BY SHARON MARTIN

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Koch Brothers are considering purchase of the Tribune Company newspapers which include the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, and the Los Angeles Times. The story first broke in The Los Angeles Weekly.

A Koch Companies Public Sector spokesperson, Missy Cohlmia, didn’t deny the story. She just said it was their policy not to comment on “deals or rumors of deals we may or may not be exploring.”

If you aren’t scared, you should be. The Koch brothers have been buying public policy for a long time. They believe in the rights of billionaires, but not so much the rights of others, even those they hire to front their message.

Tea Party people, are you listening? You are being used.

Coffee Party USA, a group formed to counter the Tea Party and oppose Koch Brothers’ purchase of American politics, is planning a rally on April Fools’ Day. Protestors are meeting at retail stores and urging people to boycott such Koch Industries products as Northern tissue and Dixie cups. What can a boycott do?

Someone has to counter the best PR money can buy. You see their public relations in action on PBS. Nova, science television at its best, and other shows are generously sponsored by the David H. Koch Fund for Science.

Is this the same David Koch who funds anti-climate-change pseudo science?

Too many people believe exactly what they’re told, especially if they read it in the newspaper or see it on television. Even more choose to hear and see only what they already believe.

That’s why independent newspapers and other media are so important. And it’s why the media, in the hands of so few players, including the Koch Brothers, is bad for democracy.

Just like the Kochs, Goebbels knew how easy it was to sway public opinion. A commentary reminds us of his three-step process:

1. Always have an enemy [Obama, climate change scientists, the IRS, welfare moms].

2. Be a super patriot [Tea Party, anyone?]

3. Repeat your message [government is bad, pollution doesn’t hurt anyone and it provides jobs, capitalism is democracy] and continue to repeat until it becomes the truth.

So, Don’t Do Koch on April 1. Lots of little actions can add up to big ones as we send a message to those who try to subvert democracy.

Government of the people, good. Government of the billionaires, not.

This is the real truth, Misters Koch and Koch, regardless of what you, your think tanks, your hired scientists, or any newspaper says.

– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer