Yes, George Soros did fund Alvin Bragg.

And no, it's not flirting with anti-Semitism to say so.

Glenn Kessler is the Washington Post’s lead fact checker. In my opinion, mainstream media fact checking is usually just a means by which left-liberal journalists try to attach extra authority to their biased reporting by posing as truth seekers.

I’ve found Kessler to be better than that. His articles are usually informative and provide a reasonably balanced assessment of the assertions they examine.

The only bias I frequently detect comes at then end of his articles when Kessler awards “Pinocchios.” It seems to me that he often hands out three or four of them to assertions by conservatives that are no more flawed than ones made by liberals that get fewer than three. Maybe that impression is a product of my bias, though.

But yesterday, in his fact check of the claim that George Soros funded Alvin Bragg, Kessler committed malpractice. First, he gave a truthful assertion three Pinocchios. Then, he suggested that those who make this truthful assertion are flirting with anti-Semitism.

As to Soros’ funding of Bragg, the Manhattan DA who has produced the indictment of Donald Trump, Kessler wrote:

Soros never directly funded Bragg, but instead contributed to a group that supported Bragg and other liberal candidates seeking to be prosecutors.

This is nit-picking of the highest order. As Kessler goes on to say, Soros donated $1 million to the Color of Change PAC in 2021. Soros made his contribution a few days after that PAC endorsed Bragg and announced it would contribute $1 million to his campaign. In the end, Color of Change gave Bragg $420,000.

Because Soros gave money $1 million to a PAC that said it would contribute to Bragg’s campaign (the precise amount of money the PAC said it would contribute) and because nearly half a million dollars of his money went to Bragg’s campaign as Soros would have been expected, Soros funded Bragg’s campaign. His funds provided a big part of Bragg’s primary war chest and were always very likely to.

If Kessler, relying on the fact that the money to Bragg flowed through a PAC and the fact that Bragg received lots of other money, had awarded one Pinocchio, that still would have been one too many. But at least he would have a case. To award three Pinocchios, which Kessler does even to the assertion that Soros “backed” Bragg, is outrageous.

But that isn’t the worst part of Kessler’s article. He went say that those who point to the Soros-Bragg connection are being “incendiary” because Soros happens to be Jewish:

The repeated mention of Soros plays into antisemitic conspiracy theories that Soros, a Hungarian American Holocaust survivor, is a wealthy puppet-master who works behind the scenes to manipulate elections and further his goals. The Anti-Defamation League found in 2018 that Soros figures in a significant number of antisemitic tweets.

Soros is a wealthy man who works behind the scenes — i.e., contributes huge amounts of money to influence previously obscure elections and further his goals. In cases like Bragg’s, his goal is to elect left-wing prosecutors who want to overhaul the criminal justice system.

Kessler doesn’t dispute this reality. In fact, he acknowledges it.

It’s Soros’ right to spend his money to radically alter a criminal justice system he thinks is unjust. But he can’t be exempt from criticism for doing this just because he happens to be Jewish and a Holocaust survivor.

Yet Kessler effectively would give Soros an exemption. Point to Soros’ major role in local prosecutor elections and Kessler will use his platform at the Washington Post to accuse you of promoting anti-Semitism.

When a Jew receives criticism for funding conservative candidates, are that Jew’s critics chastised by the mainstream media for fueling anti-Semitism? We can answer the question without speculating. The answer is no.

Sheldon Adelson, a Jew, was a major contributor to conservative candidates and causes. As David Strom points out, no liberal ever claimed Adelson was exempt from criticism due to his religion.

Those criticized by Kessler as liars (in effect) for pointing out the Bragg-Soros connection said nothing about Soros’ religion. By contrast, some of Adelson’s critics tied his political activity to his religion, even claiming that his first loyalty was to Israel, not the United States. Nor was the Washington Post shy about mentioning Adelson’s religion when discussing his political engagements.

Kessler sniffs that “the incendiary focus on Soros. . .is a dangerous game that plays into stereotypes of rich Jewish financiers secretly controlling events.” It isn’t, though, unless those who focus on Soros also focus on his religion or imply dual loyalties — the way some on the left used to do in Sheldon Adelson’s case, without a peep of protest from the mainstream media.