October 21, 2024
Just weeks before the 2024 election, the billionaire Democratic megadonor George Soros poured new water on to the American media. The Soros-funded nonprofit group won control of radio behemoth Audacy by a 3-2 vote in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this September, sending fire sirens off across the Republican Party and the conservative media. The contract, widely denounced as a political game, places more than 200 radio stations under Soros’s son Alex Soros’s tutelage and the board of trustees associated with Soros-affiliated groups.
Soros’s Media Empire Grows
Audacy, America’s second largest radio broadcaster, had been in bankruptcy this year, clearing the way for Soros Fund Management to purchase more than $400 million of the debt. By September, the FCC approved the transfer of control to the Soros-financed Fund for Policy Reform, a nonprofit at the center of the deal. Conservative commentators are now calling the acquisition a “sham,” arguing that it was “fast-tracked” to benefit the Democratic Party ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
Brendan Carr, an FCC commissioner who voted against the agreement, called the move “unprecedented” and said he was concerned with Soros’s increasing influence in media. “This isn’t just about the control of radio stations—it’s about controlling the narrative and suppressing conservative voices,” Carr said in an interview .
Soros and his Political Plan.
The “kingmaker of chaos” George Soros, as his detractors called him, has for decades applied his largesse to political campaigns by financing liberal causes and leftist media. Soros has funded liberal projects with billions through his Open Society Foundations, and his burgeoning influence ranges from education to criminal justice. His recent purchase of Audacy, opponents contend, tries to secure power over one of the last great outlets of conservative propaganda: talk radio.
David D Smith, executive chairman of the Sinclair Broadcast Group, was similarly concerned as were most Republicans: “A left-wing Looney Tune now controls the airwaves in every major market across America. That’s not just concerning—it’s dangerous.” Smith’s company, which owns conservative media outlets, has been a vocal opponent of Soros’s growing presence in media.
Manipulating the System?
Republicans have criticized the FCC’s handling of the Audacy transaction and charged that the commission went over the top to get approval quickly. Audacy had conceded before that foreign ownership would exceed the 25% legal minimum but, after reviewing it post-licensing, the FCC agreed to allow the agreement to go forward, only with a review of foreign ownership that critics call extremely illegitimate.
Carr, one of the commissioners opposing the deal, noted that this could lead to foreign interests gaining undue influence over U.S. media before the proper security checks are completed. “The FCC’s handling of this case undermines its own regulations, leaving the door wide open for foreign interference at a time when media integrity is paramount,” Carr said .
The Challenge To Right-Wing Media
Acquisition of Audacy puts conservative content in jeopardy, especially those stations such as Miami’s Radio Libre and Missouri’s KFTK-FM that have historically hosted Right-wing talk shows. The conservative talk radio personality Mark Levin was quick to condemn the deal as an outright Soros power grab. “George Soros isn’t buying these stations to promote free speech or public discourse—he’s doing it to control what you hear, to silence conservative voices, and to manipulate the 2024 election,” Levin said.
Soros’s Power Is Not Only In Radio.
This isn’t the first time Soros has dabbled in media ownership. The Soros groups have recently been implicated in efforts to discredit the conservative press, such as the Global Disinformation Index that encourages advertisers to disinvest from right-of-centre news outlets. These tactics, coupled with his investment in major media companies, have led many to believe that Soros is building a “censorship machine” to shut down information flow to Americans.
While the FCC continues to be blasted and GOP congressional investigators investigate the agreement, Republicans believe Soros’s control of the media could damage the country in the long run. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) sounded a alarm: “This isn’t just about one election. It’s about whether we allow a single billionaire to shape public opinion and suppress speech across the entire nation.”
A Call for Action
By 2024, the election is on the horizon and conservatives are resisting a coordinated campaign of Soros and his cronies to occupy the public square. To those of us on the Right, this new purchase represents another case of the Left-wing class harnessing their power to warp media headlines and even the playing field for them.
“We must hold the FCC accountable,” Levin urged, calling for further investigation into the deal. “This is about more than just radio—this is about our freedom, our elections, and the future of this country.”
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