As the faces of the second most powerful privately held company in the world, Koch Industries, siblings David H. and Charles G. Koch have infamously funded a host of conservative and libertarian groups since the 1980s numbering into the billions. A new documentary from liberal filmmaker and producer Robert Greenwald investigates some of the murky business practices conducted by the billionaire brothers, alleging that they have been funding political agendas that seek to upend the power of democracy, reports Deadline.
The documentary, Koch Brothers Exposed, focuses on a series of key moves the Kochs have funded and how their monetary influence has been swaying lawmakers who share their conservative ideals. Among the findings from Greenwald and his Brave New Foundation investigation team was the Kochs using $28.4 million to produce a number of documents countering the importance of Social Security, with Greenwald calling this part of the Koch Brothers’ “echo chamber of influence.”
The Kochs Brothers founded an advocacy group known as Americans For Prosperity (AFP), known for its ties to the radical conservative group the Tea Party. Using AFP as a front, Greenwald’s team say that the Kochs were responsible for altering a North Carolina school district’s diversity policy. The movie focuses on a 2009 move from AFP that seemed to mirror racist and separatist “Jim Crow” laws.
Other findings in the documentary were the Kochs throwing millions of dollars to universities who only hire faculty members that follow their right-leaning ideology, and also exposing the dangers a small rural area faces by way of a large formaldehyde plant the brothers own that is causing environmental and health concerns in the town of Crossett.
“Koch Brothers Exposed” debuted in New York on March 29 in conjunction with AlterNet. The film also saw debuts earlier this week in Washington and Boston respectively. A web-wide streaming clip of the film hits the Internet on May 8. For more information, please click here.
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Photo: Greenwald Films
