George Soros’s Media Machine

George Soros is an interesting animal. Born in Hungary August 12, 1930, Forbes ranks him as the 29th richest man in America with a net worth of around 10 billion. Since 1979, he has given as much as 6 billion to various causes.

He amassed his wealth as an American currency speculator, stock investor, businessman, philanthropist, and political activist.

Soros’s Political Activism

Soros is chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute and is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also one of three initial funders of Center for American Progress, and is represented on the board.

George Soros’s political agenda for America is well understood. The February 2003 issue of Foundation Watch examined the philanthropy of the billionaire financier George Soros and found that Soros-funded groups supported increased government spending and tax increases, and opposed the death penalty and President Bush’s judicial nominees. In this article author Neil Hrab looks at Soros grants in four other policy areas: drug legalization, euthanasia, immigrant entitlements, and feminist organizing.

George Soros, a billionaire, has engineered campaign finance reform by pouring tens of millions of dollars — and getting others to do it too — into the campaign finance reform movement. What this did was it limited the ability of the political parties to raise money. As soon as the campaign finance laws came into place, they had a loophole — and naturally they would because Soros was behind this — for private organizations like MoveOn.org, called 527s, that could collect money.

Soros managed to put together a coalition, referred to as the Shadow Party, which accounted for about $300 million in the 2004 Democratic campaign. Actually, it was much more than that. He put together a group that orchestrated media ads, so that meant that his groups, since they were in place before the Democratic nominee was even chosen, were able to shape the message of the John Kerry campaign and, in effect, control the campaign that way.

Open Society Institute

The Open Society Institute (OSI), a private operating and grant making foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to support the rule of law, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSI works to build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as combating corruption and rights abuses.

Aryeh Neier, the President and CEO of the Open Society Institute has had a four-decade-long association with liberal causes. Neier has worked for such groups as Human Rights Watch and the ACLU. In the 1980s, he was a vocal critic of President Ronald Reagan’s Latin American policy and U.N. ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick. As OSI chief, Neier uses his legal expertise to assist groups critical of the U.S. criminal justice system.

One of the aims of the OSI is the development of civil society organizations (e.g., charities, community groups and trade unions) to encourage participation in democracy and society.

“I give away something up to $500 million a year throughout the world promoting Open Society. My foundations support people in the country who care about an open society. It’s their work that I’m supporting. So it’s not me doing it. “

Since 2001, according to federal documents, the Open Society Institute has given nearly $20 million to the Tides Foundation.

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Tides Center and Tides Foundation

Tides Center is a non-profit organization in the United States which provides fiscal sponsorship for progressive groups. Tides Center is classified a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization by the IRS. The organization is based in San Francisco with offices in the Presidio.

It is administratively linked to but separate from the Tides Foundation. Tides Center and Tides Foundation are part of a family of organizations linked by a commitment to social change, innovation, and responsible stewardship of resources. The Tides Center handles administrative functions such as payroll, benefits, insurance, and tax form 990 in exchange for a fee, which varies, and which is taken out of grant monies.

Tides funnels millions to the propaganda outfit Media Matters, which specializes in distorting comments made by politicians, pundits, and media people. Media Matters is an Internet site, but directly feeds its propaganda to some mainstream media people including elements at NBC News, columnist Frank Rich and Paul Krugman at The New York Times, columnist Jonathan Alter at Newsweek, and Bill Moyers at PBS. As president of the Shoeman Center Foundation, Moyers oversaw at least a $500,000 transfer of money to Media Matters.

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Democracy Alliance

The Democracy Alliance is a donors collaborative established by a group of liberal political activists, labor unions and donors in the United States.

The first official meeting of the Democracy Alliance was held at The Boulders near Scottsdale, Arizona in April 2005. It took place in an atmosphere described by New York Times reporter Matt Bai as “intense secrecy”.

Rob Stein, whose famed PowerPoint presentation “The Conservative Message Machine Money Matrix” was the key motivating force that brought the group of progressives together, was installed as the Democracy Alliance’s temporary CEO, pending its selection of a more permanent day-to-day leader.

In July 2006, Taco Bell heir Rob McKay was elected chairman of the board and Anna Burger of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was elected vice chair.

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MoveOn.org

MoveOn.org was created 10 years ago, on September 22, 1998, by software entrepreneurs Wes Boyd and Joan Blades. It was created in response to President Clinton’s impeachment procedings by sending an email to fewer than 100 friends and family urging Congress to “Censure and MoveOn to pressing issues facing the nation.” Within a week over 100,000 people signed up to join the movement. Today claims 4.2 million members.

MoveOn is a political action committee and engages in organizing campaigns to support politians who oppose the war in Iraq, endorsed Howard Dean during his run for president, sponsored Al Gore and his speech against the Iraq war, publishes books against conservatives and the Republican Party, co-sponsored the Vote for Change concert series with Bruce Springsteen, the Dixie Chicks, Dave Mathews Band, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown and others. After the re-election of George Bush for a second term MoveOn began work to gain Democrat control of the House of Representatives, joining the AFL-CIO and the Campaign for America’s Future, AFSCME and USAction.

Some of the major financial contributors to MoveOn.org have included:

MoveOn.org is active in civic and political action projects raising millions of dollars for candidates of the Democratic Party in the United States It has been cited in some accounts as a factor which helped propel the Democratic Party to power in the 2006 midterm elections.

According to an article in the Washington Post dated March 10, 2004

“The Democratic 527 organizations have drawn support from some wealthy liberals determined to defeat Bush. They include financier George Soros who gave $1.46 million to MoveOn.org Voter Fund (in the form of matching funds to recruit additional small donors); Peter B. Lewis, chief executive of the Progressive Corp., who gave $500,000 to MoveOn.org Voter Fund; and Linda Pritzker, of the Hyatt hotel family, and her Sustainable World Corp., who gave $4 million to the joint fund raising committee.”

George Soros has donated at least $1,460,000. This group actively supports liberal politicians like Howard Dean and John Edwards. It also organizes demonstrations promoting left-wing causes.

To illustrate Move On’s activism:

In September of 2007 the Senate voted 72-25 to approve Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) bill criticizing MoveOn.org’s Gen. David Petraeus ad in the New York Times. The “sense of the Senate” resolution “strongly” condemns the “personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus.”

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Center for American Progress

The Center for American Progress is a liberal public policy research and advocacy organization. Its website describes it as “… a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all.”

Its President and Chief Executive Officer is John Podesta, who served as chief of staff to then U.S. President Bill Clinton. Located in Washington, D.C., the Center for American Progress has a campus outreach group, Campus Progress, and a sister advocacy organization, the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Citing the significant number of its staff and former staff that have been appointed to positions in the Obama Administration, Time magazine recently declared that there is “no group in Washington with more influence at this moment in history.”

The Center for American Progress publishes a daily email newsletter entitled The Progress Report, which is a recap and analysis of major political news in the United States, providing a progressive perspective on the day’s stories. The authors are Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matthew Corley, Ali Frick, and Benjamin Armbruster.

In addition, the Center for American Progress publishes a daily global warming blog called Climate Progress. Edited by climate and energy expert Joseph J. Romm, the blog discusses climate science, climate technology solutions and political news related to climate change. It is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. In April 2008, TIME magazine named this blog one of the “Top 15 Green Websites”, writing that it “counters bad science and inane rhetoric with original analysis delivered sharply…. Romm occupies the intersection of climate science, economics and policy…. On his blog and in his most recent book, Hell and High Water, you can find some of the most cogent, memorable, and deployable arguments for immediate and overwhelming action to confront global warming.”

The Center for American Progress began experimenting with video delivered over the internet to complement their policy work in early 2006. This video strategy, currently known as SEEPROGRESS, is distributed through the Center’s website as well as YouTube and other video distributors, such as Google video, Blip.tv and Yahoo! video.

Campus Progress, launched in February 2005, is the Center for American Progress’s comprehensive effort to help young people make their voices heard on issues and to empower new generations of progressive leaders. Campus Progress is active on over 500 U.S. campuses and in communities across the United States.

Campus Progress has five main components:
1. a daily web magazine, offering journalism, analysis, opinions, cartoons, video and organizing tools.
2. support for student publications on more than fifty campuses including The Claremont Port Side at Claremont McKenna College, Songhai News: The Black Collegiate Voice at the University of Houston, The Big Green at Michigan State University, The Fine Print at the University of Florida, Vanderbilt Orbis at Vanderbilt University, and the The Dartmouth Review at Dartmouth College.
3. an events team that has worked with students and other partners to hold over 500 speaking programs, film screenings, debates and training programs.
4. national campaigns, as well as action grants that support student issue campaigns on individual campuses. Current Campus Progress campaigns focus on issues including student debt and access to higher education, the Iraq war, global warming and academic freedom. Action grants cover student campaigns on issues from Sudan to living wages, affirmative action to the death penalty.
5. the National Student Conference. The first annual conference was held on July 13, 2005, in Washington, D.C. and featured President Bill Clinton.

The Center for American Progress was criticized by conservative commentators for its 2007 report titled “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio.” The report states:

“out of 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners reveals that 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative, and 9 percent is progressive.”

The report did not include analysis of the content of other radio providers, such as universities and public radio. The report suggests three steps to increase progressive radio voices in talk radio: restoring local and national caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations; ensuring greater local accountability over radio licensing; and require commercial owners who fail to abide by enforceable public interest obligations to pay a fee to support public broadcasting.

In response to the report, conservatives Rich Lowry, Alan Sears, and Paul Weyrich wrote opinion pieces for townhall.com contending that there are and have been many outlets for liberal voices in talk radio, including National Public Radio and, until recently, Air America Radio. They wrote that previous attempts to create “balance” on talk radio, such as The Fairness Doctrine, violate the First Amendment by restricting free speech(despite the fact that the report specifically recommends that the Fairness Doctrine not be renewed).

George Soros is also pouring money into the Center for American Progress, run by former Clinton aide John Podesta, and the Democracy Alliance Group, both of which fund Media Matters as well.

In short, there are enormous amounts of money Media Matters has control of.

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Media Matters

Media Matters for America (or MMfA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2004 by journalist and author David Brock. Media Matters for America describes itself as “a web-based, not-for-profit, progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

” Media Matters for America defines “conservative misinformation” as “news or commentary presented in the media that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda.”

In May 2004, the New York Times reported that Media Matters has received “more than $2 million in donations from wealthy liberals” and “was developed with help from the newly formed Center for American Progress”.

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Impressive machine

Many analysts say that the Democrat’s win in January 2008 is due in large part to the organization which Soros has created and supports. It becomes very apparent why the media appears to have been “in the tank” for Obama during the campaign and still “in the tank” after his inauguration. On the other side of things, it’s not too much of a stretch to suggest Sorros has a few favors which he can now “call in”.

George Soros, a man who wants to impose a radical left agenda on America, has set up a complicated political operation designed to do two things – buy influence among some liberal politicians and smear people with whom he disagrees. Most of Soros’ political money flows through his ‘Open Society Institute,’ which has given nearly $20 million to the ‘Tides Foundation.’ Tides, in turn, has donated millions to the vile propaganda outfit ‘Media Matters,’ which specializes in distorting comments made by politicians, pundits and media people. ‘Media Matters’ directly feeds its propaganda to some mainstream media people, including elements at NBC News, columnists Frank Rich and Paul Krugman at the New York Times, columnist Jonathan Alter at Newsweek, and Bill Moyers at PBS. The goal of Soros and other radical financiers is to buy a presidential election. In the past, big business has been accused of doing just that. Now it is the likes of George Soros, an extremist who wants open borders, a one-world foreign policy, legalized drugs, euthanasia, and on and on.

“This is an incredibly well-oiled, brilliantly orchestrated machine,” declared radio host Monica Crowley. “Here you have all this power in the hands of one guy with a billion-dollar fortune, and he has been able to fly under the radar. The mainstream media protects him because they are on the same ideological page.” Author Phil Kent elaborated on Soros’ radical agenda. “Soros is really the Dr. Evil of the whole world of left-wing foundations. He once said the main obstacle to a stable and just world is the United States. He really hates this country, he believes wealth controls culture, and he wants to control the political scene in the United States.”

George Soros wants to buy America, and he is close. Years ago, Soros helped create MoveOn, and now it is a major fundraiser for Barack Obama. Hired character assassin David Brock makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Who pays his salary? Soros distributed big money to a variety of far-left outfits. And then the cash, some of it anyway, flows into Brock’s organization Media Matters. Things are set up this way so Soros can say he does not directly fund the vicious media site. Same thing with the new Progressive Media USA outfit. Because it’s a 501(c)(4) for non-profit group, donors can be kept secret.

Soros has transferred his considerable skills from finance to politics. “You’ve got to admire George Soros for coming up with this organization. He knows how to move money around, and now he’s set his sights on changing the basic fabric of this country.”

See the story “Top White House Official Says Obama Team ‘Controlled’ Media Coverage During Campaign”

George Soros Quotes

“The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat.” – February 1997

I think there’s a lot of merit in an international economy and global markets, but they’re not sufficient because markets don’t look after social needs.

“The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.” – June 2006

“The separation of church and state, the bedrock of our democracy, is clearly undermined by having a born-again President.” – October 18, 2004

President Bush is endangering our safety, hurting our vital interests, and undermining American values.

When I had made more money than I needed for myself and my family, I set up a foundation to promote the values and principles of a free and open society.

Hillary Clinton, on June 3, 2004 said: “I have known George Soros for a long time now… We need people like George Soros, who is fearless, and willing to step up when it counts.”

David Horowitz and Richard Poe address the radical agenda of George Soros and secular liberals in their book The Shadow Party