MSNBC’s Karen Finney blames the Trayvon Martin shooting on Charles and David Koch. How? Well, the Kochs were responsible for Florida’s new self-defense law, and the new law was responsible for the shooting.
Neither of these statements is true. The second is absurd, but lies in the realm of (offensive) opinion. The first, however, is simply incorrect, as Koch Industries explains:
Because we saw this dishonest story line developing and were concerned other extremists would pick it up, we put out a public statement the day before Ms. Finney’s rant explaining that this story line was totally false and irresponsible. First, Koch has had no involvement in this legislation. We have had no discussions with anyone at ALEC, the legislative policy group at issue, about the matter either. In fact, the only lobbying on firearms issues we have ever undertaken in Florida was in opposition to the National Rifle Association’s support for a bill that mandated employers must allow employees to bring firearms onto company property.
MSNBC is making stuff up from whole cloth in order to blame a troubling incident on two people who had nothing whatsoever to do with it. If you believe anything you see on MSNBC, you’re a sucker.
UPDATE (4/20): After weeks of stonewalling, MSNBC has decided to do nothing at all to correct this. One wonders what took them so long.
Internet Scofflaw 