Last year, the Media Research Center announced a partnership with Hungary’s Center for Fundamental Rights — a puppet of leader Viktor Orban that receives funding from his government — to push right-wing narratives, and it seems to have helped secure the MRC’s cooperation in continuing to whitewash Orban’s authoritarianism. Tim Graham complained in a Jan. 23 post that Orban was accurately described as the authoritarian leader he is:
Leftists love to talk about how Biden is democracy and Trump is tyranny. But on Monday night, as Rachel Maddow mostly took the night off due to hoarseness, she came on with Jen Psaki during her time slot and claimed the Republican base is “very eager” for a dictator to end “contested elections.”
In New Hampshire on Saturday, Trump praised Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban as “a great leader, a very strong man,” and MSNBC thinks this is pro-dictator talk. But Orban was re-elected prime minister for a fourth time in 2022. Liberal media outlets call communist tyrants “presidents” and this man is classified as a tyrant.
Even the article to which Graham linked to that marked Orban’s victory pointed out that he rigged the process: “Orbán’s party has strengthened its hold on office through a favourable media ownership structure and changes to the voting system that critics say renders elections unfair.” The opposition candidate pointed out that he was given only five minutes on state-run TV to state his case.
This was followed by a Feb. 12 Orban-defending post by Tom Olohan that has all the earmarks of having been fed to him by Orban’s Center for Fundamental Rights:
The Biden administration and leftist billionaire George Soros are tied at the hip, working in cahoots to undermine Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The U.S. Department of State entrusted Soros-funded Ökotárs Foundation and media watchdog Mérték Media Monitor to hand over $320,000 in taxpayer dollars to 15 media outlets critical of the pro-freedom Hungarian government, according to NGO and government documents. European Parliament elections take place from June 6 to June 9. Similarly, Hungary will hold local elections on June 9. Hungary-based political analyst András László and Rod Dreher spread the news in Jan. 27 posts on X.
László wrote that “left-wing NGOs announce which Hungarian media outlets will receive direct financing from the US Embassy. More than a DOZEN, a total of 15 media will receive US taxpayer money.” Echoing László, Dreher reacted to the news: “US taxpayers are funding anti government media in Hungary, a NATO ally.”
The Biden administration contracted Ökotárs and Mérték to identify and evaluate which Hungarian media outlets would receive the taxpayer-funded grants, a State Department document revealed. MRC Business verified the contract through information published by grants.gov, the online database of federal grants, as well as documents provided by Ökotárs and Mérték.
The disturbing bottom line is this: Foreigners are deciding what foreign entities will get American tax dollars. Under President Joe Biden, we have farmed out our foreign policy to foreigners.
Olohan censored any mention of Orban’s authoritarianism, which would have undermined his ridiculous claim that Orban’s government is “pro-freedom.” He also censored any mention of his employer’s partnership with an Orban puppet group, which would have exposed this as the propaganda effort this is. On top of that, Olohan failed to disclose that András László, whom he described only as a “political analyst,” is actually a candidate for the European parliament as a member of Orban’s political party, Fedesz, further marking this as pro-Orban propaganda.
Instead of telling his readers the full truth, Olohan laughably portrayed Orban as a victim, with help from his boss:
MRC Vice President Dan Schneider ripped the State Department for this contentious partnership: “It is wrong for U.S. government employees to farm out how our tax dollars are spent. It is outrageous that a lazy diplomat in our embassy relied on the Soros crew to figure out how to spend our taxpayer dollars.”
[…]This atrocious initiative is unfortunately characteristic of the Biden administration’s behavior in Hungary. The U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Dave Pressman attends and even hosts LGBT events at which he attacks Orban and members of his political party Fidesz. The ambassador and the embassy he oversees have an antagonistic relationship with the U.S. ally they are supposed to work with.
Turns out that the State Department pours money into the coffers of anti-Orban media, while the American ambassador complains about “state media churning out propaganda.”
In fact, Hungary’s state media is very much an Orban propaganda machine, and Olohan offered no proof to the contrary. And as much as Olohan complained about Pressman’s criticism of Orban, he offered no reason to support his argument that Pressman’s criticism of Orban must be censored.