The repeated FALSEHOOD that SOROS funds MEDIA MATTERS for America

Colorado Media Matters | Wed, Oct 3, 2007 | Geo. Soros?? D. Brock??

[rface]

FreeRepublic does not allow Media Matters to be posted here.....but this may be very important.... I believe that it is important enough to remain....(moderators will decide)
The following post is an excerpt from a wordy article from Oct 3:

The claim that the philanthropist Soros funds or has funded Media Matters -- either directly or indirectly -- is false, as Colorado Media Matters noted .....

As Media Matters has noted, conservative figures such as media consultant Phil Kent and Fox News' Bill O'Reilly have falsely claimed that Soros channels money to the organization from the Open Society Institute (OSI) through the Tides Foundation or the Center for American Progress (CAP)

In fact, OSI's income tax returns indicating grants to U.S. public charities show that every dollar OSI granted to Tides from 2001 to 2005 was earmarked for specific Tides-related programs and entities, and that Media Matters was not included on the list. [[ rface says - click link for OS links....most ways down the page]]

Also ... Media Matters received no funding from Center for American Progress (CAP) in 2005.

Alternatively, conservative figures have falsely claimed that Soros has funneled money to Media Matters through the Democracy Alliance, which does not itself make grants. Democracy Alliance founder Rob Stein explained during a November 30, 2006, forum hosted by the Hudson Institute titled "How Vast the Left Wing Conspiracy?":

While Soros is identified as a member of the Democracy Alliance, he has never given money to Media Matters through the alliance or otherwise.

[rface]

FreeRepublic has a policy to not allow posts from Media Matters.....It is generally a good policy, but this has some interesting info about Soros....and there flat out claim that Soros is not involved in funding....

Is there a Soros connection? Media Matters is being very bold in the denial.

This info is important for the official record

[antceecee]

Methinks they protest too much....

[jmyrlefuller]

How to tell if Media Matters is lying:

If their lips are moving.

Next question.

[shankbear]

Soros and all of his minions in the MSM and the DNC are behind the continual smear jobs going on now. It is elementary. They funnel the money around through assclowns like Hsu, et al. Don’t be fooled........they are there and their fingerprints are all over the recent events.

[chaos_5]

Can you give one reason that they would not lie? Clearly, they can make a bold faced lie about Rush, why not about this?

[KenHorse]

So what? Media Matters is still part of the Clinton War Machine, staffed by Clinton people and run by Clinton people. Yet another attempt by the Clintons to deflect the REAL issue...

Stalinist as Stalinist does....

[Zeon Cowboy]

I don’t care if they have ties to Soros or not, either way they’re still a bunch of scumbags.

[donmeaker]

All media matters has to do is show from where they DO get their funding. Till they do, they are to be regarded as a paid shill.

[jmyrlefuller]

And one other thing:

Soros isn’t the only big-money lefty out there pulling these sorts of stunts. He’s just the one with name recognition.

So they claim they didn’t get money from Soros. Doesn’t mean they didn’t get any money from others of his ilk.

[donna]

Online Slime Machine Media Matters Co-Founded by Hillary Clinton
Tuesday, October 02, 2007

By John Gibson

I want to talk about an online slime machine known as Media Matters for America. It is a tax-exempt organization which states its purpose as countering conservatives in the media.

I have said before that Media Matters was started with help from Hillary Clinton and took George Soros’ money. Media Matters has written to me and all my bosses saying my charge is a lie, that it is an independent organization which plays no political favorites and has never received slime machine cash from Soros-funded Democracy Alliance.

Here are the facts: Media Matters was started in offices provided by the Center for American Progress, a Soros-funded operation. It has since received Soros money. Facts, not lies.

(snip)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299056,00.html

[kbennkc]

I am interested in knowing the truth , but I am not sure why . Just asking , but we know what these people are , how is the situation changed if the group is funded by Mr.Soros ?

[rface]

but this type of denial will get researchers really digging into the MediaMatters/Soros connection. This bold statement makes it look like they are eager for us to look at the way they are funded.....I have a hard time believing that they don’t expect big scrutiny because of this claim....It feels like we are being invited into their bookkeeping records....and it smells funny

[Brad from Tennessee]

This is dated but provides some of the links between Soros and Media Matters:

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=\SpecialReports\archive\200503\SPE20050303a.html

[stephenjohnbanker]

BTTT

[Spiff]

From DiscoverTheNetworks.org:

Media Matters has not always been forthcoming about its high-profile backers. In particular, the group has long labored to obscure any financial ties to George Soros. But in March 2003, the Cybercast News Service (CNS) detailed the copious links between Media Matters and several Soros "affiliates"—among them MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress, and Peter Lewis. Confronted with this story, a spokesman for the organization explained that "Media Matters for America has never received funding directly from George Soros" (emphasis added), a transparent evasion.

Nor were groups cited by CNS the only connection between Media Matters and Soros. As investigative journalist Byron York has noted, another Soros affiliate that bankrolled Media Matters was the New Democratic Network. In addition, Soros is reported to be involved in the newly formed Democracy Alliance, a partnership of some 80 affluent financiers who each have vowed to contribute $1 million or more in order to build up an ideological infrastructure of leftist thinks tanks and advocacy groups. News reports list Media Matters as a main beneficiary of the Alliance's funding. By August of 2004, Media Matters' operating budget had already doubled to $4 million.

To summarize, Soros and his Open Society Institute pour millions of dollars into the coffers of MoveOn, the Center for American Progress, and Democracy Alliance. In turn, these organizations funnel some of that money to Media Matters.

[rface]

good link...if the info can be backed-up:

The Media Matters shift came after Cybercast News Service questioned the group's financial ties and demonstrated that there were numerous and extensive links between Media Matters and several Soros "affiliates" like MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress and Soros ally Peter Lewis.

[tpanther]

exactly...

so what if it’s not Soros, how about George Looney Clooney, Susan Sarandon and little Timmy robbins-sarandon?

Babs Streisand?

Need I go on.....?

[rface]

Need I go on.....?

It does matter. You cannot claim Soros, then have proof that there is no Soros connection.....It makes you look kooky. We don't want to look kooky. We want to be credible

[Spiff]

David Brock Group Backpedals on Soros Funding
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
March 03, 2005

(CNSNews.com) - Media Matters for America, the group headed by conservative turned liberal writer David Brock, has changed course on its stated association with billionaire liberal financier George Soros.

After initially claiming on Dec. 1, 2004 that "neither Media Matters nor its president and CEO David Brock has received any money from Soros or from any organization with which he is affiliated," the group is no longer disavowing any connection with groups "affiliated" with Soros.

The Media Matters shift came after Cybercast News Service questioned the group's financial ties and demonstrated that there were numerous and extensive links between Media Matters and several Soros "affiliates" like MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress and Soros ally Peter Lewis.

Media Matters for America (MMA) spokeswoman Sally Aman responded to Cybercast News Service's questions with an e-mail. "In response to your query regarding donor funding Media Matters for America has never received funding directly from George Soros," Aman stated, no longer denying any relationship with organizations affiliated with Soros.

She went on to reference the "early support from Moveon.org, and the New Democrat Network," that Media Matters had received.

In its role as a liberal media watchdog, Media Matters for America takes on some of the biggest names in media. Brock also authored the 2002 book, "Blinded by the Right, The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative," in which he denounced the conservative movement where he first gained fame and disclosed his homosexuality.

'Typical of Brock's operation'

"It's good that they are now being honest by [this new statement regarding Soros]," said John Carlisle, director of policy for the conservative National Legal and Policy Center. "Clearly MMA worked very closely with Soros-funded groups. There is definitely a Soros connection there."

Carlisle told Cybercast News Service , "While there is no evidence Soros gave directly to Brock and Media Matters, clearly Soros-funded groups have been instrumental in getting MMA started."

David Horowitz is familiar with the practice of changing one's political ideology, but in Horowitz' case, he was a 1960s radical who became a conservative author. Horowitz charged that Media Matters' original claim that it had taken no money from Soros or groups affiliated with Soros was "a lie."

"This is typical of Brock's operation," Horowitz told Cybercast News Service . "They split hairs to present an untruth."

Media Matters can no longer deny its Soros affiliation because "once you have the names (of donors), once you know that Peter Lewis is involved, you can't deny it," said Horowitz, who as a conservative, co-founded the Los Angeles-based Center for the Study of the Popular Culture and Front Page Mag.com, a news and commentary website.

Horowitz said he is not surprised that Brock's group altered its statement after being questioned about donations. "[Brock is] a guy who turned on his friends. He was a sleazy gossip sort of writer when he was on the right, and he's a sleazy gossip writer on the left, and an unscrupulous one on both sides," Horowitz said.

'Progressive causes'

In Monday's e-mail statement, Aman wrote that the group receives "funding from grants and individual donors." Some of those donors, she added, "are regular contributors to progressive causes ..."

Among the individuals that Aman mentioned was Peter Lewis, the chairman of the Cleveland based insurance company Progressive Corporation and a close confidant of Soros. Lewis and Soros are so interlinked that Lewis' son Jonathan told Jane Mayer of The New Yorker in October 2004 that his father and Soros were "like a married couple."

According to Carlisle of the NLPC, "Peter Lewis works very closely with Soros. When Soros works with other groups, they match each other's giving." Soros and Lewis "are pretty much comrades in arms when it comes to left wing giving," Carlisle added, noting that both men played a critical role in the funding of MoveOn.org, a liberal group that posted on its website last year TV commercials comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler.

A Cybercast News Service examination of Brock's financial records and public documents showed that the heavily funded Soros liberal think tank, The Center for American Progress, (CAP) was instrumental in getting Brock's media group off the ground.

Former Clinton administration chief of staff John Podesta, the current president of (CAP), also confirmed to the New York Sun that his group provided office space and logistical assistance to Brock in 2004.

Soros has reportedly given $3 million to CAP and its senior vice president, Morton H. Halperin, is also the director of Soros's Open Society Institute.

Brock's critics point to his efforts at rising to the personal defense of Soros as further evidence of a link between the two men. In December 2004, Brock issued one of numerous challenges to Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, host of "The O'Reilly Factor" to a television debate to defend attacks on Soros.

In the December 16th letter to O'Reilly, Brock wrote "In May of this year, I asked that you allow me to come on the 'O'Reilly Factor' to discuss your attacks on philanthropist George Soros ... Despite my offer to discuss Soros, you still did not invite me on ..."

MMA has also defended Soros' criticism of the U.S. invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime. In a Sept. 30, 2004 Internet posting, an MMA headline read in part: "Evidence supports Soros's claim that Iraq war is a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda."

"Nobody can utter a word about Soros without [Brock] pounding on him," Horowitz said, adding that MMA is "a hit site that is set up to attack all the enemies of the Soros network.

"There is a shadow party that has taken control of the Democratic Party and David Brock is their rapid response team. That is all it's about," Horowitz said.

[Spiff]

YouTube video of Bill O'Reilly segment showing connection between Soros and Media Matters.