OpenDemocracy, a non-profit news publisher previously funded by George Soros, is facing job cuts and financial uncertainty as the elderly plutocrat’s Open Society Foundations group scales back funding under the stewardship of his son, Alex Soros.
OpenDemocracy revealed it would have been insolvent by June had it not cut its budget by around 40 percent. Cutbacks included around a third of its journalists in the United Kingdom, including Head of News Ramzy Alwakeel.
The outlet’s unionized staff are in uproar and have passed votes of no confidence in both chief executive Satbir Singh and board chairwoman Suzanna Taverne.
During its Soros-funded heyday, OpenDemocracy adopted a strong stance against Donald Trump and “whiteness.” It advocated for Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Mariana Islands, including Guam, to be granted statehood to “end the whiteness of Congress” in 2021.
In 2022, it argued that press interest in the Ukraine war was a racist “dog whistle” driven by the fact the combatants are European.
In 2020, former OpenDemocracy editor Eleanor Penny posted on X, formerly Twitter, that she hoped Trump “dies from anything” when he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
Alex Soros, who describes himself as “more political” than his 93-year-old father, has focused Open Society’s financial resources on the United States. Soros Fund Management has poured millions into buying up radio stations and invested in a podcasting network aptly named Crooked Media.
Alex Soros had already visited Joe Biden’s White House at least 20 times as of June 2023.
