PrintMarch 1, 2010
Soros: Another Golden Match for Arianna
The old axiom, "Consider the source," is as important today as it ever was. It's far more important, actually. Because with the prominence of conglomerate corporations, front groups, and shadowy funding sources, it is often nearly impossible to take anything or anyone at face value.
Uncovering the genuine source of a public person's opinions, whether in politics, media or business, has become an enterprise for conscientious sleuthing. It simply isn't something most working people have time to do.
While most conservatives with a bent towards curiosity are pretty up to speed on the vast shadow influence which George Soros has on the modern Democratic Party and progressive front groups, from MoveOn to the Center for American Progress, Soros's financial influence with prominent media figures remains far more of a mystery.
For instance, the new darling of leftist causes, the woman who charms anchors from coast to coast and was recently named number 12 on Forbes' first-ever list of Most Influential Women in Media, Arianna Huffington, is as closely linked to George Soros as a woman could get without being in an actual bed with him.
Soros used Arianna Huffington as the public face and co-stager of his Shadow Conventions in 2000, just three years after she divorced oil billionaire Michael Huffington. The Shadow Conventions were held simultaneously with, and in the same cities as, the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 2000. They specifically highlighted Soros's pet causes: the "corrupting" influence of money in politics, the "necessity" of unfettered immigration, and the "failed" drug war. The real theme of the Shadow Conventions, however, was an avant-garde repulsion from mainstream electoral politics and the need for the U.S. to break free of peculiarly American political restraints.
Anti-Americanism from a Hungarian and a Greek. How novel.
In the lead-up to the Shadow Conventions, Time magazine did a piece on Ms. Huffington's newfound love for liberal politics which hinted at Soros's shadow influence, naming him as the convention's largest individual donor and noting the extreme liberal tone of the events in spite of their bipartisan billing. Time's author noted that only three Republicans (John McCain was a keynoter) were slated to speak, and that one of those was having second thoughts, evidently due to Soros' backing. This was in sharp contrast to the image Ms. Huffington was attempting to project as the voice of a new "grassroots" and "bipartisan" political coalition.
As the former Gingrich confidant, Arianna, told reporters at the Shadow Conventions, "I have become radicalized," though she failed to say by whom and in what direction her new radical politics had been "incarnated."
It's ten years later, of course, and we know the direction Ms. Huffington's "radicalized" politics have taken.
Why, dahling, Huffington Puffington only texts three people, don't you know: her daughters and her best pal, Barry O.
Now, it's not difficult to reason why Soros picked Ms. Huffington as the public face of his Shadow Conventions. He isn't charming; she is. Not only that, but as an author, syndicated columnist, and wealthy socialite, Arianna had the kind of insider contacts Soros could never have dreamed of having ten years ago. Arianna is also a female who knows how to latch onto prominent, rich men and persuade them to bankroll her penchant for lavish living. Her relationship with Soros, as with other men in her littered past, has proven quite lucrative.
The number one blog for liberals/progressives is, of course, the Huffington Post. In fact, Technorati, the blog-tracking service, puts the Huffington Post at #1 of all blogs, and it's listed as the #1 most linked site on the net. Its monthly traffic puts every conservative site in the shade, with its massive audience and celebrity cast. The far-left Hollywood crowd has flocked to Arianna Huffington like chicks to a mother hen. Her web traffic is counted at 8.9 million unique visitors per month, dwarfing the 3.4 million Drudge visits.
Of course, it isn't as hard to see why Ms. Huffington has made such a success of her online venture once one takes into account the millions in venture capital that went into the making of her liberal web empire.
Once again, George Soros's fingerprints are all over the backside of Arianna Huffington's huge success.
In 2006, one year after Arianna launched HuffPo, she was the beneficiary of millions in venture capital from Softbank Corporation, one of whose most prominent directors had a long history with George Soros. From the Forbes profile of Mark Schwartz:
From late 2002 until early 2005, he served as a senior advisor to George Soros and then as President and Chief Executive Officer of Soros Fund Management LLC. From 1979 to 2001, Mr. Schwartz served in various positions at The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., including as Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asia, from 1999-2001, Member, Management Committee, from 1998 to 2001, and President, Goldman Sachs Japan, from 1997-2001. Mr. Schwartz was a partner of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. from 1988 until he retired in 2001. ... Mr. Schwartz currently serves as a director of Softbank Corp.
Another venture capital firm, which invested early and strong in Ms. Huffington's "radicalized" web initiative, was Alan Patricof's Greycoft Partners. Once again, there is a connection to Soros. From the financial/political links mapping site Muckety Maps, one takes away a clear picture of Patricof's relationship with George Soros through his brother, Paul.
Now, it's not so hard to fathom how millions and millions in venture capital have propelled a shallow socialite with an icky European accent into the annals of internet success. With the success of HuffPo, Arianna has proven herself, once again, to be the quintessential female opportunist.
From her late teens in London to now her fifties in the States, Arianna has flitted from one sugar daddy to the next, as lucky in funding and posh as she has been unlucky in love.
Her first big score money- and career-wise was her long shack-up with London's leftist journalistic luminary Bernard Levin, who was more than twenty years her senior. Arianna lived with Levin, whom she described after his death in 2004 as "the big love of my life," and left him, she said, only because he refused to marry her. The poor little Greek girl did not leave entirely empty-handed, however. Her relationship with the much-senior, liberal darling of London's literati no doubt helped her get a publishing contract for her first book.
In 1981, freshly arrived in the Big Apple, Arianna wrote a biography of Maria Callas titled The Woman Behind the Legend. Her book was diligently hailed by all the right people and no doubt helped significantly when Harold Evans, new editor of the London Times (home of her ex-lover's famed columns), bought serial rights to her first book. The book's success, however, was sullied a bit by plagiarism charges, which were eventually settled out of court, details undisclosed.
With the pure, dripping charm of shallow, bed-hopping socialites through the ages, Arianna hasn't spent a minute of her post-teen years without lots of fawners, especially males.
Her next really big haul, however, came with her marriage to oil billionaire and Republican Michael Huffington in 1985. The pair were said to be the match made not in heaven, but in the salon of Ann Getty, who had declared that she had to find Arianna a husband. The marriage took Arianna from her leftist political roots (sprouted in her youth with Levin) to the halls of conservatism, and the new Mrs. Huffington quickly garnered a reputation as a "Gingrich groupie," following him, some said, with cult-worshiping obsession.
Arianna's marriage didn't last even as long as her conservative conversion, however. The biggest reason for the marital collapse was most likely the fact that Michael Huffington was a closeted homosexual, which he publicly divulged shortly after the divorce proceedings. The financial arrangements were undisclosed, but it's doubtful that Arianna was left as poor as when she entered the arrangement.
It didn't take too long for Arianna to rediscover her penchant for leftist politics, but it's doubtful that her switch back would have been nearly as successful without a new sugar daddy paving the road.
In this regard, George Soros has been as utterly reliable as has every other male in Arianna's sad life. From influential man to influential man, Arianna has hopped with all the substance of a flea to a dog's behind. But really, one must give credit where credit is due. Arianna Huffington does have a charming accent and a flair for giving parties.
What more could any woman want on this side of hell?
Kyle-Anne Shiver welcomes your comments at kyleanneshiver.com.
