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So ... that happened.
Oct. 14th, 2011 06:21 amYesterday, Reuters posted a story titled "Who's Behind the Wall Street Protests?" The conclusion?
Billionaire liberal and conservative bete noir George Soros!
The article stated:
Well, I'm sold!
The article, naturally, led to a bit of an online criticism:
Billionaire liberal and conservative bete noir George Soros!
The article stated:
There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.Once posted, one of the reporters immediately tweeted:
Soros and the protesters deny any connection. But Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada which started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street. Moreover, Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground.
Is #soros cash behind #ows protests? We took a look and here's what we found http://t.co/v5rto1FY @michellenichols @reuters #occupywallstThe evidence:
1. Soros’ Open Society gave money to The Tides Center.And it wasn't even that much money:
2. The Tides Center, a San Francisco-based quasi-clearinghouse for other nonprofit donations, gave money to AdBusters Magazine.
3. AdBusters—an anti-corporate Canadian magazine teenagers read when they’re 16 and listening to lots of Rage Against the Machine and dreaming of protesting globalization before they spend four years at Colgate, afterwards, ending up with a job at Wieden+Kennedy or something—made a poster suggesting people Occupy Wall Street.
4. AdBusters becomes relevant for the first time in, like, seven years when people actually Occupied Wall Street.
5. Reuters quotes Soros regarding Occupy Wall Street, context aside, as saying “I can understand their sentiment.”
6. Conclusion: George Soros is behind Occupy Wall Street.
7. Boom: Drudge Link.
Soros funds the organization Open Society, which between 2007 and 2009 gave $3.5 million to a group called the Tides Center, a clearinghouse for liberal donors that distributes grants of more than $100 million each year. The Tides Center gave $185,000 between 2001 and 2010 to Adbusters — the Vancouver-based anti-consumerist organization that helped conceive of Occupy Wall Street — and $26,000 of that came between 2007 and 2009.Of course, this account leaves out Reuters's critical piece of evidence: The story included a quote from Rush Limbaugh that "George Soros's money is behind this."
So, to sum up, years before the Occupy Wall Street protests were even a gleam in anyone's eye, a trickle of Soros's money went to one of the groups involved. Compared to the Koch brothers and their well-documented financial ties to the tea party, it is very nearly a rounding error.
Well, I'm sold!
The article, naturally, led to a bit of an online criticism:
The Atlantic‘s Alexis Madrigal: “This is how you do a hit piece on a distributed movement. Invent a leader with a Limbaugh quote and then attack him and the fictional mob he’s hired. Wow.”But wait, there's more! After a several changes to the story, where paragraphs were removed, rewritten, and then restored to their original form hours later, the final headline reads - wait for it - :
The Awl: “A+ Traffic-Trolling.”
New York's Noreen Malone: “This story might not be out of place on Fox News, but at Reuters, which has always taken pains to stay above the partisan fray, it smells suspiciously like Drudge bait.”
Max Read of Gawker: “which is better drudge bait, ‘SOROS BEHIND TK‘ or ‘MICHELLE OBAMA EATS FRIED TK’”
New York Times reporter and The Lede blogger J. David Goodman: “Turns up little besides a shaky connection.”
Reuters columnist and social media shaman Anthony DeRosa: “I’d sum up my personal feelings on the article as: that’s not @Reuters journalism.”
Reuters’ own financial columnist Felix Salmon: “I think it’s ridiculous.”
Notorious NYU journalism wonk Jay Rosen: “Seriously, Reuters? This is pathetic…I don’t see everything they run. But I do respect their operation. And I’ve never seen anything that lame from Reuters.”
Executive editor of Thomson Reuters Digital Jim Impoco, following Jay Rosen’s comments: “That is putting it kindly.”
Salon’s Justin Elliot: “Is Kevin Bacon the force behind Occupy Wall Street? It’s irresponsible not to ask.”
Soros: not a funder of Wall Street protestsTa da!