Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin Has Sh*tfit Over 'Soros-Funded' ProPublica. Hilarity Ensues!

Welcome to the Fartenberry Effect, Mr. Governor!

Kentucky's Extra-Crispy wingnut governor Matt Bevin sure knows how to pick a fight. A few years back, during his failed bid to primary Mitch "Top Turtle" McConnell, Bevin explained how "chicken boxing" was a benign pastime that even the founding fathers enjoyed, and also a great big states' rights issue. Once in office, he was, predictably, a reliable supporter of stupid ideas, like spending a lot of money to ramp up a "work requirements" bureaucracy to make sure fewer people received Medicaid, thus spending more but claiming he'd "saved" money. He also claimed this year that striking teachers probably caused an invisible wave of child rape and death, because kids weren't in school. No, of course there wasn't any such result, but hey, it's OK, Bevin eventually not-pologized. 

Bevin's other specialty is trying to drum up a good culture-war panic, like that time in 2016 when he predicted there'd be bloodshed if Hillary Clinton were elected , because sane governors predict civil war all the time. That desire to warn of impending calamity seems to be behind Bevin's latest idiocy, a Twitter rant yesterday in response to national investigative nonprofit ProPublica's decision to partner with the Louisville Courier-Journal for coverage of state government. So it only makes sense Bevin would lose his shit over the fact that one of the many sources of funding for ProPublica is George Soros's Open Society Foundation. How dare those monsters bring their radical leftist "reporting" to the Commonwealth of Kentucky!

This is what a perfectly normal governor of a US State says on Twitter these days:

OUTRAGEOUS.

ProPublica, a left-wing activist group funded by the likes of George Soros, is now funding . . . "investigative reporting" at the @courierjournal .

Is this the future of journalism?

Who is holding the Courier-Journal accountable?

Bevin backed up his concerns about ProPublica's biased unreliable journalism by linking to very objective reliable sources the Washington Examiner and the Daily Caller:

"Credibility of Pulitzer Prize Takes a Hit by Rewarding ProPublica's Liberal Bias": https://t.co/EfGHERSbRe

— Governor Matt Bevin (2015-2019) (@Governor Matt Bevin (2015-2019)) 1544659904.0 

Because when you talk Journalistic Integrity, you're talkin' Tucker Carlson's Internet Tendency.

Just to make clear the peril faced by ordinary Kentuckians who may soon have quality journalism foisted upon them, Bevin also posted a brief but very important video to call attention to this horrible outrage of reporters reporting things while receiving money from rich Jews:

Promising to inform Kentuckians "who this ProPublica is" -- as if it hadn't won four Pulitzer Prizes (and been a finalist nine times) -- Bevin delivers the shocking truth: the nonprofit was founded by

Herb and Marion Sandler, these are people who made billions of dollars doing sub-prime lending, taking advantage of people that couldn't pay these back, destroying thousands of lives [...] but they profited off people who had nothing and have even less now. And these people made billions and are now funneling that ill-gained money into left-leaning organizations like ProPublica.

Bevin went on to explain that the Sandlers (or Herbert Sandler, at least; Marion died in 2012 ) have also given a lot of money to -- horrors! -- the ACLU. The terrible ACLU, he says, "repeatedly sues the Commonwealth of Kentucky and our legislators for the bills that they pass." We assume Bevin means the state's attempts to ban abortion, although the governor has also been fighting an ACLU lawsuit over the lack of transparency in his own use of social media. Yup, Bevin complains that ProPublica and the Courier-Journal , which just announced their one-year partnership yesterday, haven't been "transparent" in announcing what they'd be investigating in the future.

What, no love for ACLU's support of a Kentucky man who wants to keep a license plate reading "IM GOD"? That's like, religious freedom or something.

Bevin gets back to the real devils going down to Kentucky soon enough:

This is also an organization, ProPublica, supported by George "I hate America" Soros. I mean, this is the sad reality of who the Courier-Journal, which pretends that it's an actual news organization, or a publication, is so remarkably biased they are now full in bed with this particular organization, ProPublica.

Big surprise: despite the right's fondness for fake claims about Soros, no, he's never said he hates America. 

Still, Matt Bevin sure can't stand rich financiers, at least not the ones he considers leftist. Good   financiers should be Republicans, like Matt Bevin, hedge-fund owner. 

Bevin wrapped up with a stirring call for Kentuckians to "just disregard the nonsense that comes out of" the Courier-Journal in the future, because obviously, the journalists there have sold their souls to be

a sock-puppet for the ProPublica organization, for George Soros, for the Sandlers, for all these other people who hate America and undermine the values that we in Kentucky actually hold dear, that America was founded on.

Values like "freedom of the press," maybe, but only when it gets no money from people named Soros or Sandler, because being scared of Jews and their wily plots is definitely a foundational American value too.

Happily, Bevin's attempt to do a Trumpian attack on journalism was mostly jeered on the Twitter, with a mere 519 "likes" and over 3,000 replies, many of which wondered why exactly Matt Bevin is so afraid of investigative journalists in the statehouse. More than a few posted donation links to ProPublica, although really to be fair, they should also link to Yr Wonkette, because give us money is why.

Oh yes, and quite a few also posted links to a September Courier-Journal article about a great big whopping $215,000 raise Bevin gave to an old Army pal he hired to be Kentucky's "chief information officer," which is definitely an example of local investigative journalism, now isn't it? Shameful that people are allowed to print facts about a governor enriching a friend like that, especially since the money was perfectly fine -- it came from taxpayers, not George Soros.

For a nice example of how a serious journamalism organization responds to an unserious little grifter, see this lovely thread posted by ProPublica. We like the emphasis on facts, with links and everything!

@GovMattBevin First, we’re thrilled to be partnering w/ the fine folks at the @courierjournal. They’re just one of… https: //t.co/XzadopeiQQ

— ProPublica (@ProPublica) 1544669820.0 

Oh yes, there's more:

@GovMattBevin @courierjournal You called us a “biased, left-wing organization.” Actually, we believe in evidence. H… https: //t.co/nMRwo1MVhk

— ProPublica (@ProPublica) 1544669923.0 

ProPublica promised to be in touch, because it's only right and proper that the subjects of any news story get the chance to comment -- but not to dictate the coverage:

Anyway, we certainly hope we can keep the dialogue going, @GovMattBevin . We'll be in touch with questions and would love *your* answers.

The editor of the Courier-Journal, Rick Green, also thanked Bevin for his part in bringing ProPublica's work with local journalists to national attention.

Since 1868, the Courier Journal has proudly served its readers, earning 10 Pulitzer Prizes and delivering fair and unbiased coverage. I appreciate Gov. Bevin sharing tonight the news of our partnership with ProPublica with Kentucky residents and taxpayers. They certainly know that for 150 years, the Courier Journal has stood by its good work.

Well gosh, he doesn't seem scared at all. Probably all that Soros money flowing to him, huh? Or rather, it's flowing to pay the salary and benefits of one reporter at the paper for one year, plus provide partnerships with ProPublica reporters looking at state government, one of the areas newsrooms have tended to cut as newspaper budgets decline. That's kind of why the nonprofit model is out there.

Or so the Jews would have us believe.

[ Matt Bevin's Idiot Twitter / ProPublica / WaPo / ProPublica on Twitter / Louisville Courier-Journal / Courier-Journal ]