HOD
2004-01-03 16:41:16 UTC
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
The Soros Agenda
Free speech for billionaires only.
Saturday, January 3, 2004 12:01 a.m.
The press corps is finally giving billionaire George Soros the attention he
deserves as the new Daddy Warbucks of the Democratic Party. Mr. Soros has
responded that all he's doing is exercising his own Constitutional right to
free speech. We'd agree, except for the detail that the world's 38th richest
man (according to Forbes) is using his money to restrict everyone else's
freedom.
In his political funding, Mr. Soros is exploiting the loophole in campaign
finance laws that lets billionaires donate however much they want to private
political lobbies. But more than that, he also turns out to be a leading
cash cow for the Washington lobbies trying to restrict media competition and
political speech. Mr. Soros is the personification of what deserves to be
called the "public interest" conceit.
This is the idea that folks like Mr. Soros are merely selfless benefactors
of truth and justice, but companies trying to protect their rights in
Washington are greedy special interests. The hedge-fund operator made his
money practicing capitalism but now he spends it trying to give himself and
his ideological allies an advantage over other voices. Among his fundees in
this case are four closely coordinated groups. The men who founded or run
them are known in the Beltway as "the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,"
after what they are always claiming will happen if some market is
deregulated.
They are the Media Access Project, the Consumers Union, the Consumer
Federation of America, and the Center for Media Education (which has morphed
into the Center for Digital Democracy). Don't be fooled by their
consumer-friendly names. All four organizations have long been mouthpieces
of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. In the past three years they
have bashed or knotted up many of the Bush Administration's major
communications proposals.
Take Andrew Schwartzman, head of the Media Access Project, and leader of a
campaign to sink FCC Chairman Michael Powell's rules raising ownership caps
for broadcasters. MAP's revenue for fiscal 2001 was $526,000, and according
to the Soros foundation Web site the billionaire gave the group $600,000
from 2000 to 2002.
The Center for Digital Democracy, meanwhile, has sued to block the FCC's new
broadband rules that would free fast Internet access from crushing
regulations. The Center is run by Jeff Chester, who spun it off from the
Center for Media Education. CME received a $90,000 donation from Mr. Soros
in 2001-02.
Mark Cooper, research director at the Consumer Federation of America, has a
talent for churning out studies about how Mr. Powell's deregulation would
"undermine democracy." His group took $80,000 from Mr. Soros in 2000. And
the Consumers Union, run by Gene Kimmelman, also dipped into the Soros pot
for $175,000 from 1999 to 2001. The two groups teamed up last year to
release a report blaming Mr. Bush and the FCC for widening the "digital
divide."
Not that the Four Horsemen fight only to control the airwaves. A few also
played roles in promoting the campaign finance laws that have given Mr.
Soros and his cash such a big political advantage. Combine their funding
with the $1.7 million that Mr. Soros gave the Center for Public Integrity,
the $1.3 million he gave Public Campaign, the $300,000 to Democracy 21, the
$625,000 to Common Cause, and the $275,000 to Public Citizen -- and you can
be forgiven for believing Mr. Soros got campaign finance passed all by
himself.
Like Mr. Soros, all of these groups share the view that the real arbiters of
public policy should be elites like them. Their own political success
refutes their contention that somehow Big Media dominate our public policy
debates. And with the new limits on what other Americans can donate to
political campaigns, and even on when they can run TV advertising, the
Soroses of the world will wield even more influence. Which is of course
their point.
As his clout grows, we hope the media pay even more attention to the views
of Mr. Soros and his web of left-wing activists. Our readers can examine for
themselves the nearly 1,900 payouts that Mr. Soros made to entities since
1999 at http://prs.soros.org/GrantsList/GrantSearch.asp. We'd say they
reveal a billionaire who is himself a threat to what he likes to call an
"open society."
Wall Street Journal
The Soros Agenda
Free speech for billionaires only.
Saturday, January 3, 2004 12:01 a.m.
The press corps is finally giving billionaire George Soros the attention he
deserves as the new Daddy Warbucks of the Democratic Party. Mr. Soros has
responded that all he's doing is exercising his own Constitutional right to
free speech. We'd agree, except for the detail that the world's 38th richest
man (according to Forbes) is using his money to restrict everyone else's
freedom.
In his political funding, Mr. Soros is exploiting the loophole in campaign
finance laws that lets billionaires donate however much they want to private
political lobbies. But more than that, he also turns out to be a leading
cash cow for the Washington lobbies trying to restrict media competition and
political speech. Mr. Soros is the personification of what deserves to be
called the "public interest" conceit.
This is the idea that folks like Mr. Soros are merely selfless benefactors
of truth and justice, but companies trying to protect their rights in
Washington are greedy special interests. The hedge-fund operator made his
money practicing capitalism but now he spends it trying to give himself and
his ideological allies an advantage over other voices. Among his fundees in
this case are four closely coordinated groups. The men who founded or run
them are known in the Beltway as "the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,"
after what they are always claiming will happen if some market is
deregulated.
They are the Media Access Project, the Consumers Union, the Consumer
Federation of America, and the Center for Media Education (which has morphed
into the Center for Digital Democracy). Don't be fooled by their
consumer-friendly names. All four organizations have long been mouthpieces
of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. In the past three years they
have bashed or knotted up many of the Bush Administration's major
communications proposals.
Take Andrew Schwartzman, head of the Media Access Project, and leader of a
campaign to sink FCC Chairman Michael Powell's rules raising ownership caps
for broadcasters. MAP's revenue for fiscal 2001 was $526,000, and according
to the Soros foundation Web site the billionaire gave the group $600,000
from 2000 to 2002.
The Center for Digital Democracy, meanwhile, has sued to block the FCC's new
broadband rules that would free fast Internet access from crushing
regulations. The Center is run by Jeff Chester, who spun it off from the
Center for Media Education. CME received a $90,000 donation from Mr. Soros
in 2001-02.
Mark Cooper, research director at the Consumer Federation of America, has a
talent for churning out studies about how Mr. Powell's deregulation would
"undermine democracy." His group took $80,000 from Mr. Soros in 2000. And
the Consumers Union, run by Gene Kimmelman, also dipped into the Soros pot
for $175,000 from 1999 to 2001. The two groups teamed up last year to
release a report blaming Mr. Bush and the FCC for widening the "digital
divide."
Not that the Four Horsemen fight only to control the airwaves. A few also
played roles in promoting the campaign finance laws that have given Mr.
Soros and his cash such a big political advantage. Combine their funding
with the $1.7 million that Mr. Soros gave the Center for Public Integrity,
the $1.3 million he gave Public Campaign, the $300,000 to Democracy 21, the
$625,000 to Common Cause, and the $275,000 to Public Citizen -- and you can
be forgiven for believing Mr. Soros got campaign finance passed all by
himself.
Like Mr. Soros, all of these groups share the view that the real arbiters of
public policy should be elites like them. Their own political success
refutes their contention that somehow Big Media dominate our public policy
debates. And with the new limits on what other Americans can donate to
political campaigns, and even on when they can run TV advertising, the
Soroses of the world will wield even more influence. Which is of course
their point.
As his clout grows, we hope the media pay even more attention to the views
of Mr. Soros and his web of left-wing activists. Our readers can examine for
themselves the nearly 1,900 payouts that Mr. Soros made to entities since
1999 at http://prs.soros.org/GrantsList/GrantSearch.asp. We'd say they
reveal a billionaire who is himself a threat to what he likes to call an
"open society."
Wall Street Journal