Jon Stewart just realized the Koch brothers have been running ads for Koch Industries during the Daily Show—so Wednesday night he ran the ad in full ... then ran a slightly different version:
- "We're Koch Industries: not just an energy company, we're in your food, in your pants, and in your home. And if there's a way to monetize your thoughts, we'll find it. ... You won't always see our names on our campaign ads, because the politicians we own say that's OK. ... We can't raise your little girl for you, but we can hand-pick her school board and approve her textbooks. And when she lands her first job, we'll be fighting to reduce the minimum wage, because we actually believe it could lead to Nazism. Yeah, Nazism. We're that f---ing out there. We're Koch Industries, the next generation of robber barons, bending the democratic process to our will since 1980."
As the Washington Post points out, the Koch ads started airing in June, and an exec insisted last month they're not intended as part of a PR war, but rather to highlight jobs available as the company grows. At the Consumerist, Laura Northrup raises some questions: "Will Koch Industries fire back? Will they keep running their ad, even though it’s sure to give many regular viewers giggle fits now? Did Comedy Central and its corporate parent Viacom know ahead of time that one of its most popular programs was about to bite one of the many hands that fund it?" (More Koch Industries stories.)