Koch Stroking Pays Off

Rethuglican "poutrage" over CNBC's handling of the debate is just one example of their successful strategy over the last 30 or more years of "working the ref" -- trying to gain more favorable media coverage by falsely complaining that the media is biased against them (see our post yesterday). Our broken media then acts to reassure them of their "neutrality" by giving them more favorable coverage, and giving Dems harsher treatment.

Some in the media, however, don't need a lot of whining or pressure:  their favors can be bought with a tire swing at a barbecue or a promise of an "exclusive." Case in point:  MSNBC's execrable morning duo Joe Scarborough and his adoring TV companion Mika Brzezinski (or as Esquire's Charles P. Pierce has dubbed them, Squint and the Meat Puppet).  As the Media Matters link notes, for the past year, the duo has been lavishing praise on the infamous Koch brothers, from talking up their self-serving "philanthropy" to bashing critics of their dark money contributions to right-wing political radicals. Particularly gag-inducing was the duo's attendance at a Koch function in January, which had the effect of snowing the gullible Mika into thinking that the big industrial polluters were "not what you think."  Squint has been even more vociferous in defending their flooding of American politics with vast sums of money for Rethuglicans committed to turning back environmental laws and deregulating the oil, gas and mining industries.  Now, the duo has an "exclusive" sit-down with the brothers in their home of Wichita, Kansas on November 3.

Expect days of fawning reinvention of the Koch brothers on their morning show, followed by more indignation at Koch critics by the duo and their interchangeable cast of ass kissers around the table. Money well spent.