A Smear Campaign Against Jane Mayer After Koch Exposé?

The media blog Gawker thinks it has uncovered a campaign to discredit New Yorker writer Jane Mayer after her August 30, 2010 exposé of the Koch brothers' vast Astroturf empire.

Billionaires Charles and David H. Koch, who privately own one of the biggest U.S. petrochemical industries, have secretly funded attacks on government regulation in general and greenhouse gas regulation in particular.  The Kochs have bankrolled efforts to discredit settled climate science.

Gawker notes failed efforts to dig up dirt on Mayer — after the New Yorker piece — by the Washington Examiner, the Daily Beast, and the Daily Caller. Two of the publications dropped their efforts after finding nothing to criticize Mayer for. Dyed-in-the-wool conservative pubs like the American Spectator have cited items critical of Mayer from the right-wing blogosphere.

• "The Desperate Campaign to Discredit Jane Mayer," Gawker, January 5, 2011, by Hamilton Nolan.
• "Covert Operations," The New Yorker, August 30, 2010, by Jane Mayer.
• "Koch Industries Multibillionaire Koch Brothers Bankroll Attacks on Climate Change Science and Policy," Climate Science Watch, March 18, 2010, by Rick Piltz.