Politics

Corporate Interests Try to Split American Workers

By Anne Landman

On March 18, 2011, the Cleveland Leader reported that Charles and David Koch -- billionaire owners of Koch Industries, an energy conglomerate that also makes a list of familiar household products like Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Lycra and StainMaster carpet -- are funneling $5.6 million to the corporate astroturf group FreedomWorks to run a television ad campaign in Ohio that scapegoats public workers. The ad depicts public workers and their unions as enemies and blames them for budget deficits in Wisconsin and Ohio. It features a discredited and deceptive Fox News video clip of protesters taken in a different state to try and depict Ohio's public-sector union workers as being mean and aggressive. 

Similarly, the Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity has been airing ads on TV and radio in Wisconsin smearing the union workers who were rallying to protect their unions from destruction.

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Full post as published by PR Watch on March 21, 2011 (boomark / email).