U.S. Agency Sorry For Calling Soros ‘Non-Practicing Jew Of Flexible Morals’
George Soros Image by Getty Images
The head of a U.S. government agency apologized to financier George Soros and his foundation after airing a program that upheld conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic tropes, the Washington Post reported.
John Lansing, chief executive and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, an agency that shares news abroad, sent letters to Soros and Open Society Foundation president Patrick Gaspard, extending his apologies for the segment — a 15-minute, Spanish-language package that called Soros a “non-practicing Jew of flexible morals.”
“It was based on extremely poor and unprofessional journalism, and it was utterly offensive in its anti-Semitism and clear bias,” Lansing wrote in the letter to Soros, which was obtained by the Post. “I take this breach in our fundamental obligation to provide accurate, balanced, and objective reporting very seriously.”
The program, by USAGM’s Radio and Television Martí, for audiences in Cuba, also asserted the liberal megadonor was involved in “clandestine operations that led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union” and described him as “the architect of the financial collapse of 2008,” according to the Post. In addition, it repeated the false theory that Soros was funding the caravan of migrants traveling from Mexico to the United States.
The piece is no longer online.
Lansing acknowledged the inadequate sourcing in his letter to Gaspard — Judicial Watch, a conservative group that launched an “Expose Soros” fundraising campaign, was mentioned often.
He said the program “should never have been produced in the first place.”
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
