What does $23 million in donations to public television get you? A lot more than a tote bag, according to The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer. A New York public television outlet, WNET, went to great lengths to placate conservative industrialist David Koch as PBS aired an Alex Gibney documentary on income inequality that focused on the conservative billionaire. The president of WNET called Koch and offered to let him film a roundtable discussion that would air after the documentary, among other conciliatory gestures. The controversy reportedly also prompted PBS to back off another Koch-focused documentary in the pipeline. All the placation didn’t work: Koch resigned from his position on WNET’s board and reportedly canceled a large donation. Also, according to Koch’s doorman, Koch’s philanthropy doesn’t extend to tips. “We would never get a smile from Mr. Koch,” he says in the Gibney film. “Fifty-dollar check for Christmas, too—yeah, I mean, a check! At least you could give us cash.”
9 Comments
siftbotTags for this video have been changed from 'Park Avenue Money Power and the American Dream documentary wealth inequality' to 'Park Avenue, Money, Power and the American Dream, documentary wealth inequality' - edited by enoch
enochthat was awesome.
*promote
siftbotenoch cannot promote this post because enoch does not have enough Power Points - ignoring promote request by enoch. (You can always purchase more Power Points.)
enochoh sonofabitch...hold on.ill be right back sifty
enochok.back.
*promote
now thats better.
siftbotPromoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 5:39am PDT - promote requested by enoch.
siftbotMoving this video to truth-is-the-nemesis's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.
enochcome ooooooon
*promote
siftbotPromoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued - promote requested by enoch.
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.