Journos Slam Liberal 'Pro-Israel' Group for Lying About Soros Money
You know things are bad when a liberal organization loses the journalists.
On Friday, the Washington Times reported that the dovish “pro-Israel” group
But instead of 'fessing up immediately to its true funding sources, a panicked J Street public relations team kept misleading the media in the hours before the Washington Times story broke – and appeared to anger some formerly-sympathetic reporters along the way.
“A set of half-truths, non-truths and ambiguities from J Street lead a reasonable person to conclude that the group tried to conceal that George Soros has been one of its largest donors for years, and to falsely claim that it had been 'open' about those donations over the past three years,” wrote The Atlantic reporter Chris Good on Friday, noting that J Street officials had lied to him earlier that day.
Aware that the Washington Times story was about to be published, J Street had contacted The Atlantic's Good on Friday morning and offered him a glowing exclusive on the group's growing “fundraising momentum.” A spokesperson for
“
Veteran liberal reporter James Besser, regarded as one of the most influential journalists in Jewish media, also offered harsh criticism of
“I was one of the many journalists who asked [
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency's
“We got tagged as having [Soros'] support without the benefit of actually getting funded!”
In May, 2009, the Associated Press reported that “Ben-Ami says liberal philanthropist George Soros attended a 2006 meeting where ideas for such a group were discussed but bowed out immediately, worried his involvement would draw criticism.”
And in a Jerusalem Post interview with Ben-Ami, Ruthie Blum Leibowitz reported that one of
On J Street's own website, a section clarifying “Myths and Facts” about the group claimed that “George Soros very publicly stated his decision not to be engaged in J Street when it was launched - precisely out of fear that his involvement would be used against the organization…J Street's Executive Director has stated many times that he would in fact be very pleased to have funding from Mr. Soros and the offer remains open to him to be a funder should he wish to support the effort.” The section, which was written in 2008, implied that Soros was not a donor.
In a Huffington Post column on Saturday, Ben-Ami admitted that his group has taken money from Soros since Fall 2008.
Like this article? Sign up for "Culture Links," CMI's weekly e-mail newsletter, by clicking here.