The Media Research Center’s chief Soros-basher, Joseph Vazquez turned his attention from George Soros’ son to the man himself in an April 28 post:
It appears that leftist billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations was outright lying when it claimed it received no funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
OSF gaslighted the world over controversies surrounding USAID funding a number of leftist pet projects it was simultaneously financing. “The claims that the Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, receive funding from USAID or direct the funding of a multibillion-dollar U.S. government agency are manifestly false,” OSF exclaimed February 12.
However, an investigation by MRC Business found that not only did an OSF node get a sizable committed grant from USAID, but other government funding was apparently earmarked for the Soros empire to administer a foreign policy program on behalf of the U.S. State Department.
MRC discovered that the State Department and USAID committed $11,091,856 collectively in grant money split from 2007-2014 between the Open Society Institute and the Alliance for Open Society International (AOSI), the “legal operating name” for Open Society Institute-Baltimore, which was later announced to be shuttering in 2023. Over $8 million of that figure was from the State Department to OSI for the purpose of administering the Edmund S. Muskie/FREEDOM Support Act Graduate Fellowship Program on behalf of the agency. “MUSKIE GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM GRANT TO THE OPEN SOCIETY INST,” the grant’s description stated.
Note that Vazquez had to go back more than a decade to ferret out this funding — and that the first two years of that took place under a Republican president — but he never explained what, exactly, was wrong or evil about the Muskie program. Instead, he whined that AOSI won a lawsuit to keep it from having to implement a policy “explicitly opposing prostitution. But rather than mention anything about why AOSI won according to the seven justices who ruled in its favor, he copy-and-pasted from a dissent by one of the two right-wing justices who lost, Antonin Scalia.
Vazquez went on to rehash how “MRC’s new findings follow on the heels of its February 28 exclusive which found that USAID separately doled out $1 million in 2021 under the Biden administration to the radical, anti-American Central European University.’ But that report identifies nothing that is actually “radical” or “anti-American”; the closest he got was complaining that one professor quoted Karl Marx, a seminar covered “White Supremacist Extremism in the U.S. and Beyond,” and another CEU official criticized the Electoral College.
Vazquez also claimed that this CEU “investigation” was somehow “worse in light of a new in-depth investigation by MRC Business in partnership with Bongino Report content manager Matt Palumbo illustrating how Alex Soros’s numerous visits to President Joe Biden’s White House over the years typically corresponded with major policy announcements and directives that aligned with his own political interests.” Palumbo, if you’ll remember, is the right-wing toady who wrote paid propaganda for Chinese criminal Guo Wengui.
Vazquez returned for a May 19 meltdown over John Oliver defending a radio station that reported on ICE whereabouts:
HBO’s cheap rent-a-clown John Oliver — whose delivery is about as funny as a tax audit — made one of the dumbest attempts to excuse a George Soros-controlled radio station unmasking undercover ICE agents conducting operations in gang-infested San Jose, California.
Oliver lashed out at FCC Chairman Brendan Carr during his Sunday show for daring to investigate KCBS 740 AM anchor Bret Burkhart after he gave exact descriptions and makes of the vehicles ICE agents were reportedly using, including specific locations on January 26.
Oliver based his reporting on alerts from the leftist Rapid Response Network, a community-based group which fights against deportation initiatives. After replaying the clip of Burkhart’s asinine report, Oliver squawked: “But, crucially: That report’s also pretty basic. I.C.E. was in the community, community groups and government officials were talking about it, and local news covered it.” Oliver even jested that Burkhart had a “remarkably soothing voice for a news report describing something as alarming as I.C.E. agents in unmarked vehicles.”
Oliver “humorously” compared ICE agents to a tiger that mauls humans. He can’t imagine illegal aliens that have mauled humans to death.
What Oliver glossed over was that Burkhart’s reporting mentioned that ICE agents were “currently carrying out an operation on the East Side of town,” indicating that the agents were still in the general vicinity of East San Jose when their vehicles were doxxed.
As before, Vazquez offered no evidence whatsoever that Soros was personally involved in the coverage decision, or why it was supposedly a bad thing for a news station to report news beyond a supposed “threat from any gang activity anywhere within East San Jose, which is notoriously a hotbed for violence.” Um, aren’t these armed law enforcement officers who can presumably take care of themselves?
Also, Vazquez’s idea of cogent “media research” was to headline his post “Shaddap Zazu!” since Oliver voiced that “Disney comic relief character” in the recent CGI remake of “The Lion King.”
Vazquez spent a June 11 post raging that Soros spent money on his preferred political causes — you know, just like right-wing billionaires do:
If you thought that George Soros’s empire was taking a break to lick its wounds following President Donald Trump’s victory in November, think again. A group backed by the notorious left-wing billionaire is unleashing a fortune to achieve a leftist dream: to finally turn the state of Texas into a Democrat stronghold.
The Wall Street Journal reported June 9 that the Soros-backed Texas Majority PAC “launched a ‘Blue Texas’ initiative Monday along with the Texas Democratic Party and a group of county parties, aiming to organize tens of thousands of volunteers, recruit candidates and boost turnout ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.”
Texas campaign finance data reveal that Soros had personally funneled at least a sizable $7,450,000 into Texas Majority PAC’s coffers between 2022 and 2025 alone, with his Democracy PAC II adding another $850,000 within that same period. That brings the total Soros funding to $8,300,000 over just the past couple of years.
Vazquez didn’t explain why he calls out only Soros and not rich right-wingers for spending money on political causes. He concluded by ranting, “The thought of Texas becoming the bright, shiny, new conduit of the extremist Soros agenda is indeed a very chilling thought. Americans beware.” And again, he offered no evidence that anything in the “Soros agenda” is “extremist” — he just thinks that anyone who’s not as right-wing as he is must be “extreme.”