Fox News and the Neo-Cons' New Project
Reported by Melanie - May 9, 2005
Today (May 9, 2005), on Your World w/Neil Cavuto, Fox reporter David Lee Miller opened a segment about George Soros, the "liberal philanthropist" who "last year spent his own millions trying to unseat George Bush," with a promise that the viewer would get a "fair and balanced look" at how "your tax dollars" are being wasted. According to Miller, Soros's philanthropic organization, the Open Society Institute (OSI), has, since l998, received "more than $30 million from taxpayers," and "critics argue it shouldn't get a cent from the government."
Next, a clip of an interview with Ken Boehm of the National Legal and Policy Center aired. Boehm is one of the "critics" who's now acutely concerned about "your tax dollars." (Go to the National Legal Policy Center's website and read just a few paragraphs of its history.) Boehm said it's "absurd for U.S. taxpayers to give $30 million to a pet group run by a multi-billionaire." He said that "doesn't pass the laugh test."
Miller read a statement by OSI spokeswoman Laura Silber which said, in part, that "all funds were used for OSI's international work, mostly for scholarships to promising students," to "study in American institutions."
Miller said USAID, the government agency awarding the grants said, "rigid criteria must be met" by grant winners and that "OSI has been awarded funds for specified projects and that grants are subject to audit." Miller said, though, that "critics argue" that's not enough.
Enter Terry Scanlon of the Capital Research Center, (take a quick look at that site too), another neo-con "think tank," and another "critic" who's suddenly very concerned about how "your tax dollars" are being spent. Scanlon said "the more money the U.S. State Department gives George Soros the more money he has to do other things and we believe he has enough money."
Miller ended his report by saying that "critics" say "your tax money is being used to subsidize a billionaire's personal political agenda."
Next came Jeff Birnbaum of the Washington Post and a Fox News "contributor," who reinforced everything said above.
Comment: A "fair and balanced look," huh?
This is how the radical right launches a hate-and-destroy campaign. They decide they want to destroy someone or change something. They shrink the issue into an emotional, simple, saleable form that is then magnified and applied only to whomever or whatever they want to destroy or change. Fox News creates a segment about the issue and lines up "critics" from neo-con "think tanks" and like-minded "contributors" who appear as "guests." The "critics" tug at the heartstrings of Fox's viewers by claiming their tax dollars are being misused, or their rights are being abused. Simultaneously, neo-con publications and websites such as the National Review and the Weekly Standard run the story and soon MSNBC and CNN, thinking they're missing a big scoop, latch onto it too, and away we go.
Jeff Birnbaum ended his piece by saying that his "guess is there will be a lot of chatter about that here in Washington." My guess is that the neo-cons will make sure there is.
