Uproar Over Audacy-Soros Radio Deal

Weeks before the 2024 election, the Democratic megadonor George Soros has notched a victory in his endless pursuit to gain influence over the news media landscape in the United States. In a recent 3-2 vote sending shockwaves throughout the Republican Party, the FCC in September allowed a nonprofit group funded by Soros to take control over radio giant Audacy after the company went bankrupt.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has responded to the US House Committee on Oversight and Accountability investigation regarding the Commission’s alleged “fast-track” approval of Audacy’s ownership deal involving ties to billionaire George Soros.

Jessica Rosenworcel

Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) sent a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in September, requesting documents and communications about the FCC’s handling of the case, questioning if the expedited decision was politically motivated.

In her response, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel outlined the Commission’s actions to facilitate the transfer of control and assignment of licenses, allowing Audacy to emerge from bankruptcy.

The deal places the Soros family, namely Alex Soros, the 38-year-old son of George Soros, at the top of a media empire that houses more than 200 radio stations. Alex Soros sits on the board of the Fund for Policy Reform, the group now overseeing Audacy through a labyrinth of corporations. The four-person board of trustees also includes Soros spokesman Michael Vachon, attorney Maryann Canfield at Soros Fund Management (the firm that bought Audacy’s debt), and Leonard Benardo, a top staffer for the Soros-backed Open Society Foundations philanthropy empire.

But, in the telling of Republicans on Capitol Hill and within the FCC’s ranks, as well as top conservative media insiders who spoke with the Washington Examiner, the Audacy deal is a big sham.

The acquisition of the radio stations, Republicans say, was “fast-tracked” to benefit a billionaire Democrat keen to help the Biden-Harris administration. Doing so, FCC member Brendan Carr said in an interview, is “unprecedented.”

Conservative criticism of the FCC’s handling of the Audacy deal also stems from a deeper and more fundamental frustration with the “philanthropy” of Soros, which has positioned him to be a dominant force in media as the Right raises increasing concerns over digital “censorship.”

Soros, 94, bankrolls “progressive” causes and the Democratic Party’s top brass. Along with other left-wing billionaires, Soros, with his money, helps keep the lights on at groups plausibly accused of censoring conservative voices online. Audacy’s portfolio includes right-leaning programs, such as Miami’s Radio Libre, a Spanish-language AM radio station, and Missouri’s KFTK-FM, FCC documents show.

“What you now have,” said David D. Smith, the executive chairman of the Sinclair Broadcast Group media conglomerate, “is a left-wing Looney Tune who has access to millions of people in every market in the United States of America.”

Mark Levin views the acquisition as a manifestation of Soros’s goal “to control as much of the airwaves as possible.”

“George Soros isn’t doing this because he’s a public interest citizen,” Levin, one of the most prominent right-leaning talk radio hosts, told the Washington Examiner. “He’s doing this because he’s power-hungry. The guy is an ideologue with billions of dollars. He puts his money where his mouth is.”