John Kass Defies Chicago Tribune Cancel Culture: ‘I Will Not Apologize for Writing About Soros’

Columnist John Kass has defied “cancel culture” at the Chicago Tribune after members of the journalists’ union attacked him for criticizing left-wing billionaire George Soros and his backing of “progressive” prosecutors across the country.

Last week, Kass wrote about “an overwhelming sense of lawlessness” in Democrat-run cities, and noted: “[T]hese Democratic cities are also where left-wing billionaire George Soros has spent millions of dollars to help elect liberal social justice warriors as prosecutors. He remakes the justice system in urban America, flying under the radar.”

That statement is entirely accurate.

In 2018, Breitbart News reported that Soros was involved in funding the campaigns of “progressive” district attorneys across the nation. Mainstream media outlets also reported it: the Los Angeles Times noted that Soros was “spending big to help decide who’s your next D.A.,” and that some of the funding was “hidden.”

Soros’s most famous success was Kim Foxx, the controversial Chicago-area prosecutor who infamously dropped the case against actor Jussie Smollett, who faked a hate crime that he blamed on MAGA hat-wearing Trump supporters in 2019.

The Chicago Tribune Guild, the union representing journalists at the paper, wrote a letter to the paper accusing Kass of promoting the “odious, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that billionaire George Soros is a puppet master controlling America’s big cities” and demanded that he, and the newspaper, apologize.

The paper demoted Kass from his position as “lead columnist” on page 2, and attempted to justify its actions by saying it was part of an overall reorganization.

In response, Kass has written a column this week in which he refuses to apologize, and defies the left’s “cancel culture”:

Soros’ influence on these races is undeniable and has been widely reported. But in that column, I did not mention Soros’ ethnicity or religion.

You’d think that before wildly accusing someone of fomenting bigoted conspiracy theories, journalists on the union’s executive board would at least take the time to Google the words “Soros,” “funding” and “local prosecutors.”

…

I will not apologize for writing about Soros.

I will not bow to those who’ve wrongly defamed me.

I will continue writing my column.

“[W]hat of our American tradition of freely speaking our minds?” Kass concludes.

Read his full column here.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.