Fox News has remained silent in the wake of frequent guest Joe diGenova making controversial remarks about billionaire liberal donor George Soros, which has led to some calling for him to be banned from the network.
In a Wednesday night appearance on Fox Business’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, diGenova claimed Soros played a role in the Trump-Ukraine scandal that precipitated the impeachment proceedings. DiGenova’s theory was prompted by Dobbs, who brought up Soros for his anti-corruption group AntAC.
“There’s no doubt that George Soros controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department. He also controls the activities of FBI agents overseas who work for [non-governmental organizations]. That was very evident in Ukraine. And Kent was part of that. He was a very big protector of Soros,” diGenova alleged.
“He corrupted FBI officials, he corrupted foreign service officers,” diGenova concluded. “And the bottom line is this, George Soros wants to run Ukraine, and he’s doing everything he can to use every lever of the United States government to make that happen, for business interests, not for good government business.”
Invoking #Soros as controlling the State Dept, FBI, and Ukraine is trafficking in some of the worst anti-Semitic tropes. @FoxNews won’t have Chris Farrell on for making similar remarks, and they should hold the same standard for @JoeDiGenova. https://t.co/IbCQCdXZfL
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) November 14, 2019
The insinuation that Soros is controlling a big part of the State Department, FBI, and foreign service in Ukraine was viewed as anti-Semitic by Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. Formerly a special assistant to President Barack Obama, Greenblatt called for the network to ban him, just as they did for Chris Farrell for making similar remarks about Soros.
In response to Farrell’s comments, Gary Schreier, senior vice president of programming for Fox Business, said, “We condemn the rhetoric by the guest on Lou Dobbs Tonight.”
In an additional statement to the Daily Beast, he added, “If Mr. DiGenova insists on spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, there is absolutely no reason for Fox News to give him an open mic to do so. Mainstream news networks should never give a platform to those who spread hate.”
The Open Society Foundations is asking Fox News/Fox Business to ban Joe diGenova from its air after his anti-Semitic attack on George Soros last night on Fox Business’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” DiGenova said that Soros controlled a “very large” part of the State Department. pic.twitter.com/BtcIwLu6Qc
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) November 14, 2019
The Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic organization Soros founded, also called for the network to ban diGenova. The organization’s president Patrick Gaspard sent a letter to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott calling the remarks “beyond rhetorical ugliness, beyond fiction, beyond ludicrous,” and he compared it to McCarthyism, according to Washington Post reporter Erik Wemple. Gaspard also noted Farrell’s ban and then requested an on-air retraction, and suggested she owes an apology to the State Department and the FBI.
Fox News did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.
