The Media Research Center has long been trying to dismiss ProPublica as a biased outlet funded by the evil George Soros (even though Soros foundations provide only a tiny fraction of ProPublica’s funding). The MRC’s Julia Seymour attempts to salvage the attack in a Dec. 13 post, complaining that “The Washington Post defended liberal billionaire George Soros and his funding of left-wing journalism outlet ProPublica.”
Seymour highlighted how Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin “blasted the local Louisville Courier-Journal as a biased left-wing paper which just won one of ProPublica’s 2019 local investigative fellowships. He warned the bias would only worsen with ProPublica footing the bills and cited liberal donors (including Soros) to the non-profit group.” But she didn’t mention that Bevin has a personal grudge against the Courier-Journal, in part for having exposed how he gave a massive raise to a friend he hired as a state official.
Seymour also complained that Bevin’s attack on Soros’ funding of ProPublica could be seen as anti-Semitic, insisting that “Attacking critics of Soros as anti-Semitic even when there is no basis for the claim, is the new media tactic to defend the liberal billionaire from scrutiny about where his money goes.”
Seymour then ranted: “Investigative journalism non-profit ProPublica is a left-wing operation, operating on funding from many liberal foundations including The Sandler Foundation, Park Foundation and Open Society Foundations just to name a few.” In fact, ProPublica takes a nonpartisan approach to its investigation; for instance, a recent article on state governors who block constituents on social media looked at Democrats and Republicans alike. But Seymour doesn’t want to admit that.
So, count this as another MRC fail.