How George Soros co-opts the media and keeps criticism down
How George Soros funds ‘fact checkers’ to silence dissent
George Soros has success across the Atlantic in using fact-checkers to censor narratives damaging to the left. Bloomberg via Getty Images
George Soros is the most dangerous man in America. The investor is intent on remaking the country to his liberal image, from our foreign-policy priorities to undermining our criminal-justice system. This week, The Post takes a look at the reach of Soros’ billions. In this fourth essay, Matt Palumbo, author of “The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros,” talks about how “fact checking” can shape the narrative.
It’s not enough for George Soros to fund the media and encourage stories that back up his point of view — he has to make sure no one disagrees with it.
Last year, Soros partnered with fellow leftist billionaire Reid Hoffman (the co-founder of LinkedIn) to financially back a project to fight so-called disinformation. The name they chose might have come from George Orwell himself: Good Information Inc.
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman started a project with Soros to battle so-called disinformation.AP
Branding anything that goes counter-narrative as “disinformation” has become the left’s latest strategy to fight anything that threatens their spin, and Soros has taken note.
Later in the year, heading into the midterms, in an open letter signed by 11 other leftist groups, the Soros-funded Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights called on Big Tech CEOs to take “immediate” action to spread so-called “voting disinformation” to “help prevent the undermining” of democracy. The signatories had received a combined $30.3 million from Soros in just a four-year period.
Soros already has had success across the Atlantic in using fact-checkers to censor narratives damaging to the left
With Joe Biden, George Soros finally had a president he could control
As the Hungarian publication Remix revealed, of the 11 Facebook-approved fact checking organizations for Central and Eastern Europe, eight were funded by Soros. As is the case for the US, these fact checking groups are largely critical of the political right.
Major fact-checking organizations such as PolitiFact, Snopes, and others have long faced allegations of left-wing political bias — allegations a series of studies over the years have confirmed. One of the more recent studies of bias on PolitiFact found sources six times more likely to defend Biden in their “fact-checks” than check his facts.
Major funding for PolitiFact’s parent company, The Poynter Institute, includes the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Ford Foundation, Soros-backed Tides Foundation and Tides Center, the Carnegie Corp. of New York among many others.
One project of the Poynter Institute specifically, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), was launched in 2015 with its initial funding coming from the National Endowment for Democracy (backed by the US State Department), the Omidyar Network, Google, Facebook, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
Facebook and other social-media companies censored any articles that suggested the COVID-19 virus leaked from a Wuhan lab.REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
A search for Soros’ name on PolitiFact’s website reveals that they’re unwilling to admit a single allegation made against the man. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
The IFCN acts as the “high body” for the dozens of fact-checking organizations under its umbrella, which unite under a shared code of principles, and a mission “to bring together the growing community of fact-checkers around the world and advocates of factual information in the global fight against misinformation.”
Among the most well-known organizations that are affiliated with the IFCN include the Associated Press fact checker, FactCheck.org, The Dispatch fact checker, The Washington Post fact checker and PolitiFact.
The problem, of course, is that these “fact checks” are anything but impartial. Facebook and other social-media companies censored any articles that suggested the COVID-19 virus leaked from a Wuhan lab, based on denials of scientists who had a conflict of interest. Now that even top researchers say the lab leak is a distinct possibility, they’ve lifted those restrictions.
As is the case with Soros’ financing of media, in addition to spreading leftist narratives, he buys his own name protection. A simple search for Soros’ name on PolitiFact’s website reveals that they’re unwilling to admit a single damning allegation made against the man — of which there are many.
The extent to which PolitiFact in particular will go to defend Soros, and make sure people see it, is further than for anyone else.
Those who found themselves Googling George Soros’ name in past months may have seen an ad display among the top of the results from PolitiFact, inviting the searcher to learn the “Truth” about Soros, that “George Soros does not pay protesters. Here’s the truth. The real purpose of the ‘paid protester’ myth.”
Anyone who clicked the ad would be brought to a PolitiFact “fact check” of a claim from pundit Candace Owens that Soros is “funding the chaos” in Minneapolis through his Open Society Foundations during the summer of 2020 riots.
Soros is giving money to groups intent on defunding the police.
As is standard for fact-checkers on politically charged topics, their articles read as if the conclusions were written first, and the arguments second. To generate the image of Soros they want, they simply ignore any true allegations against him and either fact-check tangential claims or false ones.
Emily Venezky predictably rates Owens’ claim “False” while citing a 2015 Snopes fact check that admits Soros donated $33 million to organizations “that have worked with Black Lives Matter or worked to raise awareness during the Ferguson-related protests” in the past. She then tries to hedge that admission when it comes to the then-recent Minneapolis riots with the supposed disclaimer: “However, they had never given money to groups for the express purpose of organizing protests with the movement.”
How George Soros co-opts the media and keeps criticism down
Was she expecting there to be a line item for rioting in their grants?
Whether or not Soros is funding protesters in the exact manner in the exact city that Candace is stating is irrelevant to the larger point that, yes, Soros is giving money to groups intent on defunding the police.
In a similar vein, PolitiFact’s Yacob Reyes wrote an article to debunk claims that Soros was funding Black Lives Matter — only to admit and downplay his funding of BLM-adjacent groups. Writing in response to Owens saying that Soros “injected $33 million into Black Lives Matter,” Reyes rated the claim “False” because the groups weren’t official BLM groups — but merely radical far-left groups that share virtually an identical ideology to Black Lives Matter (and everything else Soros funds) and engage in the same kind of disruptive activities.
Of the dozens of fact-checks mentioning Soros’ name on PolitiFact’s website, every single one without exception serves to deny what Soros’ multibillion-dollar empire is funding or debunk what amounts to chain email-tier rumors about him.
Every single claim fact-checked (always as “False” or “Pants on Fire”) is someone making a negative claim about Soros that PolitiFact responds to as if they’re his p.r. agent. When it comes to objectively true allegations that have been made about Soros network; such as his funding of rogue prosecutors nationwide, his connections to various media figures, his connections to the Biden White House, and much more, the fact-checkers simply ignore them.
Which is, essentially, the upshot of why Soros and other left-wing groups have weaponized “fact checking” — it allows them to pressure social media to censoring any news they don’t like.
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Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on February 7, 2023 at 1:56pm
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Elon Musk Identifies Dangerous Player in US Government Censorship and Media Manipulation – Obscure Agency Called the GEC
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/elon-musk-identifies-worst...
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Comment by Willem Post on February 6, 2023 at 2:14pm
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Ukraine War, a Move by the US/EU to Preserve Hegemony and Prevent a Multi-Polar World
The war in Ukraine is not just about Ukraine and Russia, with the US/EU acting as benevolent supporters of Ukraine. The US and its NATO allies are deeply involved in the conflict. Ukraine is merely a proxy for US/EU hegemony planners. The war is part of a geo-political confrontation between the US/EU and Russia/China, that are pushing to create a multi-polar world, no longer under the US/EU hegemony.
Weakening, Regime Change, Breaking Up Russia
The US State/Defense/Intel Departments likely viewed Russia as having too much resources for so few people. These Departments have been trying to break up Russia to a suitable size by means of:
1) Undermining Russian society with foreign-financed NGOs for "spreading Freedom, Democracy and Civil Society", while Yeltsin was Russia’s President. The NGOs were outlawed by Putin.
2) Using opponents of the Russian government, such as Navalny, to: 1) spread "dirt" provided by the US surveillance system, and 2) organize nationwide protests in Russia.
3) Moving NATO infrastructures from East Germany to Russian borders, from 1991 to the present, to drive Russia from East Europe
4) A coup d’etat in Ukraine (major exporter of grains and seeds) in 2014 (successful)
5) A coup d’etat in Belarus (major exporter of potash fertilizers) in 2021 (unsuccessful)
6) A coup d’etat in Kazakhstan (exporter of oil, gas, coal, etc.) in 2022 (unsuccessful)
The U.S. wants to:
1) Have regime change in Russia,
2) Divide up Russia in small, easily controlled provinces,
3) Provide energy/resource-starved Europe low-cost access to "former-Russia" resources.
4) Have control of the increasingly ice-free shipping lanes from northern Norway to Alaska
5) Have control of the coal, oil, gas, etc., on the Siberian side of the Asian Continental shelf
Weakening China
As a side benefit, these measures would weaken China, which greatly benefits from low-cost, friendly, access to Russia’s resources. China would be cut-off from these "former-Russia" resources, and from the northern shipping lanes, and from advanced computer chip making
Setting the Stage to Weaken Russia
The US-led NATO was financing/arming/training/advising the Ukraine armed forces, after the illegal Kiev coup d’etat in 2014, which ousted a democratically elected President.
Those Kiev armed forces were mostly arrayed on the western side of the defense line in Donbas area, in East Ukraine, starting in 2014.
Genocide of Russian-Speaking People
From behind that line, the Ukraine army's AZOV/NAZI battalions used long-range artillery, and nightly raids, in the eastern part of the Donbas, to kill about 14,000, plus injure many more, by 2022, as part of a planned harassment-genocide of Russian-speaking people, who distrusted, and wanted no part of, Kiev's new government, installed with approval of the US.
Very little of the genocide was reported by the Western Media in the US and Europe, even though UN on-site observers filed weekly reports for 8 years!!!
Minsk Accords
Russia was trying to get the Minsk Accords implemented, but were obstructed by Ukraine, France and Germany, etc., because they and others, were using the Minsk Accords as a tool to deceive and delay, while financing/arming/training/advising Ukraine, for the better part of 8 years, as recently admitted by Merkel, former Chancellor of Germany, during an interview.
Russia finally had enough provocation, especially after significantly increased bombardments of the eastern Donbas by the Ukraine army in January/February, 2022.
Peace Talks Nixed by US/UK
Naftali Bennett, the Prime Minister of Israel just after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022, said, the West “blocked” a ceasefire he was helping to broker early in the war.
Bennett said, “there was a good chance of reaching a ceasefire” before the Western powers “curbed” negotiations in a wide-ranging interview uploaded to YouTube.
Full-Scale War with Russia?
Washington hotheads and some extremist Russia-hating countries (Poland, the Baltics, etc.) are advocating a full-blown war against Russia, and the devastation and breakup of the Russian Federation, as well as the destruction of millions of lives in Russia and Ukraine.
Are they thinking there would not be tens of millions of dead in European countries?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/macgregor-time-its-different
Poor, Corrupt, Ukraine a Victim of US/EU/NATO Ambitions
The US aims to transform Ukraine into a powerful military state, to weaken/exhaust, a heavily sanctioned Russia, by means of:
1) A coup d’etat in Ukraine in 2014,
2) NATO financing/arming/training/advising Ukraine’s armed forces,
3) Promising Ukraine to get “their lands back”, i.e., four Ukraine provinces in the east, and Crimea, all populated with Russian-speaking people, who overwhelmingly voted by more than 90%, to rejoin Russia. All of these areas had been part of the Russia Empire and USSR, for hundreds of years until 1991
4) Deluding the Ukraine people, with promises, to be cannon fodder “for as long as it takes”
Agenda of EU Countries
EU countries, etc., provide weapons in an antiseptic way, i.e., not getting their hands dirty, none of their people gets injured/killed, no damage in their countries.
What a good deal, if Russia would only co-operate by collapsing soon to get control of:
1) The low-cost coal, oil and gas and other minerals
2) The vast agricultural areas of Russia to export the crops.
Russia Dealing with Sanctions
However, Russian gas, oil, coal, and other resources, and products and services, have increasingly found their ways into the global markets via India, China, Brazil, Turkey, Africa, etc., within one year, despite US/EU sanctions imposed on Russia.
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Wind and Solar are Molly-Coddled up to Their Armpits
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Grossly Excessive Financial Incentives: About 45 to 50% of the “wind, all-in LCOE” (levelized cost of energy) of wind turbine projects consists of various financial in incentives. I have the 20-y spreadsheets.
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If no financial incentives were available, Owners would have to sell their electricity at almost 2 times the price, c/kWh, they now receive, which would be very bad PR for wind.
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THE FINANCIAL INCENTIVES ARE THE REASON MANY $BILLIONS OF $DOLLARS ARE MADE AVAILABLE BY RICH PEOPLE WHO ARE PROFITING FROM LUCRATIVE TAX-SHELTERS, SUCH AS WARREN BUFFETT, WHILE LEGALLY SCREWING ALL OTHERS, ALL IN THE NAME OF THE HOLY GRAIL, "SAVING THE PLANET"
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Wind Output is Variable Almost 100% of the Time: I looked at the hour-to-hour wind output in New England (ISO-NE website) for an entire year, 8766 hours. I was bleary eyed.
I found there ALWAYS was some wind output. It was NEVER zero.Wind output is variable almost 100% of the time
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Counteracting Variable Wind Output: What makes wind a grid disturber, or very expensive, or very uneconomical (take your pick) is the VARIABLE output, because OTHER generators (likely gas-fired power plants) HAVE to counteract the output variations, UP TO NEAR ZERO wind output, 24/7/365, year after year.
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By exporting excess electricity, such as to Quebec, via not-yet-existing HV DC lines, NE generators will do less counteracting, but Quebec generators will do more counteracting; there is no free lunch in the real engineering world.
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Cost of Counteracting Variable Wind Output: The counteracting costs imposed on the other generators will be an addition to the “all-in LCOE” of the other generators.
Depending on grid conditions/topology, that cost addition is:
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Less than 5% at up to 5% annual wind penetration,
About 5% at about 10% wind penetration,
About 10% at about 15% wind penetration, etc., as proven in Ireland at 17% wind
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That cost addition becomes very large at high levels of wind penetration, because more and more of the other generators will be operating less economically, due to:
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1) Ramping up/down, at about 75% of rated output, to counteract, on a minute-by-minute basis, the variable wind outputs; more Btu/kWh, more c/kWh
2) Being on hot, synchronous standby, and cold standby; more Btu/kWh, more c/kWh
3) Having much more fuel-guzzling cold start and stops; more Btu/kWh, more c/kWh
4) Having much more wear and tear, more Btu/kWh, more c/kWh.5) Producing less, but more expensive electricity, due to inefficiently operating, at a lesser capacity factor, with wind on the grid
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NOTE: The more wind and solar on the grid, the larger the electricity quantities that need to be counteracted, and the greater the cost of the counteracting services, as proven in Germany and Ireland.
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Ignoring the Money and Environmental Impacts?
The public not looking at the wind project spreadsheets and not being made aware of wind's lifetime adverse environmental consequences, is exactly what "rich folks with tax-shelters and their protectors" want.
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Over the decades, those folks have set up nationwide PR structures to lie and cheat every-which-way to get their projects approved, built and paid for in Europe and the US.
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In that manner, wind is ARTIFICIALLY made to LOOK economically and socially palatable to the kept-ignorant/deluded/brainwashed ratepayers and taxpayers.
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The PR ideal is to make “skunk-wind" perceived as a “low-maintenance, perfumed beauty at a garden party”.
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To sum up, wind gets:
1) Various federal and state financial incentives,
2) Plus, free electric grid expansion/augmentation,
3) Plus, free backup/standby power plant services
4) Plus, free grid management services
5) Plus, free hazardous waste disposal during project life, and at end of life,
6) Plus, free legalized killing of bats and birds, including bald eagles, and of whales,
7) Plus, free legalized ruining of the fishing industry,
8) Plus, free sickening of people and animals with infrasound, which is felt, but not heard,
9) Plus, free visual blight all over the place.
There would be no wind, solar and battery systems without the huge, politics-inspired, financial incentives.
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Thank heavens, ISO-NE has, till now, adequate backup/standby plants, plus adequate natural gas and fuel oil storage capacity near power plants, to INSTANTLY COUNTERACT the ups and downs and absences of wind and solar, 24/7/365, year after year.
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Former John Kerry Aide Joins Green Energy Giant Poised To Massively Benefit From Biden’s Climate Handouts
https://dailycaller.com/2023/02/02/john-kerry-varun-sivaram-orsted-...
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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