Fox News removes cartoon depicting George Soros as a ‘puppet master’ after ADL complains
Inside the Fox News studio in New York City. Photo by Getty Images
By Ron Kampeas December 16, 2021
(JTA) — Fox News removed from social media a cartoon depicting George Soros as a puppet master after the Anti-Defamation League called out the conservative news giant for peddling antisemitic tropes.
“As we have told @FoxNews numerous times, casting a Jewish individual as a puppet master who manipulates national events for malign purposes conjures up longstanding antisemitic tropes about Jewish power and contributes to the normalization of antisemitism,” the ADL said Wednesday in a tweet. “This needs to be removed.”
The cartoon, by A.F. Branco, depicts Soros, a Holocaust survivor and a billionaire philanthropist who gives mainly to liberal causes, as manipulating a Democratic district attorney holding up a sign saying “defund the police” and a Democratic attorney general holding up a sign saying “no bail.”
Fox removed the Facebook and Instagram posts that included the cartoon later in the day. An ADL spokesman said the organization was glad to see it gone, but did not know if it happened at ADL’s behest. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency did not receive an immediate response to a query to Fox News.
Soros has been the target of antisemitic conspiracy-mongering in recent years.
Frequently a target of right-wing anger, Soros has funded electoral races for progressive prosecutors. A number of these have favored measures including ending cash bail, which progressive argues discriminates against the poor who remain incarcerated because they can’t afford bail money. Conservatives say the practice increases crime.
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