Jane Mayer and Koch Industries

The New Yorker Radio Hour | Jan 22, 2016

When Jane Mayer was reporting her 2010 New Yorker story about Charles and David Koch and their discreet funding of the Tea Party, she found that many people were unwilling to speak with her about the billionaire brothers. She soon learned that it wasn’t paranoia. A few months after her piece was published, allegations of plagiarism—flimsy, but potentially damaging—were aimed at Mayer in an attempt to discredit her, and she was able to trace the claims back to what appeared to be an operation working on behalf of Koch Industries. The firm likes its business to be kept out of public view, and has a history of targeting people it sees as opponents. In this segment, Mayer, whose new book “Dark Money” tells the history of Koch Industries, talks with a retired F.B.I. agent who found himself the target of surveillance while investigating the firm’s practices.

Produced by Steven Valentino and Ave Carrillo. 

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