By John Kass

August 2, 2022

All politics is local.

There’s nothing more horribly local than the murder of a young woman–Brittany Hill–trying to protect her baby in a Chicago street gang shootout.

Or the character assassination of a columnist—a guy you know—simply for writing the truth about billionaire George Soros and his funding the political campaigns of radical left prosecutors.

Today’s guest on The Chicago Way podcast is Rafael Mangual @Rafa_Mangual of the Manhattan Institute discussing his meticulously researched and important new book:

 “Criminal [In]Justice: What the Push for Decarceration and Depolicing Gets Wrong and Who It Hurts the Most”

You can listen to the full podcast by clicking on the link.

As Jeff Carlin and I were talking to Mangual while recording the podcast, I got a message from a friend who told me that to read the Soros op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Soros’ piece was full of platitudes, about his support for left wing prosecutors he’s been helping get elected, and their policies have wreaked havoc in urban America.

When I was at the Tribune, I wrote about Soros and his left wing prosecutors to  warn voters about the sense of lawlessness growing across the nation. And for this I was falsely defamed by the leftist Chicago Tribune guild for daring to write the truth about Soros. Rather than tell them to pound sand, newspaper management caved to their demands and had me removed from page 2.

In those columns that so angered the left wing, I never once mentioned Soros’ religious views, or his ethnicity. But the facts did not deter propagandists and political operatives masquerading as journalists. They had a writer to ruin: me.

“The essential point?” wrote the Tribune Guild in a letter about me addressed to Tribune management and leaked to a media columnist for maximum damage. “The odious, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that billionaire George Soros is a puppet master controlling America’s big cities does not deserve a mainstream voice.”

I did not criticize Soros for actions that had anything to do with his being Jewish. I did not mention his ethnicity or religious views. These are not relevant. I don’t care about his religious or non-religious views. But the leftist guild wanted me silenced, and they tried to shame me into silence while trying to destroy my reputation.

So on this podcast, as Soros himself said he funded the campaigns of those progressive prosecutors and that he had no intention of stopping, the anger at what the Tribune had put me through boiled over. And I asked two purely rhetorical questions of the Tribune guild that defamed me, and of the newspaper that caved to their demands:

Is George Soros an anti-Semite? And will the Tribune guild denounce Soros for his “invocation of Soros tropes?”

Do I expect an apology from the guild and the Tribune and other character assassins?

No.

But if you get the idea that being falsely accused of religious bigotry in order to silence me has deeply offended and angered me, you’re absolutely correct.

The most important thing we can leave our children is our name. My name might not be pretty, but my father and my uncle and aunts and cousins and nieces and nephews have never soiled it. My grandfathers never soiled it. We respect our name.

And I will protect my name.

Rafael Mangual has something to say about Soros in the podcast. And so do I.

You can listen for yourself. Just click on the link.

The Chicago Way podcast is free. You can get it anywhere you get your podcasts, on all podcast platforms. If you listen on iTunes, we hope you give us a good review.

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