Soros Gives $1 Million to Target Fox News

Billionaire currency titan George Soros, long a patron of liberal political causes in the United States, is giving $1 million to Media Matters in what he says is an attempt to stop the growing popularity of Fox News.

The money, Soros said, is designed purely to “to hold Fox News accountable for the false and misleading information they so often broadcast.”

The donation was all the more notable since Soros, who has donated to MoveOn.org and other liberal political websites, said this year that he was holding back from giving to Democrats in the midterm elections because the Republican “avalanche” in those elections would be nearly impossible to stop.

The donation itself seems to buttress a long held theory by Fox commentators — that the liberal Media Matters has been under the control of Soros’ money for some time. Soros has denied that repeatedly until Wednesday, when he announced his gift, Politico reported.

Fox News host Glenn Beck, meanwhile, has accused the group of being a "left-wing, George Soros-funded media machine" and claimed it called him a jihadist.

But Soros still denied the allegations that he had funded Media Matters before Wednesday.

“Despite repeated assertions to the contrary by various Fox News commentators, I have not to date been a funder of Media Matters,” Soros said. “However, in view of recent evidence suggesting that the incendiary rhetoric of Fox News hosts may incite violence, I have now decided to support the organization.

"Media Matters is one of the few groups that attempts to hold Fox News accountable for the false and misleading information they so often broadcast. I am supporting Media Matters in an effort to more widely publicize the challenge Fox News poses to civil and informed discourse in our democracy.”

Soros apparently played a role in the conspiracy theory that allegedly drove felon Byron Williams to arm himself and set out to kill staffers at the Soros-funded Tides Foundation the ACLU this summer, Politico reported.

Williams said he first heard the theory from other sources, but he told Media Matters in a jailhouse interview that Glenn Beck was a “schoolteacher” who “blew my mind” on such topics. He told the interviewer to watch Beck’s June shows to get more information about Tides.

On Friday, Drummond Pike, the founder and CEO of the Tides Foundation, said “there will be blood on many hands” if the next assassin succeeded, and called for a network-wide advertiser boycott of Fox News and Beck. This morning, Media Matters launched a website to join the effort.

But Beck pointed out on Tuesday that Soros has been attempting to influence American elections for years. He also offered Soros to come on his show and debate, “mano-a-mano, no minions, no spin doctors, no NPR journalists, just you and me.”

Beck has said on air 14 times so far this year that Soros funds Media Matters, according to Media Matters. But the Fox TV host's main problem with Soros is how he manipulates world currency at the expense of the U.S. dollar, and how he is influencing journalism through huge donations to National Public Radio and other left-leaning media.

“He's been expanding his influence through groups such as the Tides Foundation,” Beck said on his show Tuesday. “And if you think it's too much to call him the evil emperor from 'Star Wars' episode, really more of the 'Episode Six' emperor.

“If you think it's too much, well, he is the guy who's called for the managed decline of the U.S. dollar. Gee, George, thank you so much. I can't wait for my money to be worth less. Thank you . . . ”

“See, what he does is buys up everything he can. He buys gold, like, right now, he's buying gold in huge sums, and then he just — he waits for the right time and then he says, I don't know, I think maybe currency is not going to go so well, I'm not sure if I'm going to stay, and he sells and everybody panics, and they collapse. Four times. You're going to go for number five?”

After explaining this, Beck launched into an explanation of how Soros is trying to manipulate U.S. public opinion similar to the ways in which he manipulates currencies.

“And now, here's what he's doing . . . ” Beck said. “He's buying up journalists. Soros' Open Society Institute just announced for you $1.8 million to add 100 journalists at NPR radio stations across the country. The only good thing here is at least George Soros is now just buying the reporters out in the open. So, that's great.

“So, the Huffington Post is going to be funded by George Soros and the Tides Foundation and their investigative arm. Yes. And then Soros Open Society Institute is helping fund NPR. That is great.”