One of the best ways to “modulate the behavior” of the media in a free(ish) society is to take control of the ratings, an array of groups funded by the left-wing billionaire George Soros has found. The latest of these groups to come under scrutiny is the London-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which bizarrely received funding from the U.S. Department of State.
GDI listed nearly a dozen top conservative news sites in America – including RealClearPolitics, the New York Post, the Daily Wire and Reason – as the “riskiest” when it comes to disinformation.
Given that it receives U.S. government funding in addition to money from Soros, perhaps someone at the Justice Department could look into whether this constitutes a violation of the Smith-Mundt Act, which prohibits funding for international media to be used to target American audiences – unless, of course, they’re too busy responding to congressional subpoenas.
For decades, Soros’ Media Matters, founded by left-wing commentator and dirty trickster David Brock, has pilloried conservative press and hectored “mainstream” journalists who drifted from the official narrative. Media Matters spent years denying Soros is a funder.
Last month, the New York Post’s Matt Palumbo took a deep dive into Soros’ funding of “fact-checking” organizations that are six times more likely to defend President Joe Biden than not, his research showed. The famous “de-bunking” website Snopes denies Soros ownership, though he did provide seed money.
The suspiciously named Good Information Inc., co-owned by Soros and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, has recently announced funding disinformation groups in the U.S.
This same duo of Soros and Hoffman teamed up in 2017 to fund The Democracy Integrity Project, which pushed pro-Russian collusion narrative material on the American press. Hoffman apologized in 2019 for funding an operation to spread false information about Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore in Alabama through an online campaign asserting that Moore was Moscow’s man.
The good news is Soros-funded groups aren’t the only ones capable of calling out ‘disinformation.’ Former director of national intelligence James Clapper, who was on a list of 50 former intelligence officials who labeled the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story as probable Russian disinformation, recently blasted POLITICO’s Natasha Bertrand for mischaracterizing his views in 2020.
With his reputation now restored, perhaps Clapper can apply for a Soros grant.