory developmentprocess. Ultimately, all Koch companies will respect and fully comply with any new

formaldehyde regulation, just as they do all other applicable regulations that governoperations.

Unfortunately, some of those who disagree with a market-based point of view continue totry to demonize the Kochs' 40 years of unwavering, well-known, lawful and principledcommitment to economic freedom and market-based policy solutions. The Kochs havesteadfastly supported the benefits of economic freedom, the importance of the rule of law, private property rights, the proper and limited role of government in society andwarned against the perils of excessive government spending. We see escalating efforts todiscount and mischaracterize important and authentic citizen efforts, as well as dismissand degrade our support of education and human services programs.

The New Yorker article, and those pieces that have echoed it, rely heavily on innuendoand unsubstantiated assertions. Unnamed sources and those with a strong philosophicalopposition to the Kochs – many of whom have no current or first-hand knowledge of Koch Industries, Charles Koch or David Koch – go unchallenged. Supporters of theKochs are largely ignored (as evidenced by the fact that the reporter chose not to includethe vast majority of supportive comments made by a number of people who know theKochs and were interviewed for this article). On the other hand, those who support thereporter's preconceptions are given a free pass.

We are all free to disagree and publicly speak our mind. As Americans, this is one of ourConstitutional rights. What concerns us and what should concern every American is acoordinated effort by anyone – government, media outlet or private citizen – to intimidateand silence people who lawfully challenge and debate government policy.