Yet again, most media outlets are focusing on politics and ancient history—distracting from the allegation that casts the most light on the current generation of Koch “philanthropists.” Specifically, a New York Times story entitled “Father of Koch Brothers Helped Build Nazi Oil Refinery, Book Says” relegated the most salient allegation about Charles Koch and David Koch to the last paragraphs:
Ms. Mayer describes a sealed 1982 deposition in which William Koch recalled participating in an attempt by Charles and David to blackmail their fourth and eldest brother, Frederick, into relinquishing any claim to the family business by threatening to tell their father that he was gay.
David Koch has since described himself as socially liberal and as a supporter of same-sex marriage.
Unlike the NYT, we see no contradiction between David Koch’s support for same sex marriage and his alleged willingness to participate in a gay-blackmail attempt against his own brother. Elsewhere in the article it states that:
The Kochs’ vast political network, a major force in Republican politics today, was “originally designed as a means of off-loading the costs of the Koch Industries environmental and regulatory fights onto others” by persuading other rich business owners to contribute to Koch-controlled political groups, Ms. Mayer writes, citing an associate of the two brothers.
As we previously covered in depth, even Charles Koch’s often repeated anti-tax and anti-”corporate welfare” policy positions are undermined by his own hypocrisy on those fundamental issues. Charles Koch has desperately tried to position himself as “Fighting to Restore a Free Society”. Yet, even some of the Koch network’s own political contributions allegedly contradict his ideology.
To Charles Koch and David Koch, political involvement appears to be a means to the same end as the alleged fraternal blackmail—the accumulation of wealth and power.
In the interest of fairness, it is worth noting that this is not the first time these allegations have surfaced. The target of the alleged blackmail attempt, Frederick Koch, is quoted as saying:
"Charles' 'homosexual blackmail' did not succeed," Frederick told me, "for the simple reason that I am not homosexual."
Meanwhile, as reported in 1997:
Bill tells of a homosexual blackmail attempt by Charles against Freddie to get his stock at a cheap price. (Charles vigorously denies it.)
For context regarding Charles Koch’s integrity, it is worth noting that he “insists he is just as opposed to “corporate welfare” for Koch Industries as he is for others” long after it was revealed by investigative reporter Lee Fang that “Charles Koch Personally Founded a Group Protecting Oil Industry Handouts”.
Even without seeing an advance copy, we highly recommend that Daily Kos readers read Jane Mayer’s new book “Dark Money”—the source the New York Times credits for the allegations in this article. Mayer’s 2010 article “Covert Operations” is widely credited as the first in-depth investigative reporting on the Koch political network. It prompted what Gawker reported to be a “Desperate Campaign to Discredit Jane Mayer”. Allegations such as that a “private investigator was hired to dig up dirt on Mayer in the wake of the Koch brothers story” have had a chilling effect on coverage of the Kochs, and are one of the reasons that none of our members are willing to reveal their offline identities. We salute Jane Mayer’s courage!