Soros Spending Millions to Spread Liberal Agenda

New details of far-left financier's efforts to radically change America

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," June 6, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Factor Follow-up" segment tonight: As you may know, far-left billionaire George Soros wants to radically change American society. And in order to do that he has to defeat not only Republican candidates but also non-liberal media like the Fox News Channel. So Soros is funding at least 30 -– 30 -- media operations, mostly on the Net, all of whom are attacking FNC.

Joining us now from Alexandria, Virginia, Dan Gainor from the Media Research Center, who is investigating the situation. You know, Mr. Gainor, this is interesting because some of the Soros-funded media operations were the ones that attacked Breitbart in the Weiner deal, in the Weiner-gate affair. And Soros is punching big money into those things. Give us the headline.

DAN GAINOR, MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER: Well, the headline is that George Soros has spent more than $48 million influencing media, buying into all sorts of different media outlets, and it's working. He has got the influence. He's got connections to the top media outlets in the country -- more than 30 major media outlets in the country, some of the top journalists. You're talking about Jill Abramson who was just named executive director of New York Times; Len Downie, former editor of The Washington Post -- he's still a VP there; Christiane Amanpour from ABC and a host of other journalists are on the boards of these things.

O'REILLY: All right. Let's take them one by one.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: Let's take them one by one.

GAINOR: Sure.

O'REILLY: What is that most important media operation, in your opinion, that Soros funds?

GAINER: I would say that's probably Think Progress. That's a part of the Center for American Progress. It is -- Center for American Progress gets more than $7 million from Soros. So it's -- we need to count that among our numbers.

O'REILLY: That's John Podesta's organization?

GAINOR: Exactly, yes.

O'REILLY: OK. So he's in there and they have a website. Podesta was actually on "Fox News Sunday" yesterday. That shocked me because he has been brutal toward Fox News. So they have their operation there. And then it goes -- tell me the names of the other media organizations and then we will get into Christiane Amanpour and all of that. Go ahead.

GAYNOR: Well, the one Christiane Amanpour is on the board of directors for Center for Public Interest. Then there is Center for Investigative Reporting. ProPublica, which just won its second Pulitzer Prize, Soros has given a quarter of a million dollars to them. That's the group that got Sandler Foundation money, and the Sandler Foundation is committed to funding the progressive infrastructure. So there is no doubt where they are going with that.

O'REILLY: OK. We've been reporting this, as you know, for years, that Soros has attempted to buy influence in the media. We believe it, you believe it. Now Media Matters is a big one. They get Soros money from a bunch of -- a roundabout way, correct?

GAINOR: Yes. They -- Media Matters gets actually not even from roundabout way. Now they get it directly. Same with Free Press, this group that he funds, one of their jobs is out there to try to get government funding for the media. So, you know, Free Press is out there trying to get $35 billion in government funding for the media. When that happens, if that ever can miraculously happen, do you think it would go to Fox News or any conservative outlet? No, it would go to the NPRs and AlterNets of the world.

O'REILLY: OK. Now, you mentioned a new editor of The New York Times, Ms. Abramson replacing Bill Keller. How is she tied into Soros?

GAINOR: She is on the board of ProPublica. She's on the board of advisers.

O'REILLY: OK. So ProPublica is an organization that gets Soros money. It does mostly left-wing reporting. So she is on that board. Then you mentioned Len Downie, the former editor of The Washington Post. He's on ProPublica, too?

GAINOR: Yes.

O'REILLY: OK. So that's…

(CROSSTALK)

GAINOR: And you know, Len Downie…

O'REILLY: Go ahead.

GAINOR: I was going to say but Len Downie is also -- he's one of the people who has come out with a major media report advocating for government funding for journalism.

O'REILLY: Oh, absolutely. Look, when Downie was running The Washington Post, it was much more left-wing than it is now. Once they got Downie out there, it kind of drifted into the center a little bit. All right. So basically the overarch on this is that one man, George Soros, has spent $48 million buying his way in to mostly Internet media, which does have much more influence than it used to and it's working. You say he has accomplished what he wants to accomplish.

GAINOR: Well, he has certainly gone a long way toward accomplishing it. What his main goal is, ultimately he is not pro-America. He's not -- he is against most of the things that people watching this show right now might support.

O'REILLY: Oh, absolutely. He wants a radical change and he wants to destroy the Fox News Channel. We have to fight these people every day. There is no doubt about it. Mr. Gainor, thanks very much. We appreciate it.

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