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Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Why don't we hear about Soros' ties to over 30 major news organizations?
Why don't we hear about Soros' ties to over 30 major news organizations?
When liberal investor George Soros gave $1.8 million to National Public
Radio , it became part of the firestorm of controversy that jeopardized
NPR's federal funding. But that gift only hints at the widespread
influence the controversial billionaire has on the mainstream media.
Soros, who spent $27 million trying to defeat President Bush in 2004,
has ties to more than 30 mainstream news outlets – including The New
York Times, Washington Post, the Associated Press, NBC and ABC. (Article by Dan Gainor, republished from FoxNews.com)
Prominent
journalists like ABC's Christiane Amanpour and former Washington Post
editor and now Vice President Len Downie serve on boards of operations
that take Soros cash. This despite the Society of Professional
Journalists' ethical code stating: "avoid all conflicts real or
perceived."
This information is part of an upcoming report by the
Media Research Centers Business & Media Institute which has been
looking into George Soros and his influence on the media.
The
investigative reporting start-up ProPublica is a prime example.
ProPublica, which recently won its second Pulitzer Prize, initially was
given millions of dollars from the Sandler Foundation to "strengthen the
progressive infrastructure" – "progressive" being the code word for
very liberal. In 2010, it also received a two-year contribution of
$125,000 each year from the Open Society Foundations. In case you wonder
where that money comes from, the OSF website is www.soros.org.
It is a network of more than 30 international foundations, mostly
funded by Soros, who has contributed more than $8 billion to those
efforts.
The ProPublica stories are thoroughly researched by top-notch staffers who used to work at some of the biggest news
outlets in the nation. But the topics are almost laughably left-wing.
The site's proud list of "Our Investigations" includes attacks on oil
companies, gas companies, the health care industry, for-profit schools
and more. More than 100 stories on the latest lefty cause: opposition to
drilling for natural gas by hydraulic fracking. Another 100 on the
evils of the foreclosure industry.
Throw in a couple
investigations making the military look bad and another about prisoners
at Guantanamo Bay and you have almost the perfect journalism fantasy – a
huge budget, lots of major media partners and a liberal agenda unconstrained by advertising.
One
more thing: a 14-person Journalism Advisory Board, stacked with CNN's
David Gergen and representatives from top newspapers, a former publisher
of The Wall Street Journal and the editor-in-chief of Simon &
Schuster. Several are working journalists, including:
• Jill Abramson, a managing editor of The New York Times;
• Kerry Smith, the senior vice president for editorial quality of ABC News;
• Cynthia A. Tucker, the editor of the editorial page of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
ProPublica is far from the only Soros-funded organization that is stacked with members of the supposedly neutral press.
The
Center for Public Integrity is another great example. Its board of
directors is filled with working journalists like Amanpour from ABC,
right along side blatant liberal media types like Arianna Huffington, of
the Huffington Post and now AOL.
Like ProPublica, the CPI board is a veritable Who's Who of journalism and top media organizations, including:
•
Christiane Amanpour – Anchor of ABC's Sunday morning political affairs
program, "This Week with Christiane Amanpour." A reliable lefty, she has
called tax cuts "giveaways," the Tea Party "extreme," and Obama "very
Reaganesque."
• Paula Madison – Executive vice president and
chief diversity officer for NBC Universal, who leads NBC Universal's
corporate diversity initiatives, spanning all broadcast television,
cable, digital, and film properties.
• Matt Thompson – Editorial
product manager at National Public Radio and an adjunct faculty member
at the prominent Poynter Institute.
The group's advisory board features:
• Ben Sherwood, ABC News president and former "Good Morning America" executive producer
Once
again, like ProPublica, the Center for Public Integrity's
investigations are mostly liberal – attacks on the coal industry, payday
loans and conservatives like Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. The Center
for Public Integrity is also more open about its politics, including a
detailed investigation into conservative funders David and Charles Koch
and their "web of influence."According to the center's own 990 tax
forms, the Open Society Institute gave it $651,650 in 2009 alone.
The
well-known Center for Investigative Reporting follows the same template
– important journalists on the board and a liberal editorial agenda.
Both the board of directors and the advisory board contain journalists
from major news outlets. The board features:
• Phil Bronstein (President), San Francisco Chronicle;
• David Boardman, The Seattle Times;
• Len Downie, former Executive Editor of the Washington Post, now VP;
• George Osterkamp, CBS News producer.
Readers
of the site are greeted with numerous stories on climate change,
illegal immigration and the evils of big companies. It counts among its
media partners The Washington Post, Salon, CNN and ABC News. CIR
received close to $1 million from Open Society from 2003 to 2008.
Why
does it all matter? Journalists, we are constantly told, are neutral in
their reporting. In almost the same breath, many bemoan the influence
of money in politics. It is a maxim of both the left and many in the
media that conservatives are bought and paid for by business interests.
Yet where are the concerns about where their money comes from?
Fred
Brown, who recently revised the book "Journalism Ethics: A Casebook of
Professional Conduct for News Media," argues journalists need to be
"transparent" about their connections and "be up front about your
relationship" with those who fund you.
Unfortunately, that rarely
happens. While the nonprofits list who sits on their boards, the news
outlets they work for make little or no effort to connect those dots.
Amanpour's biography page, for instance, talks about her lengthy career,
her time at CNN and her many awards. It makes no mention of her
affiliation with the Center for Public Integrity.
If journalists
were more up front, they would have to admit numerous uncomfortable
connections with groups that push a liberal agenda, many of them funded
by the stridently liberal George Soros. So don't expect that
transparency any time soon.