Saturday, 23 October 2010

Badge greenslade blog



Soros donates $1m to the fight

against Fox News





Media Matters, the not-for-profit website that monitors the conservative wing of the US media, has received a $1m donation from the philanthropist George Soros.

The organisation says it will use the money to intensify its efforts to holdFox News hosts, such as Glenn Beck, accountable for their reporting.

Launched in May 2004, Media Matters has waged war on Fox and others in the conservative press. It issued a statement saying that Fox is a Republican party "attack machine, dividing Americans through fear-mongering and falsehoods and undermining the legitimacy of our government for partisan political ends."

In an accompanying statement, Soros, who has a history of supporting liberal politicians and causes, accused Fox News hosts of "incendiary rhetoric", which is a challenge "to civil and informed discourse in our democracy."

Fox's proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, has recently given two donations of $1m each, to pro-Republican party organisations.

Source: New York Times