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Lawmakers investigate Soros ‘shortcut’ to buying radio stations before election

Published

6 months ago

5 minute read

From The Center Square

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The U.S. House Oversight Committee is investigating why the Federal Communications Commission fast-tracked a deal that allowed a billionaire Democratic donor to buy a wide swath of American radio stations just weeks before the presidential election.

The major radio company Audacy Inc. fell into financial straits, but through a complex business deal Democratic mega donor and billionaire George Soros has gained control of the stations. Deals of this size require FCC approval, but in this case the FCC expedited the approval process.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr raised concerns about the deal at a Congressional hearing, telling lawmakers that “… the FCC is not following its normal process for reviewing a transaction.”

“We have established over a number of years one way in which you can get approval from the FCC when you have an excess of 25 percent foreign ownership, which this transaction does,” Carr said. ““It seems to me that the FCC is poised to create, for the first time, an entirely new shortcut.”

House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. and Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., sent a letter to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel Friday raising concerns about the deal.

“Despite the unprecedented nature of this action, the FCC majority has apparently decided to approve licenses on an accelerated timeframe for a company in which George Soros has a major ownership stake, and with stations in 40 media markets reaching ‘more than 165 million Americans,’” the letter said. “By all appearances, the FCC majority isn’t just expediting, but is bypassing an established process to do a favor for George Soros and facilitate his influence over hundreds of radio stations before the November election.”

Critics of the deal say it gives too much power to a heavily political, and liberal, billionaire just before the election.

“I have no idea why Soros would do this unless it was to manipulate the thinking of Americans and the information they listen to,” author and former member of the George W. Bush administration Mike Gonzalez told The Center Square.

“Conservative talk radio is huge, and there is no left wing talk radio because it’s just not interesting,” said Gonzalez, who is now at the Heritage Foundation. “Conservative talk radio is one of the few communications that conservatives have not a monopoly on but have a strong handle on, and he has bought stations that have Mark Levin and Sean Hannity and Dana Loesch and Glenn Beck.”

Critics also point out that Soros’ business partners in the deal include significant funding from sources overseas.

“The Audacy, Inc. deal, which will lead to Audacy, Inc. being partially ‘directly or indirectly controlled’ by foreign individuals or entities holding ‘more than one-fourth of the capital stock’ will require FCC approval to determine whether ‘the public interest will be served by the refusal or revocation of such license,’” the letter said. “In carrying out this statutory mandate under the Communications Act, FCC has years-long established processes and procedures for adjudicating broadcast licenses in such situations, most recently updated in 2016.”

Other wealthy media owners have faced scrutiny for potential abuse of their ownership power, such as billionaire Jeff Bezos when he purchased the Washington Post. However, Soros’ influence over so many radio stations may have even more influence over the country than one of the major papers, which Americans usually see as having a certain political leaning.

Soros is one of the most strategic and prolific funders of liberal organizations in the U.S.

“I don’t know why else he would plunk a pile of money this size unless it was to try to have influence over the thinking of Americans,” Gonzalez continued, adding that “this guy is committed to left-wing causes.”

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Trump says ‘nicer,’ ‘kinder’ tariffs will generate federal revenue

Published on March 31, 2025

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From The Center Square

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President Donald Trump says the slate of tariffs he plans to announce Wednesday will be “nicer,” “kinder” and “more generous” than other countries have treated the U.S.

Trump plans to unveil reciprocal tariffs on all nations that put duties on U.S. imports Wednesday, which the president has been calling “Liberation Day” for American trade.

Trump’s latest comments on tariffs come as he aims to reshape the global economy to reduce U.S. trade deficits and generate billions in federal revenue through higher taxes on imported products.

Trump’s trade policies have upended U.S. and global markets, but the president has yet to get into specifics ahead of Wednesday’s planned announcement.

At the start of March, Trump told a joint session of Congress that he planned to put reciprocal tariffs in place starting April 2.

“Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them. Whatever they tax us, we tax them,” Trump said. “If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. We will take in trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before.”

On Sunday night, Trump said on Air Force One that U.S. tariffs would be “nicer,” “kinder” and “more generous” than how other countries have treated the U.S.

Last week, Trump announced a 25% tariff on imported automobiles, duties that he said would be “permanent.” The White House said it expects the auto tariffs on cars and light-duty trucks will generate up to $100 billion in federal revenue. Trump said eventually he hopes to bring in $600 billion to $1 trillion in tariff revenue in the next year or two. Trump also said the tariffs would lead to a manufacturing boom in the U.S., with auto companies building new plants, expanding existing plants and adding jobs.

Trump predicts his protectionist trade policies will create jobs, make the nation rich and help reduce both trade deficits and the federal government’s persistent deficits.

The “Liberation Day” tariffs come after months of talk since Trump took office in January. On the campaign trail, Trump frequently called “tariff” the most beautiful word in the English language.

James Dorn, senior fellow emeritus at the Cato Institute, said Trump’s rhetoric on tariffs doesn’t match the economic reality of Americans.

“Tariffs expand the scope of government, politicize economic life, increase uncertainty, and reduce individual freedom,” he wrote. “Government officials gain arbitrary power while market participants face fewer opportunities for mutually beneficial exchanges and greater uncertainty as the rules of the game change.”

Dorn said consumers would pay the price.

“Tariffs are levied on U.S. importers as goods – both final and intermediate –subject to the tariff enter the country,” he wrote. “Importers and consumers typically end up paying the tariffs, as they cut into profit margins and drive consumer prices up.”

Business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Farm Bureau Federation, have urged Trump to back off tariff threats.

Trump has promised that his tariffs would shift the tax burden away from Americans and onto foreign countries, but tariffs are generally paid by the people who import the foreign products. Those importers then have a choice: absorb the loss or pass it on to consumers through higher prices. The president also promised tariffs would make America “rich as hell.”

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Daily Caller

Biden Administration Was Secretly More Involved In Ukraine Than It Let On, Investigation Reveals

Published on March 31, 2025

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

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The U.S was far more directly involved in aiding Ukrainian forces against Russia than previously understood, a New York Times investigation revealed Monday.

American backing of Ukraine was an instrumental piece in forces of the eastern European nation wounding or killing more than 700,000 Russian soldiers during the course of the war, according to the NYT. Methods the U.S. used to aid Ukraine included giving target information while officially obfuscating their nature, dispatching American advisers close to the frontlines and sweeping oversight over its use of missile systems granted by officials.

One European intelligence official was taken aback as to how deep U.S. involvement was, telling the NYT that American officials had become “part of the kill chain.”

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Ukrainian officials met in Wiesbaden in Spring 2022, the headquarters of the U.S. European Command, to discuss strategy with U.S. forces and the extent to which the U.S. would aid the Ukrainians.

During the meeting, U.S. European Command settled with Ukrainian officials that they would reportedly dispense target locations as “points of interest” to the Ukrainians, not officially calling them “targets” as they believed the language would be too “provocative.”

“If you ever get asked the question, ‘Did you pass a target to the Ukrainians?’ you can legitimately not be lying when you say, ‘No, I did not,’” a U.S. official told the NYT. Most artillery strikes were carried out with the M777 Howitzer system, in part provided by the U.S.

Due to diplomatic risks, the Biden administration wanted to share intel in the most plausibly deniable way possible, with a total restriction on sharing the whereabouts of Russian military figures and targets on Russian soil, one senior U.S. official told the NYT. The information shared would have to adhere to NATO guidelines of intel sharing to not provoke the Russian’s ire against other nations in the alliance.

“Imagine how that would be for us if we knew that the Russians helped some other country assassinate our chairman,” the official told the NYT. “Like, we’d go to war.”

European Command also had sweeping oversight of the Ukrainian use of the HIMARS missile system, the Americans retaining the ability to shut off the activation key cards required to fire the missiles, according to the NYT. HIMARS strikes regularly resulted in hundreds of Russian deaths weekly.

Advisers regularly made visits to the frontlines of the war, referred to as “subject matter experts” in their official capacity, according to the NYT. Their official names only changed back to “advisers” once Ukrainian leadership changed, which was also followed by a threefold increase in advisers.

Despite the deep cooperation, there was often tension between the U.S. and Ukraine, with Kiev often accusing the Americans of being overbearing, while the Americans questioned why sometimes Ukrainians did not heed their advice, according to the NYT.

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