Networks Ignore that Group Behind Perry’s Indictment Got $500K from Soros

8/20/2014

Update, August 19: On ABC “World News with Diane Sawyer” on Aug. 18, Senior National Correspondent Jim Avila included a soundbite from Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald in his story. McDonald was merely introduced as a “critic,” with no ideological label, and Avila never verbally said the name of his group. The Soros connection and the group’s involvement in Perry’s indictment charges were not addressed. NBC and CBS still have not mentioned the group.

Sometimes it seems like there isn’t a single political issue that a Soros-funded group isn’t involved in. Texans for Public Justice, one of the groups behind Rick Perry’s indictment charges, is part of a “progressive” coalition that has received $500,000 from liberal billionaire George Soros. 

Rick Perry was indicted by a Texas grand jury for vetoing funding for the state’s public integrity unit, unless the lead prosecutor resigned following her drunk driving arrest. Since the news of Perry’s indictment charge broke on Aug. 15, none of the network morning or evening news broadcasts have mentioned the Soros connection, or mentioned Texans for Public Justice at all. 

According to KXAN, a local NBC affiliate in Austin, Texans for Public Justice filed a complaint against Perry in court last June. 

According to an Open Society Institute press release, OSI has given $500,000 to help form a coalition that “could change the way the progressive community engages public policy in Texas.” Besides Texans for Public Justice, this coalition includes Texans Together, the Sierra Club, Texas Legal Services, La Fe Policy Research and Education Center, Public Citizen, and the Center for Public Policy. 

Even some liberals have defended Rick Perry and dismissed the indictment charges as politically motivated. Obama senior aide David Axelrod defended Perry on Twitter, tweeting that “[u]nless he was demonstrably trying to scrap the ethics unit for other than his stated reason, Perry’s indictment seems pretty sketchy,” and MSNBC called the case against the Texas governor “weak” and “fishy.” ABC, CBS and NBC have completely ignored these liberal criticisms of the indictment.

In what appeared to have been a slip of the tongue, Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald told CNN “the governor again, in his defense yesterday, said this is merely a partisan, political witch hunt. Nothing could be closer to the truth.”

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