The MRC's Favorite Right-Wing Autocrat
The Media Research Center loves Hungary's authoritarian leader Viktor Orban so much, it has teamed with an Orban-linked front group to defend "free speech" (even though Orban doesn't).
The Media Research Center has long been a fan of right-wing authoritarian leaders. It has taken a particular shine to one of them, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, portraying him as supporting “free speech” even though the record shows otherwise — he has a history of cracking down on dissent and turning Hungary’s state media into an Orban propaganda machine.
The MRC is such an Orban stan, in fact, that it has teamed with one of his puppet groups to push his right-wing agenda. In September 2023, MRC executives Brent Bozell and Dan Schneider retweeted a message by Hungary’s Center for Fundamental Rights: “#Woke is the #American Left’s most dangerous export – we have agreed with the leaders of the Media Research Center (@theMRC), the largest #Conservative media institute in the #US, that we will work together to defend #CommonSense and #FreeSpeech.” The tweet included an image of Bozell and Schneider posing with CFR director general Miklos Szantho.
The CFR (Alapjogokért Központ in Hungarian) is best known in America for hosting CPAC events in Hungary, where it demonstrated how it really feels about “free speech” by blocking a reporter from covering one event. Those events turned out to be little more than cheerleading events for Orban. As you might imagine, the CFR is also an Orban cheerleader — with good reason. While claiming to be a “legal research institute,” it’s really a propaganda outlet for Orban’s government, and it has received numerous grants from the Hungarian government that effectively fund its entire operation.
In other words, the CFR is government propaganda. We thought the MRC hated government propaganda. Of course, the MRC hasn’t told any of this to its readers.
Even before that, though, the MRC was aggressively defending Orban. An April 2022 post by Curtis Houck was in denial about that history, complaining that Orban’s authoritarianism was called out:
Wednesday’s CBS Mornings and Reliable Sources Daily on CNN+ flashed the profession’s virulent hatred for conservatives by giving cushy interviews to Daily Show correspondent and failed Comedy Central host Jordan Klepper ahead of his new special trashing Hungary as a bastion of authoritarianism reminiscent of what Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has done with Florida.
Having established himself as the show’s correspondent who paints non-leftists as some combination of dangerous, idiotic, and underdeveloped, Klepper was welcomed with four teases on CBS. In the first, fill-in co-host Vladimir Duthiers said Klepper investigated “an unusual fascination shared by some supporters of former President Trump” in Hungary’s “authoritarian government” (under Viktor Orban).
Dokoupil began the piece by touting his recent trip to CPAC 2022 and how that led to visiting Budapest, Hungary to find out “why so many seem to look to Hungary and its authoritarian leader as a model for America’s future.”
[…]
Dokoupil then remarked how it’s been “amazing…how Hungary has declined from a near democracy to what has been qualified as an authoritarian state” with Duthiers wondering “how” Klepper “see[s] the antecedents here in the U.S.”
Klepper obliged by explaining that Hungary’s made “voting harder,” created “a lot of gerrymandering,” fostered a media landscape that’s “owned by wealthy oligarchs who have connections to the ruling party,” and “villified” “the LGBTQ community.”
Perhaps knowing that he can’t refute Klepper on the facts, Houck instead resorted to lazy whataboutism: “As a side note on the media angle, if it’s some right-wing playbook, then how would Klepper explain the executives who run ABC, CBS, CNN, NBCUniversal (aka Comcast), and the major papers?”
Houck only briefly mentioned in passing a discussion about how Klepper and Dokoupil discussed “how it’s a farce to argue George Soros is “the boogeyman who controls things,” making sure not to mention that this is exactly the anti-Soros narrative that his employer pushes.
Houck continued to whitewash Orban when Klepper appeared on CNN, pretending that his campaign of anti-LGBT hate is merely “refusal to kowtow to the LGBTQ agenda” and indulged in the MRC’s usual smear of CNN’s Brian Stelter as a “media janitor”:
A few hours later, Klepper joined media janitor Brian Stelter for more of the same, including the same condescending dismissal people would mention Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Klepper lamented the angle about refusal to kowtow to the LGBTQ agenda, claiming they’re being ostracized and thus a country where “progressives…are frustrated” and cities aren’t able to be left-wing bastions with “liberties…stamped out” and “a brain drain of young people.”
“Hungary was — was progressive 15 years ago. I talked to people who were there, like, it was more inclusive, more open, and now that’s changing and changing and changing and the ability to actually change that narrative, it’s harder for people with a progressive mindset,” Klepper added.
Stelter then commiserated with him about how similar Orban and Hungary are to Republicans and red states given “the anti-trans legislation” and “anti-gay narratives in GOP media.”
This gave Klepper the room to argue such legislation that forbids the teaching of sex education and encouraging of transgenderism toward young children is dangerous and will lead to a world in which gay people are seen as pedophiles
Again, Houck didn’t dispute the factuality of anything Klepper said — even when he pointed how conservatives have “conflated sexuality with pedophilia.” The goal here is to shout down and dismiss Klepper as an enemy of right-wingers like Houck and the MRC, not engage in any sort of reasoned debate. It’s also to pretend that foreign leaders can’t possibly be authoritarian if they’re spouting the same right-wing rhetoric that the MRC does.
Aidan Moorehouse ran to Orban’s defense in a July 2022 post when he appeared at a right-wing gathering, insisting he’s merely a “social conservative”:
Viktor Orban is certainly a social conservative, and Hungary did recently pass a law forbidding LGBT content in children’s entertainment and education, a cardinal sin by leftist standards.
None of the soundbites CNN played of Orban were particularly damning or surprising: calling for media to support your political view is not unique to either the left or right, but I guess not wholeheartedly supporting the EU is enough to earn the “authoritarian” label these days.
On the contrary, CNN admitted that Orban had “won a fourth term in office in April,” so his policies — unless CNN thinks Hungarian elections are rigged (which would be really ironic given the story’s framing) — seem to be supported by at least a plurality of Hungarians.
And while it is true that many conservatives admire Orban’s policies, it is also true that Hungary is not the United States. The two countries have vastly different histories and governmental systems, and — as any liberal HR assistant would tell you — working together with people of differing backgrounds and beliefs is necessary to achieve common goals.
The beauty of conservatism as a philosophy is its ability to express timeless truths in a way consistent with a nation’s history and perennial values, but if you listened to the way CNN portrayed Orban, you would think he was the next Saddam Hussein.
Actually, Orban won a new term because he rigged the election against his opponents by gerrymandering the country’s political districts and controlling the media that censored opposition messaging. We don’t recall anyone thinking that suppressing non-conforming messages being part of “the beauty of conservatism” — then again, trying to censor non-conservatives is the MRC’s entire raison d’etre. While Moorehouse tried to make the case that Orban might be the best leader for Hungary, he didn’t explain why the country is somehow deserving of Orban’s oppressive authoritarianism.
When Orban was caught going full white nationalist by saying in a speech that “We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race,” the MRC first tried to distract from it by accusing CNN of creating an English-language audio clip of Orban’s remarks that it thinks was just CNN host Fareed Zakaria saying his words. Moorehouse and Nicholas Fondacaro presented no original audio of Orban speaking, and they didn’t mention that the Hungarian government website posted a transcript of Orban’s remarks in English.
With Orban coming to the U.S. to speak to a CPAC gathering (in English, by the way) just after his white nationalist remarks were made public, it was once again Moorehouse’s duty to play defense, which he did in an Aug. 4 post:
With Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaking at CPAC in Texas on Thursday, CNN ran a segment on Thursday morning’s New Day which took Orban’s recent controversial comments that “we do not want to become peoples of mixed race” and ran with them, heavily implying that Orban would unleash a second Holocaust on the world if Hungary’s economy slips into a recession.
[…]
To be clear, Orban’s race-mixing comments caused one of his own advisers to quit in disgust, and suggest the speech had Nazi echoes. But to imply that Orban is prone to unleash a new Holocaust on Hungary’s Jewish population is, as they say, “without evidence.”
Hungary is currently rated as the second-safest country in Europe for Jews, second only to Denmark.
As for Orban’s own supposed anti-Semitism, Orban’s cardinal sin appears to be attacking leftist billionaire George Soros (which would make nearly every pro-Israel conservative an anti-Semite).
The MRC has regularly portrayed Soros as a Jew conservatives are allowed to hate. Note that Moorehouse couldn’t be moved to actually condemn Orban’s white nationalism, merely casting the remarks as “controversial.”
More Orban propaganda
The CFR partnership seems to have helped secure the MRC’s cooperation in continuing to whitewash Orban’s authoritarianism. Tim Graham complained in a Jan. 23 post that Orban was accurately described as the authoritarian leader he is:
Leftists love to talk about how Biden is democracy and Trump is tyranny. But on Monday night, as Rachel Maddow mostly took the night off due to hoarseness, she came on with Jen Psaki during her time slot and claimed the Republican base is “very eager” for a dictator to end “contested elections.”
In New Hampshire on Saturday, Trump praised Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban as “a great leader, a very strong man,” and MSNBC thinks this is pro-dictator talk. But Orban was re-elected prime minister for a fourth time in 2022. Liberal media outlets call communist tyrants “presidents” and this man is classified as a tyrant.
Even the article to which Graham linked to that marked Orban’s victory pointed out that he rigged the process: “Orbán’s party has strengthened its hold on office through a favourable media ownership structure and changes to the voting system that critics say renders elections unfair.” The opposition candidate pointed out that he was given only five minutes on state-run TV to state his case.
This was followed by a Feb. 12 Orban-defending post by Tom Olohan that has all the earmarks of having been fed to him by Orban’s Center for Fundamental Rights:
The Biden administration and leftist billionaire George Soros are tied at the hip, working in cahoots to undermine Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The U.S. Department of State entrusted Soros-funded Ökotárs Foundation and media watchdog Mérték Media Monitor to hand over $320,000 in taxpayer dollars to 15 media outlets critical of the pro-freedom Hungarian government, according to NGO and government documents. European Parliament elections take place from June 6 to June 9. Similarly, Hungary will hold local elections on June 9. Hungary-based political analyst András László and Rod Dreher spread the news in Jan. 27 posts on X.
László wrote that “left-wing NGOs announce which Hungarian media outlets will receive direct financing from the US Embassy. More than a DOZEN, a total of 15 media will receive US taxpayer money.” Echoing László, Dreher reacted to the news: “US taxpayers are funding anti government media in Hungary, a NATO ally.”
The Biden administration contracted Ökotárs and Mérték to identify and evaluate which Hungarian media outlets would receive the taxpayer-funded grants, a State Department document revealed. MRC Business verified the contract through information published by grants.gov, the online database of federal grants, as well as documents provided by Ökotárs and Mérték.
The disturbing bottom line is this: Foreigners are deciding what foreign entities will get American tax dollars. Under President Joe Biden, we have farmed out our foreign policy to foreigners.
Olohan censored any mention of Orban’s authoritarianism, which would have undermined his ridiculous claim that Orban’s government is “pro-freedom.” He also censored any mention of his employer’s partnership with an Orban puppet group, which would have exposed this as the propaganda effort this is. On top of that, Olohan failed to disclose that András László, whom he described only as a “political analyst,” is actually a candidate for the European parliament as a member of Orban’s political party, Fedesz, further marking this as pro-Orban propaganda.
Instead of telling his readers the full truth, Olohan laughably portrayed Orban as a victim, with help from his boss:
MRC Vice President Dan Schneider ripped the State Department for this contentious partnership: “It is wrong for U.S. government employees to farm out how our tax dollars are spent. It is outrageous that a lazy diplomat in our embassy relied on the Soros crew to figure out how to spend our taxpayer dollars.”
[…]
This atrocious initiative is unfortunately characteristic of the Biden administration’s behavior in Hungary. The U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Dave Pressman attends and even hosts LGBT events at which he attacks Orban and members of his political party Fidesz. The ambassador and the embassy he oversees have an antagonistic relationship with the U.S. ally they are supposed to work with.
Turns out that the State Department pours money into the coffers of anti-Orban media, while the American ambassador complains about “state media churning out propaganda.”
Hungary’s state media is, in fact, much an Orban propaganda machine, and Olohan offered no proof to the contrary. And as much as Olohan complained about Pressman’s criticism of Orban, he offered no reason to support his argument that Pressman’s criticism of Orban must be censored.
Olohan served up another pro-Orban press release in a March 15 post that also threw in some of the MRC’s usual Soros-bashing:
U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman attacked the Hungarian government during a contentious speech at a Soros-funded university, just as the State Department prepares another deluge of dollars for anti-government media in Hungary.
On March 14, Ambassador Pressman attended an event hosted by Central European University (CEU) where he attacked the NATO ally with whom it is his job to negotiate. Soros had funneled at least $1,058,676,021 to CEU’s coffers between 2016 and 2022 alone and founded the university himself. Pressman took issue with several Hungarian measures to combat foreign influence. These included Hungary’s “Defense of Sovereignty Act” and the Hungarian government’s struggle against the enormous influence of Soros’ Open Society Foundations and CEU.
During his speech, Pressman launched into a shameless diatribe against the Hungarian government, accusing the country’s officials of equating “independence” with “opposition.” Outrageously, the Department of State has recently funneled money to leftist media outlets handpicked by Soros-funded organizations. “Independent media in Hungary gets labeled opposition media. Independent non-governmental organizations get labeled political partisans,” the ambassador claimed.
Pressman’s claims come against the backdrop of the Soros-funded Ökotárs Foundation and media watchdog Mérték Media Monitor preparing a second round of taxpayer-funded grants to Hungarian media outlets. This round of the infamous grant program had a Feb. 29 deadline. Like Pressman, these Soros-funded organizations use the phrase “independent media” to describe the leftist media outlets they choose to shower money on.
While the new recipients have not been announced, Ökotárs Foundation and Mérték Media Monitor have a troubling record. Earlier this year, these same two organizations gave $320,000 in taxpayer dollars to 15 anti-government media outlets in Hungary. At least five of these media outlets had also specifically taken money from Soros. Notably, the Ökotárs Foundation indicates that this will not be the final round, as these two organizations will be handling applications until Aug. 31.
As before, Olohan was silent on his employer’s partnership with a pro-Orban think tank. He also failed to explain that Hungary’s media landscape is dominated by pro-Orban outlets, even as he laughably dismissed media outlets who aren’t Orban mouthpieces as “leftist.” It seems that Olohan, like Orban, wants to censor media in Hungary who aren’t pro-Orban.
Olohan also failed to discuss how Orban has waged war on CEU as part of targeting Sorosthrough his propaganda machine, which includes baselessly blaming an influx of refugees in the country on Soros. Demonizing Soros is another area where the MRC and Orban are simpatico. Instead, Olohan whined that Pressman pointed out Orban’s political war on CEU:
Earlier in his speech, Pressman gushed over his host declaring that CEU was full of “the best and brightest students, studying at the preeminent university in all of Central Europe.” Pressman lamented CEU’s move from Hungary to Vienna without mentioning Soros.
“While I won’t spend much time on the saga of what the Hungarian government put this university through, over the objections of the previous U.S. Administration,” Pressman said, neatly sidestepping the leftist billionaire founder, “I think it is fitting to mention because it epitomizes the sacrifice of something great in exchange for – honestly, it is hard for me to understand. In exchange for political points? For talking points? Whatever was gained, it is clear that Hungary lost when it lost these promising students.”
Again, Olohan was silent about Orban’s propaganda war on Soros. This is how that MRC partnership with the pro-Orban think tank is paying off — with more pro-Orban propaganda in America.
Meanwhile, Tim Graham whined in his March 11 podcast that Orban was name-checked while talking about the indisputable authoritarian tendencies of Donald Trump, echoing a post he wrote the day before:
NBC’s Kristen Welker can pelt Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) with questions about Trump saying nice things to Hungarian “autocrat” Viktor Orban, and cartooning Trump into “talking about being a dictator on Day One.” (He joked about being dictator for a day to Sean Hannity.)
Graham offered no evidence Trump’s remark was a “joke” or that Orban is not an autocrat. And he too failed to mention his employer’s partnership with a pro-Orban think tank.
The Orban shilling continues
Olohan again served as a pro-Orban mouthpiece in a Sept. 20 post claiming to be outraged that independent media outlets were exposing Orban corruption:
U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman went to bat for a Soros-funded, Hungarian media outlet against Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government. Pressman just happened to also have dubiously shoveled American taxpayer dollars into that outlet.
Pressman condemned Hungary, a NATO ally, for investigating the so-called independent media outlet Átlátszó which received $197,478 from Soros from 2017 through 2020. Notably, Pressman made these remarks at a Sept. 18 forum sponsored by the Soros-created Central European University’s (CEU) Democracy Institute and the Soros-funded organization Political Capital. Soros has given $1,084,390,977 (yes, over a billion) to CEU between 2016 and 2023 alone. The leftist billionaire also gave $685,123 to Political Capital from 2016 to 2023.
“In Hungary, we find an unironically named ‘Sovereignty Protection Office’ that has publicly announced three investigations,” Pressman said. He went on to mock the Orban government for looking into “the threat to Hungary’s sovereignty posed by … Átlátszó, an independent media outlet, whose name means ‘transparency,’ focused on exposing corruption.”
Moreover, Pressman condemned the Hungarian government’s efforts to block hostile organizations from inundating the country with foreign funds. He lobbed these attacks at a forum that just happened to be put on by two massive beneficiaries of Soros’s largess, arguably one of Orban’s most vehement political opponents.
Olohan has apparently decided, like Orban, that alternative opinions are not allowed in Hungarian media — ironic, since the MRC purports to believe in “free speech”:
Átlátszó is a relentless advocate against Hungarian border security, even attacking the government for focusing on defending the border. In just one article, the publication blaming Hungarian border security for clashes at the border and repeated a claim that people attempting to illegally enter the country “had given no indication that they had hostile intentions.” The Soros-funded publication also reposted an article referring to gender ideology as a “phantom,” mocking attempts to protect Hungarian families.
Átlátszó also took in tens of thousands more in U.S. taxpayer-funded grants, courtesy of Pressman. In fact, Átlátszó and 14 other anti-government media outlets received $320,000 in American taxpayer dollars.
This was the product of a Pressman-managed fund that entrusted two Soros-funded groups—Ökotárs Foundation and media watchdog Mérték Media Monitor—to pick Átlátszó and other recipients of tax dollars in 2024. Leftist billionaire George Soros had given $306,147 to the Ökotárs Foundation and $88,113 to Mérték Media Monitor from 2017 to 2022.
Olohan further attacked Pressman, as if Orban had written his talking points for him:
This is only the first round of Pressman’s wasteful abuse of taxpayer dollars to interfere in the culture and politics of Hungary. Pressman frequently inveighs against Orban at events and on social media. He also tries to impose leftist cultural values on the country. Pressman attended and even hosted pro-LGBTQ events at which he attacked Orban and members of his political party Fidesz.
Pressman’s remarks at the forum were littered with further attacks on Orban’s government accusing it of creating an “atmosphere of fear.” Pressman also personally attacked Orban’s son, mocked Orban for seeking peace in Ukraine and said that Hungary was in the midst of a democratic crisis.
Ludicrously, Pressman took issue with Hungarian rhetoric against the European Union (EU) as if the EU had not recently fined Hungary $223 million plus massive additional daily fines for refusing to let their country be invaded by migrants.
Olohan offered no evidence that anything Pressman said about Orban and his authoritarian government is inaccurate. Indeed, given Orban’s iron grip on government, attacks on minorities and suppression of dissent, Hungary is in fact in a democratic crisis.
Olohan concluded by huffing: “With all these collaborations with the Soros empire, it’s unclear why Pressman is arguing as if anyone should take him seriously as an objective critic of the Orban government.” But Olohan forgot to disclose to readers that his employer has partnered with the pro-Orban CFR — so there’s no reason anyone should take him seriously as an objective defender of the Orban government.
(Pictured above, from left: Center for Fundamental Rights director general Miklos Szantho, MRC chief Brent Bozell and MRC executive Dan Schneider.)