A Washington Post story purporting to expose the Koch brothers as behind-the-scenes beneficiaries of the Keystone Pipeline has been exposed as an utterly false propaganda operation, hilariously wrong and politically malicious. Even worse, one of the writers behind the story is married to a political operative in the left wing Koch-demonization machine.

The Washington Post was recently purchased by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who ought to take a hard look at the reporters and editors who collaborated with the left wing smear machine, and while he is at it, should send a note of thanks to John Hinderaker, the blogger at Powerline, who exposed the rot in his new media operation.

Hinderaker’s work is thorough, grounded in fact, and devastating. I urge you to read the whole thing. Here is a small sample:

...an article by Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin headlined, “The biggest lease holder in Canada’s oil sands isn’t Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It’s the Koch brothers.” The article was based on a newly-issued two-page report by the far-left International Forum on Globalization. The Post reported:

You might expect the biggest lease owner in Canada’s oil sands, or tar sands, to be one of the international oil giants, like Exxon Mobil or Royal Dutch Shell. But that isn’t the case. The biggest lease holder in the northern Alberta oil sands is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately-owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative Koch brothers Charles and David.

Actually, nearly all of the tar sands leaseholders are smaller companies that you haven’t heard of–dozens, if not hundreds of them. Koch is not, in fact, the largest leaseholder

Far from it, as Hinderaker demonstrates. In fact, the report is, in his words “sheer misinformation.”

So how did the Post becomes such a willing collaborator?

Why would the Washington Post embarrass itself by republishing a thoroughly discredited attempt to link the Koch brothers to the Keystone Pipeline? Because that is a Democratic Party talking point, and the Post is a Democratic Party newspaper. But the truth is a little worse than that.

Who is Post reporter Juliet Eilperin? Among other things, she is married to Andrew Light, who writes on climate policy for the Center for American Progress. The Center for American Progress is an Obama administration front group headed by John Podesta, who is a “special advisor” to the Obama administration. CAP’s web site, Think Progress, has carried out a years-long vendetta against the Koch brothers that has focused largely on the environment. Ms. Eilperin’s conflict in writing about environmental issues has already been a subject of controversy at the Post. The paper’s ombudsman should examine this latest example of Ms. Eilperin throwing facts to the winds in her eagerness to promote her (and her husband’s) far-left agenda.

Jeff Bezos needs to clean house at the WaPo. It is now his responsibility, and this abuse of its status and prestige is a humiliation for him as well as for an institution that carries great weight in the nation’s capital.

Mega-kudos to Powerline and John Hinderaker, who has once again demonstrated that intelligence, enterprise, and integrity are necessary ingredients in journalism, and that a part time blogger in Minneapolis has more of these qualities than the nation’s mightiest and most prestigious left wing journalism establishments located in the centers of media power.