(JTA) — Fox Business Network announced that it is pulling a recent broadcast of “Lou Dobbs Tonight” featuring a guest commenting on the “Soros-occupied State Department.”
“We condemn the rhetoric by the guest on Lou Dobbs Tonight,” said Gary Schreier, the network’s senior vice president of programming, in a statement. “This episode was a repeat which has now been pulled from all future airings.”
The episode in question originally aired on Thursday Oct. 25, and featured Chris Farrell, a director of the conservative group Judicial Watch. In an interview with Dobbs, Farrell claimed that the highly publicized caravan of migrants traveling through South America was being illegally organized by leftist groups who are receiving money from the “Soros-occupied State Department.”
Farrell made the comments, and the Fox Business Network aired them, three days after an explosive device was found in the mailbox outside of the New York home of Jewish billionaire George Soros, a favorite target for activists and politicians on the right for his deep spending on liberal and pro-democracy causes
The decision to pull the episode comes just days after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R.-Calif., took down a tweet accusing George Soros, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg of trying to “buy” the upcoming elections for Democrats
Criticism of the “Lou Dobbs Tonight” episode erupted on social media after it was rebroadcast Saturday night, the same day as the shootings at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh.
Soros has come under intense fire recently from Republicans and the right in the United States. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and President Donald Trump claimed that Soros funded the protesters at the recent demonstrations in Washington, D.C., over then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani retweeted a Twitter user who called Soros the “anti-Christ.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., charged last week, without evidence, that U.S.-bound migrants in a caravan formed last week in Honduras were offered cash by Soros. The Open Society Foundations, Soros’ philanthropy, has denied any involvement.
Soros, a Hungary-born Holocaust survivor, is a left-leaning donor to the Democrats and other liberal and pro-democracy causes in the United States, Europe and Israel. He often features in right-wing conspiracy theories, especially in his native Hungary, where nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has pegged him as a symbol of intruding globalist forces.
Soros’ Jewish critics include those who object to his support for the liberal Middle East policy group J Street and at least two Israeli groups highly critical of the Israeli government, B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence. In July 2017, Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing Soros, saying he “continuously undermines Israel’s democratically elected governments.” The statement appeared to backtrack on an earlier statement by Israel’s envoy to Hungary denouncing Orban’s anti-Soros campaign.
Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League posted a report outlining the anti-Semitism behind many of the conspiracy theories surrounding Soros.
“Many of those conspiracy theories employ longstanding anti-Semitic myths, particularly the notion that rich and powerful Jews work behind the scenes, plotting to control countries and manipulate global events,” according to the report.
