The Media Research Center’s Aly Nielsen devotes a July 6 post to complaining that Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network “just received a massive financial boost from two liberal groups: George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF) and The Omidyar Network.” After rehashing all the usual right-wing talking points against George Soros and Pierre Omidyar, Nielsen huffs that most of IFCN’s funding “does come from known liberal sources,” adding: “Can Poynter be trusted to oversee an unbiased fact-checking network when its own leadership — and IFCN’s funders — lean left?”
This raises a question Nielsen refuses to ask: Where are the conservative-funded fact-checking operations?
The answer to that, of course, is that the Republican president of the United States is a serial liar, and conservatives don’t want to have to hold him accountable. That’s why Nielsen’s employer has been attacking fact-checkers as biased liberal shills since Trump’s political ascent. Nielsen’s post is simply another dishonest piece of that anti-media puzzle.
Nielsen could prove us wrong by calling for a conservative-funded fact-checking operation while Trump remains in office. But we’re pretty sure she won’t. After all, raising uncomfortable and inconvenient truths about her own side is not what the MRC is paying her to do.