'Fact-Checking' Giant Funnels Money from Soros, Google, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Global Propaganda Outlets

From [HERE] A report last week by Media Research Center (MRC) revealed that social demolitionist billionaire George Soros has been funding 253 groups that influence global media. 

One of those groups is The Poynter Institute, the world’s largest fact-checking giant and owner of PolitiFact. Between 2016 and 2020, The Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) received $492,000 from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. Poynter is also funded by such notable organizations as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, Ebay´s Omidyar Foundation, and others. 

Global tech giants are also counted among Poynter’s main funders. Google and subsidiary YouTube announced this month a $13.2 million fund for “fact-checking” initiatives until 2025, which will be headed by the IFCN. Poynter said in a statement that the projects will “reduce misinformation.”  

Poynter, which owns the Tampa Bay Times and other local media brands, also maintains close relationships with mainstream media outlets, coaching and training journalists and corporate media executives on certain narratives. 

The Washington Post, for example, another of Poynter’s benefactors, hires Poynter to “develop their leaders through senior-level workshops.” Aside from The Washington Post, Poynter is also hired by NBC News, Newsweek and NPR, among other media organizations. Poynter’s Senior Vice President Kelly McBride also serves as NPR’s public editor. 

Poynter’s IFCN reportedly works with 100 fact-checking organizations across the globe. Some of this work includes spreading pro-COVID-19 vaccine propaganda. According to its 2021 tax returns, Poynter spent over $300,000 in “vaccine grant programs” which aim “to support projects focused on increasing the distribution speed and capacity of fact checks to tackle COVID-19 and vaccine-related mis/disinformation.” 

But Poynter’s PolitiFact is itself a known peddler of misinformation. In 2018, for example, PolitiFact fact-checked a claim by President Trump that Twitter was shadowbanning Republicans. Shadowbanning is when a social media platform quietly limits the reach of a post without notifying the poster. PolitiFact made a desperate attempt to cover for Twitter, saying the algorithm had a “glitch,” which was quickly fixed. [MORE]