Playboy magazine made the claim that CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli’s call for a Chicago Tea Party was not spontaneous at all but was funded by money from the Koch family. Playboy‘s foray into investigative journalism wasn’t a confident one, however. That story was taken down from Playboy‘s Web site almost as soon as it went up, but you can see it here:
What hasn’t been reported until now is evidence linking Santelli’s “tea party” rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine, from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns (called “astroturfing”) to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire funders. …
Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks.
