Growls

The editorial in this weekend's edition of the Washington Examiner sets out to show how facts can explode the urban legends of the Left. In their lede, they write:

"Liberals cannot seem to comprehend any policy issue without first identifying themselves as the good guys and somebody else as the bad guys who are to be demonized."

Here a villain, there a villain, the editorial points out: "In health care, the villains are the insurance companies; in finance, Goldman Sachs; and in energy and politics it is the Koch brothers, Charles and David." After noting a claim by the far Left's Nation magazine that the Koch brothers were practicing 'thought control' on their employees, the editorial explodes the myth by writing:

"The Koch legend has become so powerful on the Left that it has become conventional wisdom that the main reason environmentalists failed to pass cap and trade in the last Congress is because they were outspent by the Kochs, with their sinister network of foundations and activist groups on the Right. But now comes an exhaustive new 84-page study by American University public policy communications scholar Matthew Nisbet that documents the false nature of such claims. According to Nisbet, nine liberal foundations spent at least $368 million promoting cap-and-trade-like policies between 2008 and 2010. In contrast, Koch-affiliated foundations spent only $31.3 million."

Ah yes, urban legends. Indeed!