SOURCE: Park Avenue - Money, Power and the American Dream (2012)
directed by Alex Gibney
“It’s bad enough big money is buying off
politicians. It’s also buying off nonprofits that used to be sources of
investigation, information, and social change.
When the Charles Koch Foundation pledges
$1.5 million to Florida State University’s economics department, it stipulates that
a Koch-appointed advisory committee will select professors and undertake annual
evaluations.
The Koch brothers now fund 350 programs
at over 250 colleges and universities across America. You can bet that funding
doesn’t underwrite research on inequality and environmental justice.
David Koch’s $23 million of donations to
public television earned him positions on the boards of two prominent
public-broadcasting stations. It also guaranteed that a documentary critical of
the Kochs didn’t air.
Our democracy is directly threatened
when the rich buy off politicians.
But no less dangerous is the quieter and
more insidious buy-off of institutions democracy depends on to research,
investigate, expose, and mobilize action against what is occurring.”
---Robert
B. Reich
