[ April 18, 2024 ]
Read this latest dispatch from Omri Ceren, political analyst and The Israel Project senior adviser, breaking down the blockbuster AP story on how the group that helped sell Iran nuke deal also funded media. It is an extraordinary window into how media is bought and paid for. It’s deeply disturbing, like watching sausage being made.
Here’s the back-story on how and why the media supported the most dangerous “deal” in American history — Obama’s nuclear pact with Iran.
“A group the White House recently identified as a key surrogate in selling the Iran nuclear deal gave National Public Radio $100,000 last year to help it report on the pact and related issues, according to the group’s annual report. It also funded reporters and partnerships with other news outlets.” Aaron Klein notes, not mentioned in the AP article is that the Ploughshares Fund is financed by billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Institute.
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For those of you smart enough to never trust big media — here’s the concrete evidence of your “tin foil hat” theories.
AP: In The New York Times Magazine article, Rhodes explained how the administration worked with nongovernmental organizations, proliferation experts and even friendly reporters to build support for the seven-nation accord that curtailed Iran’s nuclear activity and softened international financial penalties on Tehran.
Omri Ceren: In his NYT profile, Ben Rhodes put the Ploughshares Fund at the center of the echo chamber constructed by the White House to sell the Iran deal: “We are going to discourse the [expletive] out of this… We had test drives to know who was going to be able to carry our message effectively, and how to use outside groups like Ploughshares, the Iran Project and whomever else” [a].
The Ploughshares Fund is a donation hub that has distributed millions of dollars in recent years to groups pushing the Iran deal. After Congress failed to defeat the deal, Ploughshares President Joseph Cirincione published a video and letter boasting about how the echo chamber – over 85 groups and 200 people – was created with Ploughshares money: “groups and individuals were decisive in the battle for public opinion and as independent validators… they lacked a common platform – a network to exchange information and coordinate efforts. Ploughshares Fund provided that network… we built a network of over 85 organizations and 200 individuals… We credit this model of philanthropy – facilitating collective action through high-impact grantmaking – with creating the conditions necessary for supporters of the Iran agreement to beat the political odds” [b].
The Associated Press just published a deep dive into Ploughshares’s most recent annual report, which details some of those 85 organizations and 200 individuals. The full article is pasted below. The AP broke down the network funded by Ploughshares into three kinds of groups:
— Journalists and media outlets (this is the part that’s getting the most attention, and includes NRP and at least two unnamed writers who were funded to write at Mother Jones and The Nation):
Ploughshares has funded NPR’s coverage of national security since 2005, the radio station said. Ploughshares reports show at least $700,000 in funding over that time. All grant descriptions since 2010 specifically mention Iran… Previous efforts… Ploughshares has set its sights on other media organizations, too. In a “Cultural Strategy Report” on its website, the group outlined a broader objective of “ensuring regular and accurate coverage of nuclear issues in reputable and strategic media outlets” such as The Guardian, Salon, the Huffington Post or Pro Publica. Previous efforts failed to generate enough coverage, it noted. These included “funding of reporters at The Nation and Mother Jones and a partnership with The Center for Public Integrity to create a national security desk.”
— Think tanks and nuclear-issues associations:
The 33-page document lists the groups that Ploughshares funded last year to advance its nonproliferation agenda. The Arms Control Association got $282,500; the Brookings Institution, $225,000; and the Atlantic Council, $182,500… Princeton University got $70,000 to support former Iranian ambassador and nuclear spokesman Seyed Hossein Mousavian’s “analysis, publications and policymaker engagement on the range of elements involved with the negotiated settlement of Iran’s nuclear program.”
— Lobbies:
Other groups, less directly defined by their independent nuclear expertise, also secured grants. J-Street, the liberal Jewish political action group, received $576,500 to advocate for the deal. More than $281,000 went to the National Iranian American Council.
On May 5 the NYT published its profile of Ben Rhodes, in which Rhodes bragged about creating an “echo chamber” with the Ploughshares Fund to sell the Iran deal on the basis of false pretenses [a]. A few hours ago the AP published a deep dive into Ploughshares showing that the group is funding a range of lobbies, policy shops, and journalists and media outlets, all of which are bouncing Iran messaging back and forth between each other [b].
Aspects of the Ploughshares network had already been reported out. In Feb 2012 the WFB reported on Ploughshares funding NPR [c]. In March 2015 the WSJ reported “the Ploughshares coalition includes a former Iranian government spokesman, the liberal Jewish organization J Street and a group of former American diplomats who have held private talks with Iranian government officials… [and] the Arms Control Association” [d]. In July 2015 the WFB printed details of a Ploughshares conference call that brought together White House officials with over 100 participants, in which groups were told to prepare for a “real war” that would involve “blitzing the hell out of the Hill,” pressuring Congressional Democrats, and leaning on Jewish groups [e][f]. In August 2015 Commentary published 1,500 words and a couple dozen links naming names in the network [g].
What hadn’t been widely discussed – until today’s AP story – was that Ploughshares has been directly funding journalists and media outlets in the context of the politicized Iran deal fight. In case you’re running down this angle, here are some documents published by Ploughshares Fund describing the group’s efforts in its own words.
— In 2014 Ploughshares commissioned a “Cultural Strategy Report.” It laid out how the organization could use PR firms, Hollywood studios, video games, and journalists to create a “cultural strategy that could complement existing funding and operational activities.” Here is part of the section describing directly funding journalism [PDF here – h]:
Similar to an academic chair, directly fund one or more national journalism positions at media outlets like The Guardian, Salon, Huffington Post, or Pro Publica, whose exclusive “beat” and focus of investigation and reporting would be nuclear weapons, disarmament, and nonproliferation… We understand that similar efforts supported by Ploughshares Fund in the past did not generate the desired volume of coverage (funding of reporters at The Nation and Mother Jones and a partnership with the Center for Public Integrity to create a national security desk). However we feel this strategy would be more successful by focusing on themes, media outlets and journalists who resonate with the target audiences (youth and faith communities) and by pursing this strategy in concert with other approaches.
— In 2015 Ploughshares published a video and letter from Ploughshares President Joe Cirincione titled “How We Won.” Cirincione boasted that the group leveraged its funding so lobbyists, policy voices, and journalists could “coordinate efforts” to push the Iran deal. The video ends with a scrolling list of groups involved. The letter goes into detail on how Ploughshares leveraged funding to create its network [i]:
These groups and individuals were decisive in the battle for public opinion and as independent validators… they lacked a common platform – a network to exchange information and coordinate efforts. Ploughshares Fund provided that network. Often, networks can make all the difference… We built a network of over 85 organizations and 200 individuals in favor of a negotiated solution to the Iranian crisis… We credit this model of philanthropy – facilitating collective action through high-impact grantmaking – with creating the conditions necessary for supporters of the Iran agreement to beat the political odds.
A lot of work is now being done on how the Iran deal echo chamber worked and funded. Two other articles from the last 48 hours: how Ploughshares also funded faith groups to be part of the pro-deal network [j] and how the network was mobilized this week to attack witnesses who testified in front of the House Oversight Committee on the White House’s sales campaign [k].—
[a] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html
[b] http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7044e805a95a4b7da5533b1b9ab75cd2/group-helped-sell-iran-nuke-deal-also-funded-media
[c] http://freebeacon.com/issues/public-radio-pay-to-play/
[d] http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-ramps-up-lobbying-on-iran-1427674427
[e] http://freebeacon.com/national-security/white-house-officials-plot-ways-to-pressure-lawmakers-into-supporting-iran-deal/
[f] http://freebeacon.com/national-security/white-house-instructs-allies-to-lean-on-jewish-community-to-force-iran-deal/
[g] https://www.commentarymagazine.com/american-society/economy/money-behind-iran-nuclear-deal-ploughshares/
[h] http://www.ploughshares.org/sites/default/files/resources/M+A_Ploughshares_culture%20report.pdf
[i] http://www.ploughshares.org/issues-analysis/article/how-we-won
[j] http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/05/20/ben-rhodes-echo-chamber-on-iran-had-many-supporters
[k] http://nypost.com/2016/05/18/obamas-iran-echo-chamber-just-cant-stop/
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37 Comments
7 years ago
Once again, everybody:
George Soros is arguably America’s #1 domestic enemy.
7 years ago
Reply to
DowntotheBone
You’d think our govt would investigate one of the world’s richest men funding insurrection domestically and globally. The only explanation for their failure to do so is that the Democrats are in league with him.
7 years ago
Reply to
joe1429
Hey Dorrie. Wake up! The primary is OVER!! I guess you will not be supporting the repub nominee. Very sad
7 years ago
so just as many believed, the media are not journalists but paid propagandists who are traitors to their country!
Put them on the list for reserved flag poles!
7 years ago
Reply to
Denis
Just watch CNN a bit daily and you get the picture of propaganda for the weak-minded and gullible – provided by the weak-minded and revoltingly politically correct. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is pretty pathetic and CTV mostly insultar – like a local rag.
7 years ago
The lame stream media of which public radio is part of, is a marketable commodity, not unlike pork entrails or fish. It is sold to the highest bidder. The propaganda that is spews is only valued by brain dead leftzo’s who dote on its every drooling lie.
7 years ago
Reply to
Mahou Shoujo
Yep. For years, the aging communists, caucasophobes and misandrists at National Pinko Radio have railed against capitalism, white people, and men in short segments sandwiched between advertisements for large capitalist corporations created by white men.
7 years ago
Reply to
Crooked Hillary
How corrupt and rotten to the core America has become! I marvel at he extent of treachery among the elites, military people and ordinary citizens. This must be like watching the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
7 years ago
The MSM will bury this as soon as possible because they don’t want to make potential revenue streams mad at them.
7 years ago
Saudi Payola is Flowing to Hillary
In a debate, Donald Trump said that when he donated money to Hillary, she did what he wanted.
The Saudis are giving a lot more to Hillary than Donald Trump did. Nasser al-Rashid is a multi-billionaire, and one of Saudi Arabia’s five richest people. He is an adviser to the Saudi royal family. He and his family members have donated at least $1 to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. This makes him one of the top donors to the Foundation. His children have donated nearly $600,000 to Democratic campaigns in recent years.
There are many Gulf country donors to the Clinton Foundation.
Saudi Arabia is one of the least-democratic countries on earth (source: Freedom House). Their government is highly corrupt (source: Transparency International). It is anti-Israel, anti-woman, and anti-human rights. It has never been a democracy.
John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 commission, says that as many as six Saudi officials supported al Qaeda in the run-up to the 9/11 attacks.
Also, a Saudi billionaire connected to the Saudi Royal family owns a very influential share of Fox News.
Reference:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212576
7 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
Yep, Crooked Hillary (no relation) is and always has been for sale: http://freebeacon.com/politics/wealthy-saudi-family-history-violence-emerge-top-clinton-foundation-dem-donors/
7 years ago
Now the question you need to ask is why would such a powerful and evil globalist like Soros want to set a nuclear armed Iran free?
Think harder. Think bigger. Look at the map.
7 years ago
This is not new, in the time of Communism it frecuently happened, the news was under govenrments control in their countries, the US and EU is going thids way, the hope is to stop this corruption and Trump it succeeds.
7 years ago
Soros and the rest of his paid off groupies are criminals. What’s being done about this. Are only the poor allowed to be in prison for fraudulent behavior?
7 years ago
If it was up to me (and unfortunately it is not) I will nuke all of the Middle East. The one still standing gets shot through the head.
7 years ago
Just breaking from Israel: Obama gave huge bribe to J-street to push for the Deal with Iran. From now until January 2017 the WH is now Barackingham Palace, in honor of the Nicolae Ceaușescu penthouse, in Bucharest!
7 years ago
Hungarian PM and Chief of Staff call Clinton / Obama, Soros mouthpieces and accuse Obama of facilitating Muslim invasion
7 years ago
A little history of our friends in the religion of peace.They have been murdering non muslims and wrong brand muslims almost 1400 years to date.When are we in the US going to get political leaders with balls????Their goal is make islam the only religion on the planet.Why are we inviting conquerors disguised as refugees into our countries???………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….ALSO since 622AD (to present)when muslims started trying to conquer and kill all non mualims to make islam the only religion on earth they have murdered approx 270,000,000 innocents.,More recently the jihadists have conducted large and small 30,000 attacks.
A very short history lesson:
In 732 AD the Muslim Army which was moving on Paris was defeated and
turned back at Tours, France, by Charles Martell.
…in 1571 AD the Muslim Army/ Navy was defeated by the Italians and
Austrians as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to attack southern Europe
in the Battle of Lepanto.
…in 1683 AD the Turkish Muslim Army, attacking Eastern Europe, was finally
defeated in the Battle of Vienna by German and Polish Christian Armies.
In 1783 AD when the British Colonies that would become the United States of
America gained independence from Great Britain, 5 Muslim countries of North
Africa declared war on our newly independent nation, hijacking and
kidnapping merchant sailors and selling them for ransom, or into slavery.
When the United States of America was established, we were forced to pay
extortion fees amounting to 20 – 25% of our federal budget to those Muslim
countries to keep them from their hijacking and kidnapping. It took two
administrations, Washington and Adams, to build a sufficient Navy so that
President Jefferson, in 1805, could send the Navy and Marines to conquer
Tripoli and end the piracy. Islam has been at war with the USA since our
founding.
If these battles had not been won we might be speaking Arabic and
Christianity could be non – existent; Judaism certainly would be… And let
us not forget that Hitler was an admirer of Islam and that the Mufti of
Jerusalem was Hitler’s guest in Berlin and raised Bosnian Muslim SS
Divisions: the 13th and 21st Waffen SS Divisions who killed Jews, Russians,
Gypsies, and any other “subhumans”.
This crap has been going on for 1,400 years and half of the
politicians don’t even know it..!
Reflecting
A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine
that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.
Pause a moment, reflect back. These events are actual events from history.
They really happened!!
Do you remember? I remember All of These
1. In 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male.
2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by
Muslim males.
3. In 1972 a Pan Am 747 was hijacked and eventually diverted to Cairo where
a fuse was lit on final approach, it was blown up shortly after landing by
Muslim males.
4. In 1973 a Pan Am 707 was destroyed in Rome , with 33 people killed, when
it was attacked with grenades by Muslim males.
5. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim males.
6. During the 1980’s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by
Muslim males.
7. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim males.
8. In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old
American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by
Muslim males.
9. In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens , and a US Navy diver
trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim males.
10. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim males.
11. In 1993 , the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim
males.
12. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim
males.
13. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to
take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into
the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers.
Thousands of people were killed by Muslim males.
14. In 2002, the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim
males.
15. In 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded by—you
guessed it—a Muslim male.
16. In 2013, Boston Marathon Bombing 4 Innocent people including a child
killed, 264 injured by Muslim males.
17. In 2014, thousands of Christian men, women, and children are
slaughtered, defiled, and beheaded by Muslim males.
No, I really don’t see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to
ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on
killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile
certain people.
Absolutely No Profiling! Instead, they must conduct random searches of
80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification,
secret agents who are members of the President’s security detail, 85-year
old’s, Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former
Governor Joe Foss, BUT leave Muslim Males alone lest airport security be
guilty of profiling.
Have the American people completely lost their Minds, or just their Power of
Reason???
Let’s send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Aldreds and
other stupid attorneys, along with Federal Justices that want to thwart
common sense, feel ashamed of themselves — if they have any such sense.
As the writer of the award winning story ‘Forrest Gump’ so aptly put it,
“STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES”
Each opportunity that you have to send this to a friend or media outlet…
Do It.!
7 years ago
Reply to
Jack Gamatta
In the mid 1980s muzzrats kidnapped Russian diplomats in Beirut. Guess what a special team of Spetsnaz tossed over the fence some bodies of the ringleaders with some family members along. It was all over and it worked.
7 years ago
Reply to
joker
After the muzzies kidnapped and slaughtered the Israeli athletes at the ’72 Munich Olympics, the security agency Shin Bet hunted them down like dogs. They killed them wherever they found them. None were safe anywhere and none were spared.
7 years ago
“Follow the Benjamins” behind the open borders movement and any liberal movements of any kind and they lead to GEORGE SOROS! Cut off the flow of money to liberal causes and you defeat liberals.
Soros lives in the U.S.—investigate him thoroughly, probably convict him of treason, then extradite him to his favorite Communist country.
w
7 years ago
Please give us the names of the media servants in the echo chamber, who spouted what they were paid to so that, in future, we shall not buy or support newspapers, journals, conferences, etc. that feature them. BDS on them!
7 years ago
By all rights George Soros should be tried and hung for crimes against humanity.
7 years ago
Manipulating the media is as simple as shooting fish in a barrel. Remember why they never alerted us to the debacle that is Obamacare? They were too preoccupied with a wild goose chase to Alaska to paw through Sarah Palin’s official emails hunting scandal and finding nothing.
7 years ago
Who blessed Soros for living so long? Obama and Soros has a symbiotic relationship. They both thrive and multiply on evil.
7 years ago
@CerenOmri Omri this whole schtick claims the “negotiation” was about stopping the “proliferation” BS. Firstly, there was no negotiation, the US capitulated on everything and it is so bad that data reported by Iran is done so with the guarantee of secrecy to the IAEA, so no one knows what the HELL they are doing. There terms of access to site depends upon notice that can be extended up to 30 days. The Iranians still suffer from stomach aches from all the belly laughter that sent them on to the floor for 2 years when they got back to their rooms. People somehow have forgotten Iran is a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and ALL these Issues have been hammered out and signed off on by their government. They must provide open access, give full disclosure, not enrich uranium with an end goal of a bomb and since they insist on all these games and not to abide by the NPT, there should be no negotiations period until they reinstitute the platform to conform.
As far as, buyIng off the Press has Ben Rhodes ever heard of Goebbels? He has put that propagandist to shame. There’s another issue I’d be remiss not to bring to his attention, High Crimes and Misdemeanors Impeachment. I’m sure he would say that doesn’t apply to the President. This donated money was in fact donated to perpetuate a pet program of the President and no one else. Did this money get reported by the Democrat Party, the President or some other organ of the government as a gift in support of a governmental policy? Were the Reporters or Media Agencies listed as 1099 employees of the State Department or White House working on the furtherance of BHR Policies. These so called Journalists certainly weren’t adhering to the Ethics of their Profession of Industry. This is perhaps the most significant news of the year. It shows the White House perception of our system of government and Freedoms. He doesn’t believe in them nor do the people who committed these ethics violations. They can’t teach people these things at Harvard though they have courses. It’s either part of you or it isn’t. All this needs the widest distribution and exposure. This will confirm for the American Public what many believe and the one’s on the fence will jump off.
7 years ago
Soros the facist, ex-Kapo by his own admission Israel hater, America hater too
7 years ago
Soros and his pal Obama are two of the most repulsive human beings to ever walk the earth. They are joined at the hip spreading their Kommie crap.
7 years ago
Reply to
Ektor
Soros’s best bud Strong just left the planet earlier this year . . . Strong was the father of the Gorerbull Warming Scam and the IPCC.
Provide PROOF of your nutty claim . . .
7 years ago
Reply to
DCW16
Soros is an investor . . . a very wealthy investor . . . so by investing in a Trump Development = Trump is beholding?
THAT IS PATENTLY INSANE Dorrie !
Trump knows Soros? So what?
Soros has visited the White House on numerous occasions . . . and bankrolled Obama . . .
The Clintons got 100s of millions from middle eastern govts . . . they did favors for same governments . . .
Do you have any evidence that Soros is bankrolling the Trump Campaign . . . and perhaps a list of the “Favors” Trump has done ?
Of course you don’t . . . krazy lady !
7 years ago
Soros should be tried for treason, and sent to death
