Byron York notes that George Soros is becoming quite the Democratic Party moneybag. Will he be as demonized as “rabid” Richard Scaife? (AP called him “vehement” in its write-up of Scalia’s ISI speech.) Here’s a peek at the imbalance of the coverage of these men from the old MRC Media Watch archive:
The April 21 issue of Time magazine featured its list of the “25 Most Influential” people of 1997. According to Time, if you’re a millionaire and you help conservatives, you’re contributing to the breakdown of society. If you’re a billionaire who gives solely to liberal causes, you’re seen as a savior.
On one page Time profiled Richard Scaife, whom the magazine labeled a “Conservative Agitator.” His bio began: “If conservative thinkers like Bill Bennett and Paul Weyrich are the brainpower behind the resurgent American right, the horsepower comes from Richard Mellon Scaife. For close to four decades, the 64-year-old Pennsylvanian has used his millions to back anti-liberal ideas and their proponents.” Later, Time added: “He controls the Sarah Scaife Foundation, which helps subsidize rabidly anti-Clinton magazines as well as conservative social-policy projects.” If Scaife is considered a “conservative agitator,” it would follow that George Soros would be tagged a “liberal agitator,” but Time’s subhead labeled him a “philanthropist.” Soros’ bio read: “And he has been stirring controversy by directing his dollars to an array of hot-button political causes tied to his personal ideal of an ‘open society’ and by writing an iconoclastic critique of free-market capitalism.” Among the projects promoted by this “philanthropist,” Time noted: “$1 million to help pass initiatives in California and Arizona last year that legalized medicinal use of marijuana,” and “$50 million for a fund to help legal immigrants” overcome welfare reform.