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Rachel Maddow’s come undone with Koch Derangement Syndrome

Rachel Maddow’s come undone with Koch Derangement Syndrome

Rachel Maddow went all in on blaming the Koch brothers for something they had nothing to do with, and she won’t issue a correction.

We have addressed Koch Derangement Syndrome before.  One of the most obsessive purveyors was Think Progress.

Now Rachel Maddow has caught the bug, and it’s eating away at her reputation as the intellectual giant, ahem, of MSNBC.

She’s come undone.

The short version is that Maddow went all in claiming the Koch brothers were behind a Florida law requiring drug testing for welfare recipients.  Except that it wasn’t true, and her explanation was lacking in logic or credibility.

The logic is so convoluted it’s hard to summarize.  Basically it involved participation by the Florida Foundation for Government Accountability (“FFGA”) in the State Policy Network (SPN), to which the Kochs contributed about $40,000 over several years.   FFGA defended the drug testing law.  Maddow blamed the Kochs. (Video here)

This was the worst form of guilt by association — that some group involved in an issue was a participant in a larger group to which the Kochs contributed.

But, there was no evidence the Koch brothers were involved FFGA’s initiative (put aside whether there would have been anything wrong, if they were).

Erik Wemple at WaPo explains:

The allegedly Koch brothers-affiliated group is the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a Naples, Fla.-based organization that promotes “public policies that achieve limited, constitutional government and a robust economy that will be an engine for job creation across the states.” The FGA helped to defend the 2011 Florida law that required welfare applicants to submit to drug testing. On several instances, Maddow claimed tight links between FGA and the Koch brothers. For example: “That’s the Koch brothers group that has been promoting this idea, right, the same Koch brothers group that has been telling people not to get health insurance. They’re the ones that came up with the idea that it’s a great use of state funds.” …

The Kochs’ extensive reach notwithstanding, they cannot be connected to everything. Tarren Bragdon, the chief executive officer of the FGA, tells the Erik Wemple Blog that his organization “did not work with the Kochs on the Florida drug-testing issue. To the best of my knowledge, they were not involved at all.” The Kochs’ general counsel, Holden, is a bit more definitive: “Right hand to God, we were not involved.”

Wemple goes on to recite more proof that the Kochs were not involved, including a quote from someone at Mother Jones:

Daniel Schulman, a journalist with Mother Jones who’s at work on a book about the Kochs, e-mails this assessment of the alleged link between the Kochs and the welfare drug-testing law:

The Kochs have certainly supported the State Policy Network and some of its think-tank affiliates. But I haven’t seen evidence that they have directly funded the Foundation for Government Accountability or proactively pushed for the drug-testing law. Do they want to rein in entitlements? Absolutely. But in the case of Florida, I think the connection is tenuous

But here’s the zinger from John Hinderaker at Powerline.  If contributing to SPN makes all contributers responsible for what every participant in SPN does, then guess who else is responsible? (emphasis in original)

So Rachel Maddow’s entire segment was one big lie. Her central premise, that the Florida welfare statute was an initiative of the Koch brothers, was false, and she knew it. She made the whole thing up to fool the low-IQ viewers who form MSNBC’s base. But the story gets even worse….

But wait! A final level of deception remains to be revealed: one of the many companies that have contributed to the State Policy Network is Comcast, which owns MSNBC and is Rachel Maddow’s employer. So in her Thursday broadcast, Maddow could equally well have said that MSNBC “ha[s] been promoting forced drug tests for people on welfare,” and that FFGA is an “MSNBC-affiliated group.” She didn’t do this for obvious reasons. She knew that she was addressing a stupid audience that would never know the difference.

There’s a song about this.

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Comments

Not A Member of Any Organized Political | January 9, 2014 at 5:09 pm

RE: “One of the most obsessive purveyors was Think Progress……”

Have they dried up and blown away? HOPE HOPE HOPE!!!!!

The more shrill and irrational Maddow becomes, the more the left loves her.

If somebody can afford to pay for drugs, then they should not expect me to pay for their food, medical insurance, cell phone, etc…

I think drug screening of welfare recipients is a great idea.

    “They’re the ones that came up with the idea that it’s a great use of state funds.” Right, Maddow! And handing out free money to drug users is a great use of state funds?

Everybody at MSNBC should undergo a drug screening to find out what kind of hallucinogen they’re on.

I’m no expert on any of this, but what I do know is that if there is a lawsuit, I would not want the Koch bothers to be suing me.

There must be something in the water over at bsNBC.

Madcow was their “smart” person.

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/346321.php

She’s just as moonbatty as the rest.

DINORightMarie | January 9, 2014 at 6:57 pm

Wow. Chrissy Matthews yesterday, Maddow today.

They are really, REALLY scared over at MSNBC. You can smell the fear, it’s that bad.

🙂

    Ragspierre in reply to DINORightMarie. | January 9, 2014 at 7:47 pm

    “Fear” you say…?

    Certainly high smellin’, whatever it is. I’m put in mind of the “camp-fire grub” scene from “Blazing Saddles”…

MSNBC should start issuing ‘tampon earrings’ as standard fare.

Actually Rachel Maddow has not become undone, because she believes that what she’s asserting about the Koch bothers is false. As the Powerline guy explains, Maddow knows she’s dealing with an audience of stupid people, who will resonate emotionally to a simple White Hat-Black hat story, with the Koch brothers as the progressives’ Emmanuel Goldstein. That’s her racket, and that’s where her bread is buttered, so she’s sticking to it.

Great song choice! 🙂

[…] related reports at Legal Insurrection, Ace of Spades HQ and the Washington […]

Henry Hawkins | January 9, 2014 at 9:06 pm

Helps/doesn’t help the Agenda = Critical
True/false = Minor Detail

These people are Communists and the Big Lie is their modus operandi. Create the lie. Speak the lie. Spread the lie. The LINFO’s will hear and believe.

Henry Hawkins | January 9, 2014 at 10:46 pm

I heard a rumor that Maddow will leave MSNBC in the spring to take over as the new James Bond 007 in the new blockbuster tentatively named Mudraker.

What Maddow is doing is the same thing that the Demorats do daily and that is to put out a lie and then sit back and watch how it travels around the country begging the other side to deny it. By the time that it is proven false no one cares except the other side. The low info voter only hears the original lie and that is all they remember. Obama does this daily too.

Hey everybody. This is one of my favorite sites, and I am always glad to see some deep understanding and intellectualizing of the issues in our country. Thanks.

Has anyone considered that this is a false flag event? Their ratings are bad, and they are smart enough to know who is watching the other channels. Maybe even smart enough to gin up some controversy for the air time?

[…] Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple has more on Maddow’s Koch lies. See also Legal Insurrection, Just One Minute and Gateway […]

Rachel Maddow: plugged in all the time. if you know what I mean.

Maddow, Koch brothers.

Somehow, the jokes just write themselves.

Does Maddow actually have anything to worry about? Can the Koch brothers legally make her retract the story? If not, they simply end up looking like bullies and Maddow wins.

The reason the Koch brothers are inserted into the story is to prop up the narrative. Some on the left might not think its a bad idea maybe even reasonable to drug test welfare recipients or allow people to defend their homes with firearms. This is to equate those thoughts with the embodiment of evil. If the Koch brothers can be linked, no matter how tenuously, you dont want to be caught entertaining such thoughts.

Nobody’s getting undone here except us. Lets not kid ourselves.