Ruling against the will of the people.
How big money funded the ‘echo chamber’ that pushed Obama’s Iran deal
Looks like President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran needed more than just friendly reporters to win the day.
Turns out the vast “echo chamber” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes boasted of was not only friendly but well-funded — including millions ladled out to the news media.
In his interview with The New York Times, Rhodes identified the Ploughshares Fund as key to spreading Team Obama’s message on Iran. Reports now show it did this by using money from left-wing donors like George Soros to fund news groups — including National Public Radio — and “coordinate efforts” to push the nuke deal.
Ploughshares President Joe Cirincione brags that his group’s “network of 85 organizations and 200 individuals” was “decisive in the battle for public opinion.”
(Actually, that’s not quite right: It may have helped twist arms on Capitol Hill not to block the agreement, but public opinion remains heavily against it.)
How ironic: Obama whined about the supposedly well-funded lobbyists working to defeat the deal. He even demanded Congress decide the issue “not based on lobbying” but on “the national interest.”
But to get the deal passed by lawmakers, Obama needed his own lobby to operate behind the scenes and funnel cash to media types and friendly groups parroting the White House’s deceptive talking points.
Or, as Rhodes put it, “they were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.”
And though Ploughshares claims to be working against nuclear proliferation, it backed a soft line toward Iran and worked to enable a deal that at best will only delay Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
At least Obama was right about one thing, in this case: Big money wins.
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