So much for not wanting to get in the way of an avalanche.

George Soros announced that he has given $1 million to Media Matters “to hold Fox News accountable for the false and misleading information they so often broadcast.” Fox commentators frequently describe Media Matters, a frequent Fox critic, of being funded by Soros, but Media Matters has long denied that connection.

In today’s joint announcement, Soros denied it too – at least until today.

“Despite repeated assertions to the contrary by various Fox News commentators, I have not to date been a funder of Media Matters,” Soros said. “However, in view of recent evidence suggesting that the incendiary rhetoric of Fox News hosts may incite violence, I have now decided to support the organization. Media Matters is one of the few groups that attempts to hold Fox News accountable for the false and misleading information they so often broadcast. I am supporting Media Matters in an effort to more widely publicize the challenge Fox News poses to civil and informed discourse in our democracy.”

Soros figured prominently in the conspiracy theory that allegedly drove convicted felon Byron Williams to arm himself and set out to kill staffers at the Soros-funded Tides Foundation the ACLU this summer.

Although Williams said he had first heard of the theory from other sources, he told Media Matters in a jailhouse interview that Glenn Beck was a “schoolteacher” who “blew my mind” on such topics. He told the interviewer to watch Beck’s June shows to get more information about Tides.

On Friday, Drummond Pike, the founder and CEO of the Tides Foundation, said “there will be blood on many hands” if the next assassin succeed, and called for a network-wide advertiser boycott of Fox News in response to Beck’s rhetoric. This morning Media Matters launched a website to join the effort.

Glenn Beck has said on air that Soros funds Media Matters 14 times this year so far, according to Media Matters.

Ari Rabin-Havt, Media Matters’s vice president for research and communications, told POLITICO that Media Matters has actually solicited the Soros-funded Open Society Institute for funding for the past six years without success. “We’ve asked for money,” he said. “We just haven’t gotten it.”

However, Media Matters has received funding from or formed partnerships with several groups that Soros funds or has funded. These include the Tides Foundation, Democracy Alliance, Moveon.org and the Center for American Progress.

CORRECTION: The original version of this post said Soros funds MoveOn.org. MoveOn.org has not received a donation from Soros since 2004.”

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