Drop Site News claims to be ‘reader-supported’ while being billionaire-funded
The left-wing philanthropy funded by George Soros, Open Society Foundations, gave $250,000 to establish a Middle East desk at Drop Site News, an anti-Israel news startup that touts itself as a “reader-supported” purveyor of “completely independent” journalism.
Open Society Foundations said the grant, awarded last year, would help “bridge a crucial information gap in independent journalism” in the Middle East, according to its spending database.
Drop Site, founded by veteran left-wing journalists Ryan Grim and Jeremy Scahill in July 2024, has filled that purported gap with a steady stream of anti-Israel coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Its first major story was a series of interviews that Scahill conducted with Hamas leaders aimed at providing the “public deeper insight into [Hamas’s] decision to launch the October 7 attacks in Israel.”
“The past nine months of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza have spurred an unprecedented global awakening to the plight of the Palestinian people,” reads the opening line of Scahill’s story.
Drop Site has not disclosed funding from the Open Society Foundations, of which Soros’s son Alex took control in 2022. In its fundraising pitches, Drop Site requests donations through Social Security Works Education Fund, an obscure nonprofit that aims to “educate the general public, media, and policy-makers about the benefits of protecting social security benefits.” The organization serves as the “fiscal sponsor” for Drop Site, allowing donors to make tax-deductible contributions to the outlet, which does not have tax-exempt status from the IRS.
The Open Society Foundations funneled its contribution to Drop Site through the Social Security Works Education Fund, earmarked “to support establishing a Drop Site News MENA desk to to [sic] bridge a critical information gap in independent journalism.”
Drop Site has provided little coverage of Social Security, or any other domestic entitlement programs. Instead, its bread-and-butter has been coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, from a decidedly anti-Israel viewpoint.
Grim, who has written for Politico, Huffington Post, and The Intercept, has pushed several false narratives about the war. He peddled the debunked claim earlier this year that Israel Defense Forces massacred Palestinian civilians at a food distribution site, and he reported the false claim that White House National Security Council staffer Merav Ceren once worked for Israel’s Ministry of Defense. The story touched off a wave of anti-Semitic attacks on Ceren, and calls from pro-Hamas groups that she be fired. The Trump administration quickly shot down the story, stating that Ceren has never worked for the ministry.
Drop Site‘s Middle East desk is led by Sharif Abdel Kouddous, a reporter who works out of Egypt and New York City. At Drop Site, Kouddous wrote a dispatch from the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah. Another Kouddous story decried the killing earlier this year of Anas Al-Sharif, an alleged Hamas fighter who worked for the news outlet Al Jazeera.
The outlet has criticized other journalists and news outlets for what it portrays as secretive funding from pro-Israel sources.
Kouddous’s most recent story alleged that 16 journalists, including 2 New York Times reporters and CNN commentator Van Jones, served as mentors in a journalism program aimed at helping Israel win its “information war.” Jones blasted that report as “totally bogus” and said his only involvement in the program was a one-hour talk to a “handful of journalists.”
In another story, Grim and Drop Site reporter Murtaza Hussain reported that the Free Press, the website started by CBS News chief Bari Weiss, had cooperated with a “shadowy think tank tied to pro-Israel advocacy” on a series of stories about the terrorist group Hezbollah. While Drop Site portrayed the arrangement as nefarious, the Free Press series disclosed the involvement of the think tank, the Center for Peace Communications.
Soros is just the latest liberal billionaire to bankroll the Drop Site proprietors.
Grim and Scahill worked for The Intercept, the left-leaning outlet funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar until 2022. Grim, who recently stated that “no sane society would have billionaires,” was paid $410,000 by The Intercept last year. Scahill made $300,000, according to tax filings.
Social Security Works Education Fund, Drop Site, and the Open Society Foundations did not respond to requests for comment.
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