Citizen Koch is a 2013 film produced and directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, concerning the political influence of American plutocrats on the political process following the US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC which granted corporations the ability to anonymously spend unlimited money to influence public policy and elections.
The film chronicles the rise of the Tea Party movement in response to the election of the first African-American President in 2008, and the strategic attacks on organized labor by Gov.
Walker and Koch political operatives in other states as a strategy to eliminate liberal opposition.
The filmmakers were told by ITVS staff that the title, which referenced conservative billionaire David Koch, would be "extremely problematic" as Koch served on the boards of flagship public broadcasters WNET and WGBH.
Regarding the allegations of censorship and The New Yorker article which helped bring the case to public attention, the PBS ombudsman (without ever speaking to the filmmakers) has stated:[5] Although some of [Jane] Mayer's reporting about "Citizen Koch" is based on unnamed sources, the strength of the article does reflect the internal concerns that can or did, as the thrust of her article suggests, lead to intense internal pressures that come to equal self-censorship.