IL congressman defends Pentagon's links to left-wing fact checkers
[July 18, 2025]
By Catrina Barker | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – An Illinois congressman is defending the
Department of Defense’s past work with fact-checkers linked to liberal
donors like George Soros, while critics say a new rule blocks such ties.
During a recent U.S. House Armed Services Committee hearing, U.S. Rep.
Eric Sorensen, D-Rockford, urged fellow lawmakers to reject a proposed
amendment, which was introduced by U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Georgia.
“You don't earn the trust of the people by seeking fame or wanting to go
viral, or certainly not by being a jerk on cable TV,” said Sorensen.
“Earning the trust of the people comes from repeated and due diligence
of investigating data and information, creating a conduit of
communication, making sure that what we do is based in fact and anchored
in strong ethics.”
But Dan Schneider, vice president at the Media Research Center, said the
new rule is essential to preventing government overreach.
“This is part of the Joe Biden 57 censorship initiatives effort, where
the federal government was using its power to silence the opposition.
It's obviously unconstitutional to do that, but the Joe Biden
administration ramped that kind of censorship up to an unprecedented
degree. Never before in our nation's history have we seen this kind of
attack on First Amendment free speech rights,” said Schneider. “At DOD,
they were coordinating with these so-called fact checkers, all of whom
are on the hard left, using their biased assessment to silence opponents
of the Biden administration.”
Schneider said the department should be focused on attacking our
enemies, not Americans.
Sorensen criticized Fox News and Newsmax as “propaganda,” claiming their
viewers rarely see independent fact checking.
“If you're stuck watching Fox News or Newsmax all day, you've never seen
an independent fact checker,” Sorensen said. “What they’re giving you is
not the news. It’s conjecture, opinion and propaganda designed to drive
a right-wing agenda.”
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Illinois U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Moline, during a recent U.S.
House committee - House Committee on Agriculture | YouTube
But critics say the “fact checkers” Sorensen defends are far from
neutral. Schneider blasted the Department of Defense’s prior
collaboration with what he called partisan organizations.
“The Poynter Institute is a Soros-funded entity. It's been designed
specifically to attack right-of-center opposition to liberal
government. These are not fact checkers. They are part of a
censorship complex designed for political purposes to help Democrats
stay in power and to attack Republicans,” said Schneider.
According to Media Research Center, a FOIA investigation found that
the Department of Homeland Security awarded nearly $40 million in
grants to fact checkers, including the University of Dayton, which
used a “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization” labeling groups such as
Fox News, the NRA and Christian Broadcasting Network as radical.
Under the Biden administration, DHS awarded the University of Dayton
$352,109 to create the PREVENTS-OH program, aimed at combating
domestic extremism and hate, using university faculty expertise.
Sorensen said in the hearing, “In this day and age of rumor and myth
spreading on the internet like the world's biggest wildfire, we must
hold ourselves to the highest standards.”
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