If you read conservative blogs, you’ll see the name of one supposed boogeyman come up time and time again, connected–often tenuously–to various scandals in one way or another. They seem to be terrified of this guy, considering they spend so much time obsessing over everything he says and does. Why? Well, this is what they say about him:

He’s a foreign-born billionaire financier. He’s a political extremist with a radical agenda, which he pushes on all of us by using a shady network of political organizations and news outlets. He finances smear machines and character assassins who go after his enemies, while fostering ties to prominent politicians. In addition, some of his organizations have been widely criticized and/or gotten into legal trouble in the past.

The person they’re talking about is, of course, George Soros. But isn’t there already someone out there who matches that exact description? Someone conservatives know quite well? In fact, doesn’t that paragraph perfectly describe Rupert Murdoch?

Murdoch is an Australian-born billionaire media mogul. He’s a right-wing conservative with a radical agenda, which he pushes on all of us through the various news outlets he owns and the organizations he influences. Murdoch’s news outlets carry a wide array of smear merchants and character assassins–such as Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity–who go after his enemies. He was a friend of Ronald Reagan, a proponent of Pat Robertson’s presidential bid and a strong supporter of George W. Bush, among others. Finally, his Fox Network has gotten in trouble with the FCC; there was controversy over his acquisition of Turkish TV channel TGRT; and his News Corporation has been widely criticized for paying almost no corporate taxes on billions of dollars of profits.

I don’t pay much attention to what George Soros does, but this right-wing obsession with him smacks of hypocrisy– especially considering that Murdoch is far more powerful and influential than Soros has ever been. So is the conservative obsession over him simply hypocrisy? Projection? Or maybe it’s an attempt to deflect criticism, since influential millionaires and billionaires have huge amounts of influence in the Republican Party, investing significant amounts of time and money into getting Republicans elected.

Perhaps the right wing should check for the monster under their own beds before hysterically checking under ours.