George
Soros' "Parallel Anti-War Media/Movement"
by bob feldman
Perhaps Amy Goodman should finally make full disclosure
of all foundation grants that either the Pacifica Foundation,
WBAI, Democracy Now, WBAI, KPFA, the Indymedia Centers, Free Speech
TV, Deep Dish TV, the Pacifica Campaign or the Downtown studio
from which she broadcasted in 2000 and/or in 2001 have received
since 1992?
Regarding George Soros's U.S. alternative media gatekeeping/censorship
network, the following recap might be of use to U.S. grassroots
anti-war activists whose political work is not being subsidized
by Establishment Foundations such as Billionaire Global Speculator
George Soros' Open Society Institute:
1. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave a $50,000
grant to the Nation Institute "to support project to improve performance
and reach of Radio Nation, weekly public radio news and commentary
program." George Soros' personal advisor for politics, Hamilton
Fish III, is also a top executive at The Nation Institute.
2. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave a $50,000
grant to the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, which
used to be headed by former Pacifica Foundation Executive Director
Lynn Chadwick.
3. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute apparently
gave a $125,000 grant to the Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting
[CIPB} group (on whose board sits FAIR/CounterSpin co-host Janine
Jackson) "to cover administrative and start-up costs for launching
national campaign entitled Citizens for Independent Broadcasting."
4. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave a $78,660
grant to Don Hazen's Institute for Alternative Journalism/IMI/Alternet
in San Francisco "to fund start-up of Youth Source, a youth Web
site which will be part of a larger web poral, Independent Source."
5. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave a $126,000
grant to the International Center for Global Communications Foundation
"toward launch of Media Channel, first global media and democracy
supersite on the Internet."
6. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave 4 grants,
totalling $118,000, to the Internews Network.
7. In 1999 George Soros's Open Society Institute gave a $12,000
grant to Downtown Community Television Center. (There's a possibility
that this was the group which provided studio facilities for Democracy
Now after the 1999 WBAI Christmas coup).
8. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave a $150,000
grant to the Fund for Investigative Journalism. (Is this the same
media group which provided some funding for KPFA's Dennis Bernstein
during the 1990s?)
9. In 1999, George Soros' Open Society Institute gave a $35,000
grant to American Prospect magazine.
10. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave a $30,000
grant to the Center for Defense Information.
11. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave a $75,000
grant to the Center for Investigative Reporting.
12. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave 4 grants,
totalling $220,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists--on
whose board sits NATION magazine co-owner and editorial director
Victor Navasky.
13. In 1999, George Soros' Open Society Institute gave 2 grants,
totalling $272,000, to the "Project on Media Ownership."
14. In 1999, George Soros' Open Society Institute gave a $100,000
grant to the Public Media Center in San Francisco.
15. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave a $73,730
grant to the dance company of a Pacifica Network News staffperson's
domestic partner.
16. In 1999, George Soros' Open Society Institute gave a $50,000
grant to Youth Radio in Berkeley.
17. In 1999, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave 2 grants,
totalling $393,000, to the Tides Foundation.
18. George Soros's Open Society Institute recent gave a $102,025
grant to Radio Bilingue.
19. George Soros's Open Society Institute has also apparently
been providing funds to subsidize a "parallel left" section of
the prisoner solidarity movement. Critical Resistance, the Prison
Moratorium Project, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and
The Sentencing Project are all being funded by George Soros's
Open Society Institute.
20. In 2001, George Soros's Open Society Institute also gave
grants to help subsidize the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
group, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement group, the Million Mom
March group and the Center for Investigative Reporting.
21. After 9/11, George Soros's Open Society Institute gave a
$75,000 grant to the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Research Institute, a $250,000 grant to the ACLU and a grant to
the LCEF group on whose board Mary Frances Berry used to sit.
Billionaire
Soros's War Stock Investments
Like the former Corporation for Public Broadcasting Chairperson
who owns a major chunk of the Columbia University-linked Nation
magazine, Clinton-Gore Campaign Fundraiser Alan Sagner, the global
speculator whose Open Society Institute gave KPFA a $40,000 grant
in 1995 has some interesting special economic interests.
In his 1990 book The New Money Masters, John Train has a chapter
entitled "George Soros: Global Speculator" in which he indicated
how Soros obtained his surplus wealth:
"Soros...has always had partners on the management side, such
as Jim Rogers...In 1969, aged 39, he [Soros] ...joined with Jim
Rogers to found Quantum Fund... "It is not registered with the
SEC...so the shareholders are foreigners, mostly Europeans...It
engages in multidirectional international speculation in commodities,
stock, and bonds...Thanks to Rogers, the fund was one of the first
to recognize the investment merits of defense stocks."
According to The New Money Masters book, Soros's business partner
in the 1970s and early 1980s, Jim Rogers, "became the largest
outside shareholder of Lockheed in 1974."
As of 1989, the portfolio of Soros Fund Management Equity Holdings
included $27 million worth of Boeing stock, $106 million worth
of RJR Nabisco tobacco company stock, $3.5 million worth of Lockheed
stock, $2.2 million worth of CBS stock, $2.3 million of Time Inc.
stock, $12.8 million worth of Warner Communications stock and
$6.5 million worth of Wal-Mart stock.
A Senior Fellow at the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute
who is a former president/ceo of Twin Cities Public Television
in St. Paul, Minnesota "is aiding the Open Society Institute in
considering issues of professionalism in media and related public
policy questions," according to the Soros Foundation/Open Society
Institute website.