Ridiculous: USD-Backed News Outlet Redefines Press Independence

Since its inception, money from abroad has been pouring into the globalist portal, which claims to be truly independent.

Fotó: Facebook

Many have tried to interpret, re-interpret and render a new understanding of the definition of the independence of the press assess and reassess the definition of independence of the press, and probably the reason why no one has been able to come up with a reassuring and future-proof definition is that there is no such thing. He who pays the piper calls the tune, says the basic old rule in all walks of life. This also applies to media outlets, which cost money to run and therefore need sponsors who always have expectations. But if we don't get bogged down in finances and only examine whether journalists working in the press can be independent of everything and everyone, the answer remains no, because we are talking about people who are mostly interested in public life, have their own worldview, philosophy of life and values. No one is neutral and neither is the public: every media product has its own audience of readers or viewers that requires bias towards one direction or another, and the media cannot be independent of its consumers.

All this came to my mind because one of the portals with a massively globalist commitment published lengthy article about redefining the independence of the press. Moreover, this was done with a particular bias, since the article "took to pieces" the media from which they left in 2020 to immediately set up a competitor, their own portal, with moneys coming from abroad.

Former Index journalists now publishing on Telex are lamenting over the sovereignty bill the government is to submit, because they believe that it will make life for "independent" press impossible. This what they call the part of the media that has been bought off in recent years by NGOs with foreign interest, and specifically by US government agencies.

But let's take a look at how the "progressives" understand the independence of the press today:

The concept of independence, which is often completely misrepresented, does not mean that a newspaper is completely neutral, that it reports exactly the same amount of good and bad things from all political sides, that it covers every topic and every party the same amount, or that it copies press releases from all kinds of companies as news. It means that no one from outside can interfere in the work of the editorial team.

They also state that it is quite natural for left- and right-wing editorial teams to focus on topics that are important to them.

This is interesting reasoning because previously the criteria for independence were seen differently. We have always heard that there is no room for ideological bias, news is sacred, and the positions of different political sides must be represented equally in the press that is truly independent and objective. The old topos that the press is supposed to scrutinize power was also frequently cited.

And when, for example, during the Socialist-Social Democrat (MSZP-SZDSZ) governments between 2002 and 2010, we called the obviously left-liberal leaning media outlets pro-government, they immediately and indignantly rebuked the term insisting on their claim to being "independent" and having no ties to specific political parties. But at that time, for some reason they had forgotten about the "scrutinizing" of power, i.e. the government.

Today, the same editors or their successors, hiding behind the mask of independence, call us propagandists all day long because we process topics from a perspective that is aligned with our values ​​and worldview, and this is also how we relate to political actors.

The writers at Telex therefore are reinterpreting the concept of independent press to mean: ideological bias, shift of emphasis, unbalance in coverage are no longer a problem - the only condition of independence is that no one from outside interferes in the editorial work.
Then let's take a look at specifically who "can't have a say" in Telex's work, that is, who is ordering the tune.

Since its inception, the portal which claims to be a truly independent press outlet has been receiving money from abroad, in fact exclusively from globalist, liberal organizations and companies, and even from organs of the US government. Of course, it sounds good that the new portal created in 2020 by the old Index vanguard mainly sustains itself from the money of readers willing to donate, but this nanny's tale is refuted even by their own so-called transparency reports. According to one of these summaries, HUF 948 million (approx EUR 2.5 million) came in from subscriptions between 2020 and 2022, but the "subsidies, tenders, press awards" heading shows a much larger amount, HUF 1.649 billion (approx EUR 3.48 million). An earlier article published by Tuzfalcsoport claims that since Telex does not specify exactly how much they received from abroad, it can be suspected that the foreign support is likely to be included in the "subsidies, tenders, press awards" budget line, along with the domestic support.
However, some financiers have come to light in the last three years.

A Czech billionaire, whose institutes are supported by Soros's foundation and are active promoters of the ideals of an open society, helped launch the new news portal with two hundred thousand euros at the very beginning. Then, the "independent" Telex also received significant financial resources from a Finnish organization that also has ties to Soros's and other foundations connected to the American Left and who interfered in the Hungarian elections along the lines of left-wing interests.

They are also generously supported by the Embassy of the United States in Budapest, specifically through tenders tailored to domestic opposition press products, and even the Telex Academy is financed with money from overseas. The Telex Editor-in-Chief Szabolcs Dull himself, revealed that an organization of the US State Department gave USD 740 thousand, i.e. almost three hundred million forints, for this purpose.

In light of all this, the question arises: who and what is Telex independent of? In terms of their activity, they are independent of primarily everything that has to do with the Hungarian interest, the nation as a community and a normal system of values.

Cover image: Telex.hu (Source: Facebook)