Last spring, the Media Research Center started laying out the right-wing freakout narrative over A George Soros-backed investment fund buying a stake in radio owner Audacy, baselessly pushing the idea that Soros would inject political bias into the stations. By contrast, the MRC repeatedly raged that the right-wing bias of Sinclair Broadcast Group has been called out and has even denied that such bias exists. As the Audacy deal worked its way through the regulatory process, the MRC ramped up its hypocritical attacks. Tom Olohan touted the anti-Soros bias of an FCC commissioner in a Sept. 25 post:
Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr echoed the Media Research Center in a warning shared with Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck that the federal government is poised to do a massive and unprecedented favor to leftist billionaire George Soros.
On Tuesday’s edition of The Glenn Beck Program, Carr sounded the alarm that the FCC is about to help Soros snatch up hundreds of radio stations owned by Audacy. Carr made clear that Soros’s foreign-backed purchase of Audacy, America’s second-biggest radio company, would normally require a review process that could take over a year, far past the 2024 election. However, Carr disturbingly told Beck that the FCC has “for the very first time ever, has skipped that process.”
Earlier this year, Soros Fund Management purchased $400 million of Audacy’s debt or about a 40% stake in the company, taking over 16 50,000-watt radio stations that Audacy features or streams. In April 2024, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell admonished the FCC for failing to comply with its rules.
Bozell first petitioned the FCC not to give preferential treatment to Soros by granting his request to skip a required “public interest” review of his purchase. Following Audacy’s rebuttal to the MRC petition, Bozell wrote, “The Communications Act does not contain a special Soros shortcut,” while bringing up additional concerns about the negative impact on local radio stations.
Carr agreed that such a move would be special treatment, telling Beck that the FCC had determined to make its first exception in history for Soros. “We have a very clear process set up at the FCC; it could take six months, it could take a year to review the foreign ownership at issue here. But for reasons that are not sort-of plain to me, the FCC commission, for the very first time ever, has skipped that process,” he warned.
The FCC has apparently ignored precedent and the devastating case put together by Bozell in April.
Olohan called in a fellow right-winger to rage in a Sept. 30 post:
Radio host Mark Levin ripped apart an absurd FCC decision to waive a national security review of leftist billionaire George Soros’s foreign-backed purchase of radio giant Audacy.
On the Sept. 24 edition of The Mark Levin Show, guest Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr reminded Levin that the decision would effectively hand America’s most notorious billionaire de facto control of stations carrying a “number of conservative outlets” including several that carry Levin’s show. Levin was well aware, as one of Audacy’s stations with an enormous (50,000 watt) reach, Talk Radio 1210 WPHT Philadelphia, had already dropped his show.
Levin referred to Soros’s acquisition of over 200 radio stations as “a way of pushing and silencing voices.” Carr added that big investments in local radio stations are extremely rare and agreed that Soros may have a motive other than profit for buying Audacy.
“This is a free speech issue and this is an attack on conservative talk radio,” Levin told Carr. “The Democrats have sought to compete against conservative talk radio, particularly the big hosts when there was Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, my show, Bongino, others. We’re really the targets here,” he continued. Levin theorized that the Soros empire was trying to get this done before the election so that “if they lose the election they still have these 220 stations and if they win the election they’ve created a precedent.”
Olohan devoted an Oct. 3 post to parroting a Fox News host bashing the deal:
Fox News host Jesse Watters warned that an unprecedented favor from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to leftist billionaire George Soros could wreak havoc on the American media landscape.
During the Oct. 2 edition of Jesse Watters Primetime, Watters slammed the FCC decision to waive a mandatory review of Soros’s foreign-backed purchase of Audacy, America’s second-largest radio company. Watters reminded his audience that Soros will soon own hundreds of radio stations that reach countless Americans. “Conservative talk stations” are among those purchased by Soros, Watters affirmed.
After playing a clip of the late radio legend Rush Limbaugh discussing American freedoms, Watters said, “Voices like our good friend Rush, [Sean] Hannity, [Mark] Levin—they’re an oasis of reason in an ocean of liberal bias. But that could change very soon. The company that controls these conservative talk stations, they are falling into the hands of Soros.”
In none of these posts did Olohan offer any evidence that Soros plans to turn every single one of these stations into outlets for liberal commentary.
Then, the MRC itself seemed to be violating its nonprofit funding status — which bars partisan political activity — by demanding that the FCC stop the Audacy deal, as detailed in an Oct. 30 post by Tim Kilcullen:
The Media Research Center is asking the Federal Communications Commission to undo its creation of a lawless Soros shortcut.
Yesterday, the Media Research Center (MRC) and MRC Founder and President Brent Bozell filed a formal petition to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) requesting reconsideration of its order fast-tracking Soros Fund Management’s acquisition of radio behemoth Audacy, which owns the second largest number of broadcast radio stations in the United States. Soros Fund Management is controlled by leftist activist billionaire George Soros, a man with a long, sordid history of supporting socialism, censorship and anti-American extremism.
Under the FCC’s regulations, associations with foreign owners — such as Soros Fund Management — must undergo a rigorous application process. However, in September, the five-member FCC approved the acquisition of Audacy in a bitter 3-2 vote without requiring Soros Fund Management to first meet these disclosure rules. The two Republican commissioners, Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, dissented.
In his motion to reconsider, Bozell highlighted how the FCC disregarded its own regulations in order to empower Soros. Bozell wrote: “[T]he Commission’s own rules require it to demonstrate that an acquisition serves the public interest. However, the Commission’s decision contained no public interest analysis specific to the Audacy acquisition.”
Kilcullen then tried to play whataboutism:
The FCC’s favoritism towards Soros contrasts with its alleged harassment of tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. Less than a year ago, the commission revoked an $855 million grant awarded to Musk’s Starlink to create high-speed Internet service for over 640,000 rural homes and businesses.
Kilcullen didn’t mention that the FCC rejected Starlink’s grant because Starlink did not have the technical or financial capabilities to provide service at the speeds required. Nobody’s questioning the Soros group’s capability of operating the stations.