IL Congressman Defends Pentagon's Links To Left-Wing Fact Checkers

The Center Square

July 17, 2025

(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.”

Dan Schneider, vice president at the Media Research Center, says 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.”

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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