George Soros

One of the favorite boogeymen of the right is George Soros. He's been rumored to be behind every anti-conservative movement for the past ten years. Unfortunately, his influence has been wildly overstated time and time again.

The most recent example is this Occupy Wall Street movement. The news service Reuters mentioned that Soros was associated with OWS in a piece last week. That's a respectable news source, right?

Normally it is, but in this case their story didn't hold up to scrutiny. It turns out that the claim of Soros' involvement isn't only denied by Soros himself. It's denied by the group Adbusters (the people that started this movement). And the evidence that either Soros or Adbusters isn't telling the truth about this?

Would you believe that Rush Limbaugh is the original source of the story? That's right, the bastion of journalistic integrity, Rush Limbaugh. Who, by the way, provided zero evidence before making the claim.

Another sad day for journalism.

Romenesko has the details, including the strange memo that Reuters put out to defend itself.

By the way, it may turn out to be true that Soros is involved. My point is that it shouldn't be reported until someone gets actual evidence that it's true. There used to be rules about this sort of thing.