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
(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.
—
The post Fox News removes cartoon depicting George Soros as a ‘puppet master’ after ADL complains appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO