There was a time that older folks can remember when there were hundreds of newspapers in this country. You had a choice in big cities of more than one or two as we do now. This made for a wealth of information and different ideas. Through the years these newspapers were bought and condensed with many of them being eliminated thus restricting information in some cities across America to just one. Journalists who worked for these organizations who were "not in line" with what the new owner were also eliminated. (Note: recent surveys show that over 85% of all journalists consider themselves to be liberal/socialist.) Television and radio stations around the country were also sold to complete the stranglehold on everything you see and hear.
It didn't just happen here! Around the world free press was becoming a problem for those men in the shadows. WWII had diminished their hold on eastern Europe .These elite wanted more control over world news and events than they currently had. The fall of the Soviet Union gave them the opportunity they had been trying to achieve for many years. In the backround they brought most the western world's information under one governing group. Today this group is known as Project Syndicate, which calls itself “the world's pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries” reaching “456 leading newspapers in 150 countries.” It’s financed by George Soros’s Open Society Institute.
In America 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 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: “ to 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. ProPublica 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.*
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. Unfortunately, that rarely happens. 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. While the nonprofits list who sits on their boards, the news outlets they work for make little or no effort to do this. So don’t expect that transparency any time soon.*
* Thanks to Dan Gainor for his contributions.
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