The Koch Brothers Are Advertising Their Anti-Journalism Site on Pro-Journalism Sites
Cartoon-villain Republican billionaires David and Charles Koch hate the (non-right wing) press, because the press tends to point out the various villainous activities of the Koch brothers. The Kochs waged an extensive campaign to discredit Jane Mayer's 2010 New Yorker story about them. Like many despised corporations, Koch Industries set up its own PR website, KochFacts.com, to try to counter the "dishonest reporting" of various news outlets.
All as expected. But how to get anyone who matters to actually click on KochFacts.com? Here's a new strategy: ads for KochFacts.com are currently appearing on Jim Romenesko's website and on Poynter's Mediawire, two of the media news sites read most closely by actual journalists. Romenesko tells us that the ad on his site was placed through Blogads; Poynter's Julie Moos says that KochFacts.com "came to [Poynter.org] directly, same as all our other advertisers."
Nothing wrong with that. It's just amusing that a site 100% dedicated to smearing the work of lunatic fringe media outlets like... Bloomberg and the New Yorker would figure an ad on Romenesko would win them some friends in journalism. The Kochs actually hate working with the media—they wholly eschewed The New Yorker's fact checking process, for example—but they welcome each and every one of you to their propaganda site. Enjoy.
We've emailed Koch Facts, and we'll let you know if they respond.