Reuters SCOOP: **NEWS-BREAKING SPECULATION** about Soros, San Francisco, Canada, Arabs, and OWS!!

[Sparkly]

Thank GOODNESS Reuters has exposed this!!

Who's behind the Wall Street protests?
By Mark Egan and Michelle Nichols | Reuters – 2 hrs 19 mins ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Anti-Wall Street protesters say the rich are getting richer while average Americans suffer, but the group that started it all may have benefited indirectly from the largesse of one of the world's richest men.

I didn't even know there was a "Group that started it all!" That would imply some real organization on the left!

There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.

Reuters sure has the inside track to key sources within the Washington Conservative Cocktail Party community. No doubt one of their imbedded journalists overheard this "much speculation" while valiantly sipping sparkling Moscato. Several more intrepid inbeds, I mean embeds, must have consolidated their observations to report that Soros' name "keeps coming up" among "conservative critics." That is certainly front-page newsworthy!!

(But why is the protest "disparate?" Didn't they just explain in the first sentence that "Anti-Wall Street protesters say the rich are getting richer while average Americans suffer"? Maybe these confused, disparate protesters all put the words in a different order. "Rich average richer while getting Americans are suffer the." It's no wonder nobody can figure out what they want.)

But back to the question: How did Soros and the protesters explain this somehow-underhanded connection?

Soros and the protesters deny any connection. But (I knew there had to be a "but!") Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada which started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street.

We should have guessed Canada was involved in this! Them and their abysmal health-care system they pretend to like but WE know they secretly hate. (Sometimes they have to WAIT to see a doctor or get surgery. I know!! Can you imagine?!)

And "Adbusters" -- I mean that group is so... Their agenda is so totally - well you know what I mean, and they're just trying to interfere here because of, that thing... (Okay, I've never heard of them but I know we'll be hearing a lot more soon. Thank goodness they and their dirty little secrets have become exposed at last!) Damn commies! Welcome to Democracy, where we don't HAVE "marketing campaigns!"

Moreover, Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground.

Okay, that seals it right there. Whenever people "share some ideological ground," you know what it means. It means that someone in Canada is out to destroy America by launching an evil marketing campaign across the border causing Americans to act like Arabs and destroy all the job creators!

He actually told reporters, "I can understand their sentiment." WHOA!! Who's got the pepper spray?!

And he's not alone. Another far-left activist actually said this: "I look at what's happening on Wall Street and my view is, boy, I understand how those people feel." Oh wait, that was Mitt Romney. Nevermind.

Pressed further for his views on the movement and the protesters, Soros refused to be drawn in.

He was given a microphone to drive home the point he paid the Canadians to help the Americans make, and he didn't even say anything? Well that's weird. On the conservative side, microphones and persuasive words - even marketing campaigns, and even if it's all speculation -- are THE name of the game.

But conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh summed up the speculation when he told his listeners last week, "George Soros money is behind this."

Yeah, like that.

You have to keep reading to get to the parts about a suspicious editorial the "Hungarian-American" wrote in 2009, from which half a sentence is quoted, and the fact that he supported the Democratic president. So surely that shows his guilt, right there. Plus he donated to some organizations he believed in. Where will the madness end?! They were related to things like foreign relations and human rights, for crying out loud!!

But here's the REAL tie-in. Get this. He donated to the Tides Center, which Reuters made sure to note is based in San-Francisco (we all know what THAT means). They "act almost like" a clearing house for other donors, providing funds to "liberal causes" like the Ford Foundation, which is practically unraveling the very fabric of society, and the Gates Foundation, whose agenda is surely totally against rich people. Just like Soros is.

So Tides gave Adbusters a whopping $185,000 over a decade. That's like $18,500 a year, people. And it included nearly $26,000 between 2007 and 2009. Do the math! We're talking almost $9,000 per year from this shady organization that George Soros contributes to.

And according to Adbusters, 95% of their funding comes from subscribers to their magazine, which wields powerful influence with its enormous 120,000 subscribers. "George Soros's ideas are quite good, many of them. I wish he would give Adbusters some money, we sorely need it," said a co-founder. "He's never given us a penny."

"Aides to Soros say any connection is tenuous" (well of course they do) "and that Soros has never heard of Adbusters" (oh sure, as IF he has so much money he wouldn't track what went from his account to Adbusters since July 13th. I mean, it could amount in the hundreds)!

"Soros himself declined comment." Oh really. So he was just too busy to answer the Real Questions about how up to .001% of his financial contributions went to the inventive marketing campaign of an anti-Capitalist Canadian group out to make Americans think they're suffering in order to make them act like Arabs to further hurt the nice job-creating folks on Wall Street, as if THEY haven't suffered enough, all in order to push through his Agenda!

You don't even have to read the rest to get a sense of his Agenda. Just scan the article -- it's full of words like Hungarian, Canadian, Arab, Tunisia, Egypt, Tahrir, Vancouver, Iran, China, foreign, anti-capitalist, liberal, rage, toxic, provocative, anarchist, demands, battle-ready mob, sexuality, violence... You don't need to be some book-smart liberal intellectual to know that sounds really bad.

(So when did Rupert buy Reuters?)

http://news.yahoo.com/whos-behind-wall-st-protests-110834998.html

[Kennah]

1. What, no French Connection? I thought they were responsible for all things liberal.

[Sparkly]

2. They speak French in Canada.

It's so obvious.

[chade]

3. Come ON

"George Soros?" This isn't even fun anymore.... That's honestly the best they can come up with? Put a little creativity into it, for god's sake.

[Sparkly]

6. I thought the Tides -> Adbusters angle was pretty creative.

But yeah.

No doubt some young cub reporter is working on a promising lead -- the anti-Christ returned as a beagle as seen in toast by a lady in Topeka wielding evil to make Americans believe they're unemployed, or something -- but meanwhile, George Soros is it.

Maybe they'll catch him paying for dinner at a restaurant owned by a woman who had an abortion performed by a doctor born in a foreign country who donated to an organization in Canada, co-founded by the man who owns the beagle incarnation of the anti-Christ seen by the woman in Topeka in her toast.

[EdMaven]

18. Not creative at all. Tides Fdn *has* made grants to adbusters in the past. They're not hiding it.

#
ides Foundation List of Grantees (2004)
Adbusters Media Foundation. $80321.77 CANADA www.adbusters.org.
Addiction Counselor Certification of Oregon. $3800.00 UNITED STATES OF
AMERIC ...
www.tides.org/fileadmin/user/.../Tides-Foundation-List-of-Grantees-2004.pdf
Labeled Tides.org
#
Tides Foundation List of Grantees (2007)
Adbusters Media Foundation. $15562.35 CANADA www.adbusters.org.
Advancement Project. $150000.00 U.S.A.. AEPOCH. $2500.00 U.S.A. www.
aepoch.org ...
www.tides.org/fileadmin/user/.../Tides-Foundation-List-of-Grantees-2007.pdf
Labeled Tides.org
#
Tides Foundation List of Grantees (2005)
Adbusters Media Foundation. $12019.04 CANADA www.adbusters.org.
Adolescent Consultation Services, Inc. $5000.00 UNITED STATES OF AMERIC ...
www.tides.org/fileadmin/user/.../Tides-Foundation-List-of-Grantees-2005.pdf
Labeled Tides.org

http://www.tides.org/utility/search/?cx=003949354664956518032%3A9pat6u0jfgw&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=adbusters&sa.x=0&sa.y=0#1094


One of the things that keep people from seeing through the matrix is that the 'left' doesn't give creedence to anything the 'right' says & righties don't give creedence to anything the left says. Both dismiss the other side as brainwashed or manipulative liars. but it ain't all lies on either side.

[Sparkly]

27. Way to miss the point!

1. "They're not hiding it" because there's nothing to hide! Neither is a terrorist organization! :eyes:

2. Nobody on "the left" disputed this small aspect of the "speculative story" at all.

3. George Soros -> Open Society -> Tides Foundation -> Adbusters -> a media campaign -> Occupy Wall Street movement is a patently ABSURD argument for this "speculation" that Soros is The Force behind OWS.

As a Reuters writer said, "The fact that Soros gave money to Tides and that Tides gave money to Adbusters in no way means that there’s an “indirect financial link” between the two. That’s like saying that there’s an “indirect financial link” between me and Mitt Romney, because I lend money to Citigroup (I’m a depositor at Citibank), and Citigroup has given money to Romney." http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/idUS11735271620111013

[EdMaven]

28. Here's what you said:

"I thought the Tides -> Adbusters angle was pretty creative."

And being a depositor at Citibank is not analogous to one foundation donating money to another. Foundations donate to other foundation *specifically because* they want to further the work of the other foundation.

Bank depositors do not.

Soros is known to have given funding to "color revolutions" in europe. not a big leap to think he might do the same anywhere else.

of course the wingers are floating this to further their own agenda. nevertheless, it's not some outrageous claim. and in any case, the agenda soros would be funding would not be his alone, just like the one the koch's are funding is not theirs alone.

there is money & influence behind most mass movements in history, and that's a stone-cold fact. contrary to the hollywood story line, it's not all about isolated little norma rae's deciding they suddenly had enough and spontaneously coming together.

[Sparkly]

29. I can't believe you're actually arguing this!

Yes, the Tides -> Adbusters angle, as evidence that George Soros is somehow backing OWS through an "indirect financial link" with a small Canadian organization that ran a marketing campaign is creative to the point of nuts!

Look at the dates you cited -- there WAS no OWS then, nor was there from 2007-2009.

Look also at Reuter's egg-on-its-face corrected article which begins: "George Soros isn't a financial backer of the Wall Street protests, despite speculation by critics including radio host Rush Limbaugh that the billionaire investor has helped fuel the anti-capitalist movement." http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-wallstreet-protests-funding

Look also at the fact Open Society earmarked its donations.

There are so many degrees of separation here, somebody reeeeeally had to work hard to come up with this one.

[EdMaven]

31. I'm arguing that it's *possible,* not that it's a *fact*. I don't take anything the media

tells us as gospel.

i do my own research to the extent i'm able. and when i saw RAN, a primary organizer of the WTO protests, was running trainings & hiring people, i figured something was up.

and indeed, something is up.

i'm not really interested in arguing the point. you have your opinion, i have mine, & i've given my reasons.

[Sparkly]

32. Just like it's *possible* that John Kerry's wounds were self-inflicted.

And it's *possible* that the Clintons had a bunch of people murdered.

And it's *possible* President Obama was born in Kenya.

(Michelle Malkin: "Well? Don't you WONDER?")

Sure, anything is *possible,* especially when it's all a matter of opinion!! :rofl:

Steve Martin, from "What I Believe" : "And people say I'm crazy for believing this... but I believe that robots are stealing my luggage."

[EdMaven]

33. i didn't say everything was a matter of opinion. I said it's my opinion, based on the facts

available to me, which are:

1. soros has self-admittedly assisted dissident movements in europe & elsewhere.
2. soros has donated to the tides foundation.
3. the tides foundation has donated to adbusters (& the rainforest action network & the ruckus society, two groups who were important in organizing the WTO protests & other anti-globalization protests. and indymedia, which emerged during that period.).
4. RAN was hiring more people & running trainings something like 6 months ago.

i didn't claim it was fact
i didn't claim soros was masterminding the protests.

i claimed it was possible that soros was providing some funding.

there was no credible evidence for the other claims you mention, unlike this one, where there is credible evidence ON THE PUBLIC RECORD, not on some winger psyops site.

my opinion. i think DU is for discussion. you want to tar me as a limbaugh follower & nutbag, go right ahead. i've given my reasons & i'm done.

[Blue_Tires]

26. Yeah, the only thing missing from that piece is the link with ACORN, the New Black Panthers

and the cover-up of the President's "real" birth certificate...A shame he couldn't tie all that together...

[myrna minx]

4. The didn't mention the reverse vampires.

Way to go, Reuters.

[Sparkly]

7. The what?

I don't know what reverse vampires are BUT I'm sure that is only because Reuters is vetting its sources to make absolutely sure that there really is speculation by some who suggest things that often come up and are then summed up by Rush Limbaugh.

So I'll just wait for that level of journalistic integrity before I go believing in things that might not be true, thank you very much.

[myrna minx]

14. Sorry - it was a Simpsons reference that had to do with wild

speculation. Reuters really outdid itself with this article.

[Kennah]

5. A serious response to your query about Rupert

Reuters is owned by Thomson Reuters.

Chairman of the Board is David Thomson with a family net worth of $23 billion, richest family in Canada, 16th richest in the world. Perhaps he aspires to knock Rupert from his perch by outcrazying Rupert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_Reuters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_K.R._Thomson

[Sparkly]

8. It's hard to make ends meet on $23 billion.

The disparate protesters are clueless about that.

[Mz Pip]

9. Bookmarking

Your comments are priceless. I'm sure I will get this in a day or so.

[undeterred]

10. Its highly amusing that they think we operate the same way they do.

:shrug:

[McCamy Taylor]

11. So what? Soros can have a Super Pac, too. Perry has six of them and I don't see the MSMN calling

that suspicious.

Unlimited election spending means unlimited election spending, whoever you are. So, suck on it Injustice Scalia. You just enabled the Mexican take over of Washington, since the world's richest man is Mexican.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

12. "Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda"

Not at all unlike the Tea Party movement which is a Trojan horse for a secret Koch Bros agenda?

Even if their claim is true (and it isn't), they're blazing hypocrites, considering their butt-kissing loyalty to the Koch Bros/Tea Party.

[kimsarah]

13. Not just George Soros

... I hear Keith Olbermann and Cenk Uyger are behind OWS too!

[rbixby]

15. Wow, it seems to me that there isn't much money at all behind this

That's the beautiful thing about this movement. There's no PAC behind the funding, hell, these people are depending on food donations from kind supporters to keep things going!

[Sparkly]

21. Right

And because they're surviving on donations, Michelle Malkin today wrote that they're "professional freeloaders," if I recall her term correctly.

They even wanted "gently used" clothes -- the nerve!! And a "free barbecue grill!" Next thing you know, they'll be asking for water!! Where will it end?? Hey people -- that's taxpayer air you're breathing!!

[Matariki]

16. Reuters Recants Their Statement - Calls it a Technical Glich

Reuters recants statment:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-wallstreet-protests-funding-idUSTRE79D01Q20111014


And a writer with Reuters really lays into his employer for the story:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/idUS11735271620111013

<snip>
Reuters cannot — must not — get a reputation as a right-wing media outlet. We have to report the news as impartially as we can. In this case, there was no story, and nothing to report. Inventing a tenuous and intellectually-dishonest link between Soros and OWS might get us traffic from Matt Drudge — but that’s traffic which, frankly, we don’t particularly value or care for. Much more importantly, it serves to undermine the heart of what Reuters stands for. And we can never afford to do that.

[Sparkly]

20. Ha!!

"Which is why today’s Reuters story about the connection between Soros and OWS has elicited so much derision around the blogosphere."

I thought it was just me! :rofl: I don't read the blogosphere enough.

How did this even get published?!?

[Matariki]

22. I know, right?

[EdMaven]

17. It's a good guess there's some funding & organization in the background. I noticed a while back

rainforest action network was doing trainings again.

They were central in the prep for WTO & i'd guess they're in the background of this one too. kalle lasn of adbusters is tied into that milieu. If I remember right, RAN got funding from the Tides foundation among others. Another behind the scenes player at WTO was the Ruckus Society, which also got foundation money. There's also the indymedia shops, which also get funding -- the media people at some of the ows sites seeem to be associated.

Despite hollywood movies, this stuff just doesn't happen spontaneously. like the teabaggery.

[bigtree]

19. WHOA!! Who's got the pepper spray?!

too funny! :rofl:

[Marr]

23. Well, the effort to discredit it is certainly well-funded and organized. n/t

[nobodyspecial]

24. If it was being funded

there would be buses, food and porta-potties.

[Blue_Tires]

25. Holy damn...I used to have such a lofty opinion of Reuters, too...

Did they just slightly re-word a Fox story or what??

[Buns_of_Fire]

30. It doesn't matter. Follow it 6 levels deep and it all leads to Kevin Bacon anyway.

From the Hungarian Connection (the Gabor sisters, Gabor Szabo, Gaborade, etc.) to the Mythbusters Connection (why DOES Jamie always wear a beret, anyway?), to the movie "Canadian Bacon" (which conveniently ties it all back to Kevin), it's obviously Canada's fault.

In other words, much thundering flatulence signifying whatever thundering flatulence is supposed to signify.