According to Beck, Soros is a sneaky and sly ideologue who just loves to do almost everything under the cover of darkness, using a lot of front groups and organizations to hide his real agenda.
Rupert Murdoch Reportedly Funds North Korean Regime
Glenn Beck's recent attacks on the character and machinations of George Soros have raised speculation as to how much these stones have to do with "social justice" or if they are prompted by Soros' arch enemy, Rupert Murdoch. In any case, it is interesting to compare the two billionaires and to speculate who is doing what to whom. And the even bigger question: why?
The answers are not only based in the political and social views of the two men, but how they conduct their businesses and how they spread their wealth.
George Soros is almost twice as wealthy as Murdoch and spends a much greater portion of that wealth contributing to liberal causes and charities:
THE GENEROSITY INDEX
“The Giving Game: Billionaire Edition”(p. 85). Condé Nast Portfolio looks at which billionaires are giving the most to charitable causes, relative to their wealth; which are giving the least; and who is refusing to say. ... The top 10 most generous billionaires (in order of giving): Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, George Soros, John Kluge, Michael Bloomberg, David Koch, Pierre Omidyar, George Kaiser, and Michael Dell. ... Among the wealthiest people in the country with no record of public giving in the past several years (in order of giving): Kirk Kerkorian, Sumner Redstone, Anne Cox Chambers, Steve Ballmer, and Rupert Murdoch.
George Soros' Open Society Foundations has funneled money into welfare organizations throughout the world and if any theme might be given to his philanthropy it is "social justice." In a very real sense, Soros' philanthropy also focuses on politics both national and international:
Open Societies Statement:
Working to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens
That statement certainly sounds noble enough, but without the word "tolerant" the statement falls flat. It can be said that from a liberal POV, Open Societies is all-inclusive, meaning: conservatism is, by nature, exclusive. In contrast to Soros' philanthropic focus, Murdoch has been putting more money into political campaigns and media outlets for the Republican Party. In response to questions put to him by stockholders in NewsCorp as to transparency, Murdoch had this to say: “We’ve considered[it] from time to time. I don’t believe we’ll be doing it again. We’ll see.”
And would he be willing to involve shareholders in this process?
“No,” he said. “Sorry, you have the right to vote us off the board.”
And while Murdoch aptly points out that NewsCorp has contributed more money to Democrat campaigns in the past, he has never divulged the value of time and promotion FOX News has given to conservative political campaigns. It runs in the billions, to be sure.
So here we have two men in different realms of power: Soros has international power and (ostensible) goals of social justice, while Murdoch wields more national power through the media and has (ostensible) goals formed from pure capitalism. It's almost a fight between pure liberal and pure conservative (although Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic would disagree about anyone on the Right being a "pure" conservative). Murdoch's Glenn Beck has been trying desperately to make "compassion" and "social justice" pejorative to the lower middle and middle class, thereby depicting left-leaning philanthropists like Soros as people who "embrace the darkness" (at least, that's the way Lou Engle would put it). George Soros has been fighting back with contributions to organizations like Moveon.org and Media Matters.* Soros knows, however, that Murdoch owns too much of the media to ever be attacked effectively: sicking the Beck-Bulldog on Soros is something Murdoch will never cease to do until Soros is buried (rhetorically speaking, of course).
There is an insightful article in the Nov. 10th post of News Corpse that eviscerates Glenn Beck's "special" broadcast, The Puppet Master (I especially like the flipped-off title with Glenn Beck as The Muppet Pastor). It brings out Murdoch's machinations and scrutinizes them with the same criteria used to skewer Soros.
Conspiracy theory #4,876: So, is this feud merely a distraction? Is it a cover-up for the REAL players in world power? If I were a spy/mystery/sci-fi freak, I suppose it could be. But think of this: the Soros-Murdoch war may be a metaphor for the age-old war of "social justice vs. capitalism." Both sides may want you to look at it that way.
On the other hand both sides may just want you to look the other way. Just a thought.
*Irony of Ironies: WASHINGTON -- In one of the more clever moments of issue advocacy in recent memory, the progressive media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, successfully won an online auction Thursday to have a "friendly lunch" with its long-time nemesis, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. [And don't forget that Soros donated one million dollars to Media Matters just days before the elections]
UPDATE 11/13/2010:
In the category of "nobody saw this coming" one of Sarah Palin's top aides, Randy Scheuneman, (foreign policy) has been on George Soros' payroll for years! Beck and Palin have some 'splainin' to do!
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