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Why Don't We Hear About Soros' Ties to Over 30 Major News Organizations?

By Dan Gainor

Published May 11, 2011

FoxNews.com

Editor's note: This is the first of a two part series on George Soros and 
the media.

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.

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.

Dan Gainor is the Boone Pickens Fellow and the Media Research Center�s Vice 
President for Business and Culture. He writes frequently for Fox News 
Opinion. He can also be contacted on FaceBook and Twitter as dangainor.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/05/11/dont-hear-george-
soros-ties-30-major-news-organizations/#ixzz1MOSQ0HQq





-- 
- Jane Galt

"Without America there is no "Free World"."

The reason that Progressivism-Socialism-Communism always fail, is that you 
eventually run out of other peoples' money.

Obama and the Democrats: continuing the Cloward-Piven "Progressive" 
socialist agenda of borrowing, taxing and insanely spending the country 
into collapse and global socialism.

To be a good democrat, you have to believe that businesses create 
oppression and governments create prosperity.

"The one thing that's being pushed in this country, is the motto: The 
harder I work, the more I owe society. The less I work, the more society 
owes me. We  can't be a great country with that motto." - Charles Payne.