Our vote on the 1% has been vigorous since it started last week, with thousands of people rating nominees representing Wall Street, dirty energy, war profiteering, and more. We're going to make videos exposing the ones our audience thinks are doing the most to exploit the 99% -- and so far, the most unpopular of the bunch are media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the democracy-crushing Koch Brothers.
Murdoch, whom we've dubbed "the Propagandist," has a net worth of about $7.4 billion and uses his right-wing media empire to put ideology over truth. One commenter at our voting website assailed him for using "sensationalism, fear, lies, and distortions to achieve" his ideological ends.
Charles and David Koch, "the Puppeteers," are familiar to Brave New Foundation fans who have seen our Koch Brothers Exposed campaign, which details how their factories spew obscene amounts of pollution while giving them the wealth (about $50 billion) to bankroll groups fighting worker rights, climate change science, and Wall Street regulation.
We've got a lot of great (or rather, awful) nominees, but these two are in the lead because, as commenter Sharonc put it, "they foster and enable all the other people on the list." On a rating scale of "ho-hum" to "pure evil," our audience has given both Murdoch and the Koch brothers an average rating of...pure evil.
Who else do you want us expose? Which financial fraudster? Which big polluter? Which union buster? Which hedge fund operator? Tell us by rating our nominees.
Here's who's now rounding out the top ten -- for now:
Follow Robert Greenwald on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robertgreenwald