The Not-So-Objective Moneybags Behind ‘Correctiv’

While more and more information is emerging in Germany that raise questions as to the real nature of the so-called “anti-fascist” demonstrations that have swept the country over the last weeks, the narrative about a “secret conspiracy” for the deportation of millions of immigrants, involving the opposition party AfD, continues to be peddled by media elsewhere in Europe and beyond (cf. SAS 04/24).

In reality, not only the “secret meeting” and the role of the AfD are exaggerated, but the story was three months old when the journalist consortium “Correctiv” came out with it. There are justified suspicions that Correctiv received the information from the German secret service, the BfV. The latter had been informed in advance by their Austrian colleagues about the meeting planned to take place in Potsdam and may even have infiltrated it.

The story by Correctiv on the “fascist threat to democracy” surfaced on Jan. 19, just in time to replace the news on the huge farmers protests in media headlines and talk shows. Of course, the same mainstream media had already slandered the leaders of those protests as linked to the AfD.

But who is Correctiv? Far from being “independent” investigative journalists, the consortium appears to be very similar to an information Gestapo, run by vested powers. According to a Feb. 6 report by Florian Warweg in NachDenkSeiten, it is heavily financed by U.S. millionaires and by the German government.

The largest funder of Correctiv, according to its own website, is the Luminate-Omidyar Group, owned by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. The second largest was the North Rhine-Westphalia state government, followed by the German Federal government.

According to an article on Mintpressnews, Omidyar has « partnered closely with the leading arms of U.S. soft power, from the U.S. Agency for International Aid and Development (USAID) to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), acting as a conduit for information warfare-style projects in countries around the world.

Omidyar is also a major funder of the International Fact-Checking Network, “the renowned” foundation that certifies Correctiv. The network is also funded by the Koch brothers and the ubiquitous George Soros.

Omidyar finances both the gang and counter-gang sides of the operation. Through one of his foundations, the Democracy Fund, he finances American neocon icon Bill Kristol and the Marshall Fund. The latter “has supported current German federal ministers such as the current Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, both from the Green Party,” Warweg notes.

In the wake of the popular reaction to the orchestrated “fascist threat”, the German government has decided to strengthen an Orwellian “Law to Promote Democracy” which is still waiting for definitive approval by the Bundestag. On Feb. 13, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), Family Minister Lisa Paus (Green) and domestic intelligence service (BfV) head Thomas Haldenwang presented the new measures in a press conference.

As Haldenwang explained, the new measures will allow the government to take legal action against citizens because of their opinion. “We should not only take into consideration the readiness to commit violent actions”, but “we must prevent thought and language patterns from infiltrating our language”, Haldenwang said.