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It took 14 reporters scrutinizing Koch Industries for 6 months to produce the story published in Bloomberg Markets Magazine. For all that, The Atlantic's associate editor Daniel Indiviglio argues, the expose revealed, "Really, shockingly little. " He remarks on the pains the reporters took to lay out the Koch brothers's conservative political views, and their finding that since 2006 the company spent $50 mil on lobbying. To put the figure in perspective, GE spent $136 million lobbying during the same time frame. For Indiviglio, the article is biased reporting against individuals who are anti-regulation, small government types.
The Bloomberg piece goes in detail describing a total of eight infractions committed. That's 8 instances spanning 63 years, all of which were well known and resolved through fines or settlements. Debunked is the accusation of somehow illegal technology sales to Iran, which in fact the company broke no laws.
To illustrate the bias of the story, Indiviglio shows that GE paid nearly $500 mil in fines from 1990 to 2010, adding, "And I didn't need a team of 14 reporters to work six months to figure that out -- I just did a quick Google search. "
Read the full article.
