Of Rachel Maddow, Koch Industries and the need for the need for the left to lie to enact its agenda

In this John Hindraker piece at Power Line, he refers to Eliana Johnson's report the other day at NRO on how, amidst all the chaos at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow is not just considered an outpost of stability, but a major behind-the-scenes decision maker.  He rightly asks, in light of last Thursday's installment of her show, whether that's something the network ought to find reassuring.

Here's the basic scenario:  45 minutes before the show was to begin, the show's producer e-mailed the Koch brothers' legal counsel asking if their clients wished to appear to discuss a court's striking-down of the Florida law requiring drug tests for welfare recipients, a law pushed by a group called the Florida Foundation for Government Accountability.  The e-mail said that, given that "the Koch Brothers have donated to the State Policy Network, of which the FFGA is a member," they might want to offer their views.  The legal counsel responded fairly immediately, saying that his clients wouldn't have anything useful to add to the discussion, since they weren't involved in any way.

She went on the air with her premise anyway, complete with a slick-looking chart that purported to make a connection.

God damn it, Rachel what part of "no connection" don't you understand?

[Maddow's chart] is an utter non sequitur. The State Policy Network–let alone the Koch brothers!–had nothing to do with the Florida legislation. Ms. Maddow perhaps was trying to suggest that the State Policy Network is a funding source for FFGA, so that the Koch brothers have indirectly supported FFGA, albeit to a ridiculously small level (nowhere near $1,000 on a pro rata basis). But that isn’t true either. I happen to know a little bit about this, since I was formerly the Chairman of the Board of a think tank that is a member of the State Policy Network. The SPN is like a trade association of conservative think tanks, with members in every state. The SPN doesn’t support the local groups, like FFGA; on the contrary, the local think tanks pay dues to support SPN. So there is no connection–not even a minute, indirect one–between Koch and FFGA. I repeat: as far as we know, no one at Koch had ever heard of FFGA before Rachel Maddow’s show on Thursday of last week, and Koch did nothing–zero, nada–to support the Florida legislation in question.

So Rachel Maddow’s entire segment was one big lie. Her central premise, that the Florida welfare statute was an initiative of the Koch brothers, was false, and she knew it. She made the whole thing up to fool the low-IQ viewers who form MSNBC’s base. But the story gets even worse.

In an email dated January 3–follow the link above–Koch asked MSNBC to retract, and apologize for, Maddow’s fabrications. Instead of correcting her misrepresentations, Maddow, in her show on Friday, triumphantly refused, saying “I don’t play requests.” Or, in other words, “I lie with impunity, and MSNBC gives me cover.” The left-wing echo chamber swooned. Daily Kos–remember them?–headlined, “Rachel Maddow Speaks Truth to Powerful Koch Brothers.” Raw Story’s sycophantic take was, “Maddow scorches Koch brothers on ‘correction’ demand: ‘I don’t play requests.’” So if you are a left-winger, blatant lies about conservatives make you a hero.

Little Miss Defiant must not realize how rich in irony her lie is:

But the corruption goes deeper still. Rachel Maddow says that any company that supports the State Policy Network is “affiliated with” the Florida Foundation for Government Accountability, and is responsible for everything FFGA does. That is wrong, but let’s go with it. Who else, besides Koch, has supported the State Policy Network? You might be surprised: the list includes Microsoft, Facebook, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, GlaxoSmithKline, Kraft Foods, and many more. So Maddow randomly singled out Koch as opposed to any of these other companies as the sponsor of the Florida legislation which, as far as we know, Koch wasn’t even aware of. Well, not randomly, because MSNBC is obsessed with Koch, but you get the point.
But wait! A final level of deception remains to be revealed: one of the many companies that have contributed to the State Policy Network is Comcast, which owns MSNBC and is Rachel Maddow’s employer. So in her Thursday broadcast, Maddow could equally well have said that MSNBC “ha[s] been promoting forced drug tests for people on welfare,” and that FFGA is an “MSNBC-affiliated group.” She didn’t do this for obvious reasons. She knew that she was addressing a stupid audience that would never know the difference.
If Rachel Maddow is the best that MSNBC has to offer, MSNBC is in even deeper trouble than its steep ratings decline would indicate.

I sure hope to hear from some of the respected Beltway / media / pundit world insiders quoted in Eliana Johnson's NRO piece address this.  I don't care if she's willing to do lunch with known righties.  In a sane world, this would expose her for the steaming chunk of freedom-hating dog vomit she is.