Media Matters

Fox Nation Uses Deceptive Editing To Smear Media Matters

Posted by on August 18, 2011 at 4:19 pm. 3 Comments :

For more than a month now, Fox News has been engaging in a smear campaign directed at Media Matters. The obvious takeaway from their obsession is that Media Matters Has Fox News Scared And Desperate. Why else would they devote so much air time and web space to falsely disparaging them?

Fox Nation vs. Media Matters

The latest episode involves a posting on Fox Nation with the headline: Media Matters’ Salaries Exposed. The post links to an article on Mediaite which references data from the Poynter Institute. Both of those sources used the headline: What it pays to monitor the media. The data includes salary information of five principles at Media Matters. However, it also includes salary information of five principles at the conservative Media Research Center.

The Fox Nationalists copied the text from the Mediaite article verbatim except that they skipped over the Media Research Center data completely and posted only the Media Matters data. Since their purpose was to cast Media Matters in a negative light, they were only concerned with revealing what they imply is inordinately high compensation. Here is the Media Matters data:

David Brock; chairman/CEO; $286,804
Eric Burns; president; $240,579
Tate Williams; chief of staff; $162,812
Eric Boehlert; senior fellow; $115,000
Ari Rabin-Havt; VP-communications and strategy; $134,484

What they left out was the data from the Media Research Center. So in the spirit of fairness and balance, here is that data:

Brent Bozell; president/director; $422,804
Brent Baker; vice president; $126,300
David Martin; executive vp/asst. treasurer; $215,000
Dan Gainor; Business & Media Institute vice president; $122,400
Terry Jeffrey; CNSNews.com editor-in-chief; $122,400

As you can see, the folks at Media Research Center earn significantly more than their Media Matters counterparts. Brent Bozell earns about 47% more than David Brock. The average for all five at Media Matters is about $188,000, while the average for all five Media Research Center execs is over $200,000.

What’s more, the Media Research Center, with an annual budget of $11 million, receives far more funding, mostly from from radical right-wing sources affiliated with the John Birch Society, the Koch brothers, and the Scaife family foundations. Media Matters has a more modest budget of $2.7 million and funding from reputable patrons like cable executive, Leo Hindery and Esprit founder, Susie Tompkins Buell. In addition, they just received their first donation from the conservative’s favorite bogeyman, George Soros, despite claims from Beckian conspiracy theorists that Soros has been pulling the strings from the beginning.

This is another example of Fox distorting the information they present because the truth would only make them look bad. It’s a pathetic exercise that reveals just how unethical and dishonest they are. Sadly, their audience just keeps getting misinformed, which means they just keep getting dumber. It makes it difficult to maintain a democracy when a major so-called news enterprise simply doesn’t care about the truth.

Fox News Escalates Its War On Media Matters

Posted by on August 5, 2011 at 4:28 pm. 6 Comments :

Fox News has been engaging in a relentless campaign against Media Matters for more than a month. They began in June with allegations that Media Matters had violated their tax-exempt status by factually covering Fox News broadcasts as well as other right-wing media. The Fox campaign included frequent solicitations on the air (more than 30 times) by Fox anchors beseeching their viewers to file complaints with the IRS challenging Media Matters’ non-profit status. Amongst those participating in the onslaught were Bill O’Reilly, Bret Baier, Steve Doocy, Charles Krauthammer, James Rosen, Ann Coulter, Dick Morris, and Bernie Goldberg.

The latest salvos come from two fronts: 1) An official filing of an IRS complaint against Media Matters by a Fox crony (more on that later), and 2) from the Fox Business Network which has just completed a three-part series on the subject.

The arguments presented by Fox Business were pitifully weak and often contradictory. For instance, the article stated that some of Media Matters’ activities were “not found in the scope of nonprofit tax law.” That’s a contorted argument because the tax law was never meant to include every imaginable activity that might occur. There is nothing in the law that says that an exempt organization can provide Italian food during meetings, but that doesn’t mean they are in violation of the law if they send out for pizza.

The article also quoted Marcus Owens, a former IRS official, as saying that his remarks in defense of Media Matters were misconstrued. The only problem with that is that the article itself quoted Owens explicitly defending Media Matters saying that their activities are “generally protected by the first amendment,” and that they are “not going to jeopardize its tax-exempt status.” So the article is disparaging its own source. It further points out that…

“Media Matters says in its tax returns that it has not engaged in political campaign activities or lobbying. But Media Matters has run items that advocate for legislation, which would violate the tax law if it became a substantial part of the nonprofit’s activities.”

And what does the article regard as “substantial?” A single 2004 posting on the Media Matters web site in support of the Fairness Doctrine. That’s it. Compare that to the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters, a conservative mirror image of Media Matters. NewsBusters conducts persistent campaigns including one in opposition to the Fairness Doctrine. They also have campaigns against immigration, George Soros, and in support of the Tea Party. These are not years-old, isolated efforts. They are current and ongoing. Yet Gray has not filed a challenge to the tax-exempt status of the Media Research Center. Or the Heritage Foundation. Or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Or the Tea party’s own Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.

The remainder of the series consists of an abundance of nonsense. It suggests that having tax-exempt status is equivalent to having a government endorsement. It cites an IRS ruling that “a nonprofit will lose its tax-exempt status if, among other things, a significant portion of its communications consist of viewpoints or positions ‘unsupported by facts.'” Of course, Media Matters is notoriously stringent about providing factual support for everything they post.

In addition to Fox News and Fox Business, the Murdoch propaganda family continued piling on Media Matters with articles on Fox Nation that still retain the first position in their “New Stories” section, despite being more than a month old. The Fox Nationalists posted links to a pre-filled-in form that could be printed out and mailed to the IRS. News Corpse has requested information from the IRS on the volume of complaints, if any, they have been receiving in the past month. That request is still pending. However, it may be safe to surmise that the response of the Fox audience was not particularly impressive, because they had to resort to filing their own complaint indirectly via former George H.W. Bush counsel, C. Boyden Gray.

C. Boyden GrayIn filing this complaint, Both Fox and Gray asserted that they are unaffiliated with one another. Gray insisted that he is not representing Fox and is not on the payroll. What they neglected to disclose is that Gray was previously identified as a both a Fox News Supreme Court Analyst and a Fox News contributor. This puts in doubt their claims to being unaffiliated, and it destroys any pretense of transparency.

Gray’s obviously biased perspective is well represented in the letter he sent to the IRS. The core of his complaint is the allegation that Media Matters has “declared war” on a television news channel [Fox News]. Of course the truth is that Fox News had long before declared war on Media Matters. Consequently, Media Matters may just be regarded as defending itself from a powerful, international, media megalith.

Gray’s complaint began with a claim that “Media Matters’s efforts to harm Fox News are intended to weaken the Republican Party.” Gray offers no support whatsoever for that claim. The truth is that Media Matters is merely attempting to demonstrate the bias on the part of Fox News for the GOP. And despite Gray’s charge, every example he cites of Media Matters allegedly attacking Republicans actually show that they are reporting on what others in the media are saying about the party.

Gray also makes a rather incoherent argument that the IRS is somehow violating the free speech rights of Fox News by granting Media Matters tax exempt status. The tortured case he makes seems to be that such status somehow punishes Fox News. Suffice to say that he never explains how, or establishes that Fox News’ rights have been violated in any way.

But the height of Gray’s Inanity is his contention that Media Matters has embarked on an “unsupportable attempt to tie Fox News to the Republican Party.” However, tying Fox News to the Republican Party is about as difficult as tying your shoelaces. The support is overwhelming and includes surveys that show the extreme imbalance of Republicans to Democrats on Fox News. It includes the rampant utilization of talking points directly from GOP sources on one program after another throughout the broadcast day. It includes memos from executive editors directing their anchors and reporters to frame stories favorably to right. It includes the overt hostility and racism that Fox Nation publishes repeatedly.

Setting all of that aside for the moment, it would interesting to hear how Gray would reconcile his assertion that Media Matters is trying to “weaken the Republican Party,” with his assertion that any attempt to tie the party to Fox News is “unsupportable.” If the party and Fox News are unconnected, then how could one be harmed by attacking the other? Gray’s arguments are an endless loop of contradiction. They can’t both be true.

Given a full examination, Gray’s complaint to the IRS is amateurish blather. He fails to prove a single point in his letter. But he does manage to prove that Fox News, and the Murdoch-led News Corp, is a deceitful and unethical enterprise for endeavoring to partner with Gray on this puerile exercise. they are exhibiting their proclivity for bullying their perceived enemies and using their media perch to smear those with whom they disagree. They are a criminal enterprise and should be treated as such. Hopefully the investigations just getting underway will put these gangsters where they belong.

Media Matters Has Fox News Scared And Desperate

Posted by on July 11, 2011 at 9:38 am. 7 Comments :

This is a compilation of several previous News Corpse articles that I put together for Alternet.com.

In the untamed jungle that is cable news, there is a ferocious and predatory beast stalking the terrain. Anyone who has encountered Fox News in the wild can attest to the spine-chilling threat imposed by the pseudo-news network. And now Fox News has the scent of new game.

The Fox News pack is on the prowl for the media watchdog group, Media Matters, against whom they have recently initiated a sustained assault. In the past two weeks they have featured over 30 stories with the express purpose of challenging the group’s right to exist. Fox has assigned network stalwarts like Bill O’Reilly, Bret Baier, Charles Krauthammer, James Rosen, Ann Coulter, Dick Morris, and Bernie Goldberg, to the mission. This is an unprecedented, broadly distributed attack by a major media enterprise against a non-profit group they regard as an adversary.

This latest batch of complaints stem from comments made last March by Media Matters founder, David Brock. He was quoted in Politico as saying that the organization was shifting its focus toward Fox News to one of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage.” Giving Fox the benefit of doubt, one might conclude that it’s only fair that Fox defend itself from such an overt declaration of war. The only thing that might refute that perspective is – reality.

If this is war, it is one wherein Fox is the aggressor. Fox News initiated their attacks long ago with aggressive and false assertions that cast Media Matters as hacks, anti-American, violent, and communist. They alleged that George Soros was pulling their strings long before Soros ever made any contributions the group. Fox stalwarts like Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck engaged in rhetoric so hostile that it inspired actual physical attacks against Media Matters and their progressive allies. This video (courtesy of Media Matters) was posted two years ago and illustrates the hostility harbored across the Fox platform long before Brock’s recent comments:

The new and highly coordinated offensive by Fox asserts that Media Matters has violated the terms of their tax-exempt status by setting their sights on Fox. They quote from the IRS rules governing non-profits that state that…

“…501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

On the basis of that criteria, Fox News argues that Media Matters is in violation and should have their tax-exempt status revoked. However, in order for that to be valid, Fox would have to admit that they are a political operation so that attacks on Fox News would qualify as opposition to political campaigns and/or candidates. Without that stipulation there is no violation on the part of Media Matters. So Fox is, in effect, conceding their role as a Republican mouthpiece. Shocking, I know.

Contine reading →

What Fox News And Republicans Fear Most

Posted by on July 9, 2011 at 10:42 am. 4 Comments :

The rabidly partisan Fox News web site, Fox Nation, has revealed what they regard as the most terrifying foe in the political universe. They posted an article that makes it clear what is keeping them up nights: Media Matters Spawn Trailing G.O.P. With Cameras.

The headline references an article in the New York Times about American Bridge, an independent organization that documents public political events and candidates. It was founded by David Brock, founder of Media Matters. However, that brief headline is dripping with references to Fox’s spine-chilling horror.

First, and foremost, is the frightful Media Matters. Fox News is so petrified of this little, non-profit, media watchdog, that they are presently engaged in a weeks-long effort to shut it down by challenging their tax-exempt status. They have committed dozens of stories and personnel to the campaign that includes direct appeals to file complaints with the IRS.

The other cause of their dread is the notion that Republican candidates might be recorded by (cue scary music) CAMERAS! That’s right, the most frightening prospect facing any Republican is that of being captured actually saying things to citizens. It sends them into seizures of anxiety and wails of gotcha-ism. The last thing a Republican wants is to be held accountable for what they actually say.

Recent examples of why they are so apprehensive include, Michele Bachmann’s stated affinity for serial killer John Wayne Gacy; Mitt Romney’s sequence of contradictory assertions that President Obama made the economy worse, which he later denied saying, then later said it again; Herman Cain’s remarks that Obama is not really black; Newt Gingrich slamming Paul Ryan’s GOP budget as “right-wing social engineering.”

Orrin HatchThis week in the senate, Orrin Hatch (R-UT) spoke about the sputtering economy and his opposition to the wealthy sharing in the sacrifice required to get the country back on track. He began by saying that…

“Shared sacrifice is something – sounds good – but I’d prefer the Republican approach to shared prosperity.”

What does that even mean? Have the uber-rich been sharing their prosperity without my noticing (or getting any)? But Hatch wasn’t through embarrassing himself with how pitifully out-of-touch and insensitive he is. He continued his speech to note that…

“The poor need jobs, and they also need to share some of the responsibility.”

Of course. Because the poor have not suffered enough. While the top 1% of earners have seen their fortunes increase and their taxes decline, the poor have been living it up at soup kitchens and unemployment offices. In a nation where the 400 richest individuals have more wealth than the 150 million at the bottom combined (half of the nation’s population), it is the poor who have not taken up enough of the burden. And the rallying cry of the GOP is that cuts must be made; cuts to Social Security; cuts to pensions; cuts to worker’s compensation; and of course, cuts to taxes for the rich – again. There’s your shared sacrifice GOP style:

Shared Sacrifice

It’s that sort of rhetoric that the GOP is afraid will be distributed to voters. And their hypocrisy only compounds the problem. That’s why American Bridge – or any citizen with a cell phone – will always be regarded as a threat by Republicans. They simply can’t handle the truth. That’s why they created Fox News.

Fox News Accidentally Reports On News Corp Hacking Scandal

Posted by on July 6, 2011 at 11:37 am. 17 Comments :

Fox News – July 5, 2010, BREAKING NEWS: AN ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN?

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has been battling to suppress reports about a scandal threatening to upend the conservative media empire. Their British tabloid, News of the World (NotW), was caught hacking into the cell phones of politicians, celebrities, royals, and others, in order to find or manufacture salacious stories. But now Murdoch’s own Fox News is reporting this about the illegal campaign waged by its sister company:


Fox News has assiduously avoided the embarrassing story. That would be consistent with their history of ignoring stories that reflect poorly on the company, no matter how relevant to the public interest. Are they now relenting and covering this major corporate scandal? Not on your life. The screen shot above is not actually from a story about the hacking scandal at all. It is from another assault in their current crusade against Media Matters. However, Fox inadvertently snapped a screen shot of the Media Matters web site that featured coverage of the hacking scandal. This is pretty much the only way the story will ever make it onto Fox News.

The headline from Media Matters, “Murdoch Tabloid Accused Of Hacking Murdered Schoolgirl’s Phone,” refers to a particularly despicable incident wherein NotW reporters hacked into the phone of a missing thirteen year old girl who was later discovered to have been murdered. They accessed her voicemail and even deleted messages after the mailbox became full to make room for more messages upon which they could eavesdrop. That action gave false hope to the girl’s family who assumed that she had deleted the messages herself and was therefore still alive. It also potentially destroyed evidence of the crime.

The new hacking allegations concerning the murdered girl have elevated the scandal to new and repulsive heights. In addition, new information is surfacing that reveals similar hacking into the phones of victims of London’s terrorist subway bombing. So while it funny that Fox News inadvertently posts this image that implicates them in a scandal, we must take seriously the threat that dishonest propagandists like Fox pose for our nation.

WTF: Fox News Is Now Psychoanalyzing Media Matters Execs

Posted by on July 5, 2011 at 3:58 pm. 6 Comments :

To anyone who thought that Fox News would become a more responsible and sane journalistic enterprise after the departure of Glenn Beck, your expectations have been dashed against the jagged rocks of reality (I told you so).

For the past couple of weeks Fox News has been engaging in a dogged effort to discredit the media watchdog group, Media Matters. They have sicced their most vicious attack poodles on them and openly beseeched their viewers to file complaints with the IRS to challenge Media Matters’ tax-exempt status. Every day they bump this two week old story to the top of their rabidly partisan web site, Fox Nation, above other more recent news. Their Saturday “News Watch” program devoted fully half the show to this one subject. But today they have taken a running leap off a cliff that leads to a Grand Canyon of stupidity, hilarity, and jaw-dropping shame.

Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy, perhaps the stupidest man on TV, brought in Glenn Beck’s co-author and “doctor” Keith Ablow for an interview that careened off into the surreal. Ablow pretended that he could psychoanalyze someone whom he has never examined or even met. That is a sign of certain quackery reminiscent of “doctor” Bill Frist’s pathetic attempt to diagnose the terminally ill and vegetative Terri Schiavo. Here is a portion of the exchange:

Steve Doocy: I understand you’ve done a psychological profile of [Media Matters founder] David Brock. What did you find?

Keith Ablow: Well, look, I looked at him from a distance, but you don’t have to look very hard to see into the man’s mind apparently. This is somebody who seemingly has such low self-esteem, Steve, that he’s lurching from one group to another. Whoever will embrace him and reassure him that he’s a decent guy and be his cheerleader in a dramatic way, that’s who he’s gonna be with. […] You can’t believe this guy because he’s full of self-hatred which he then projects on the world around him in order to get love. So he’s gotta have somebody to hate because he thinks that’s the way, the best way to galvanize the love in his direction. So yes, it’s always about being a hit man, you know, exposing someone. There’s very sexual connotations here too.

That is about as idiotic an appraisal as has ever been articulated aloud. I pity anyone who actually has this fraud as an analyst. Ablow has no basis whatsoever to arrive at his conclusions. He is merely taking obviously hostile swipes at someone he is being paid to disparage. He should have his license revoked. And with all of his brazen, personal animosity he fails to provide a single example of anything that Brock has done that is incorrect or unsubstantiated.

This attack is purely personal. Ablow’s notation of “lurching from one group to another” references the fact that Brock was once a conservative, but is now a liberal. However, Brock was a conservative for many years and, after evolving more to the left, he has remained liberal for the past decade. That behavior is hardly what any rational person would describe as “lurching.” In fact, it’s rather stable. Would Ablow also regard Andrew Breitbart, David Horowitz, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann as lurching, self-haters? They are all former Democrats or liberals.

Ablow neglects to explain what the “sexual connotations” are. He probably only raised that issue to remind his audience that Brock is openly gay, a factor that the Fox audience will regard as negative. At one point Ablow tried to inject that Brock’s having been adopted had some part in this absurd analysis, as if adoption is a precursor to the alleged self-hatred Ablow is inventing. And he signed off the segment by telling Doocy, in a declarative tone, that Brock is “A very dangerous man, my friend.”

Ablow is a very disturbed and unprofessional little weasel (I can’t bring myself to call him a man). His medical credibility is identical to the journalistic credibility of Fox News – Zero. No wonder he is their resident psychiatric expert. The prerequisite to becoming an expert on Fox News is to demonstrate that you have little knowledge of your professed field, and that you’re willing to use your ignorance to advance the Republican agenda.

In addition to this psycho-circus, Fox News also called upon faux-liberal Juan Williams to pile on Media Matters. In an interview with Doocy’s co-host, Brian Kilmeade, Williams said that Media Matters is “about ruining people and trying to take a company down – to destroy a company.” There was not even a hint of irony as he said this while he was trying to ruin people and destroy a company. Then Kilmeade closed the interview with this verbal and graphic appeal to viewers:

“If you want to file a complaint about Media Matters I want you to do this. Go to FoxNation.com and click on the “Justice”>/em> tab. We’ll take it from there.”


This is just the latest attempt to drive viewers to a web page where they can file their own complaint to the IRS. As I’ve noted previously, there is no merit to the argument that Media Matters is in violation of their tax-exempt status. To be in violation they would have to be engaging in substantial political (i.e. campaign) or lobbying (i.e. legislative) activities. Media Matters does neither. However, the instructions as presented in the graphic above advise Fox viewers to lie in their complaint. Let me repeat that: Fox is advising their viewers to LIE to the IRS! This is because the instruction to check the boxes for political campaigning and lobbying activities amounts to falsifying the form.

I defy anyone to supply an example of Media Matters either engaging in a political campaign or lobbying any member of any legislative body. Since no such examples have been supplied, the form would be a false representation. The only way that Media Matters can be construed as being in violation of their tax-exempt status by virtue of their attacking Fox, is if Fox is itself a political operation. Of course, Fox denies that. Were they to admit it we might have a different story. In the meantime, if these complaint forms required the complainant to sign under oath, then Fox would be guilty of suborning perjury. As it is they are merely guilty of attempting to flood the IRS with frivolous and phony paperwork. Which for conservatives seeking to reduce the cost and oversight of government is pretty hypocritical.

At the risk of being accused of psychoanalyzing Fox, I must observe that they are obviously scared. They are so afraid of Media Matters that they have become obsessed with destroying it. While most Americans have probably never heard of Media Matters, Fox is elevating them to the top of the news pile, even above Casey Anthony. They know that any organization that shines the light of truth on Fox News is going to make things difficult for an enterprise like Fox whose mission is to disseminate disinformation and keep viewers ignorant.

If you haven’t done so already, this would be a good time to join Media Matters.

Fox News Watch Obsesses Over Media Matters

Posted by on July 3, 2011 at 3:34 pm. 9 Comments :

The Fox News weekend schedule seems to have been interrupted. First by nearly non-stop coverage of the trial of Casey Anthony which, judging by the amount of airtime it is receiving, it is the most important event facing the country. More important than the economy, the war on terror, or where the royals are spending the weekend.

In addition, the Fox News Watch program that airs every weekend was taken over by a single subject that consumed fully half of the program. Fox has become desperately fixated on the perceived threat of Media Matters. They have been reporting all week on an attempt to shut it down by challenging their tax-exempt status (a challenge that has no merit whatsoever). They have even been directing viewers to a web site where they can file their own complaints with the IRS. Fox Nation posted this link a week ago and keeps moving it to the top of their web page above other more recent news.

Obviously Fox is scared. They are afraid that Media Matters’ practice of documenting Fox’s own words and pictures is having a detrimental effect on the network. They are afraid that the successful campaign against Glenn Beck will continue to reveal that Fox News is a bastion of lies, racism, and partisan propaganda. And so Fox has embarked on a mission to destroy Media Matters with all the weight of their vast media empire.

Fox News Watch opened by playing a biased story from Fox reporter James Rosen in full. I have never seen that happen on News Watch before. The story included former Bush lawyer, C. Boyden Gray, making this ludicrous assertion:

“When you start to accuse Fox News of being the spokesman for the Republican Party, which is demonstrably false – there’s no basis for that. Brock, Media Matters, makes no effort to substantiate any of that – That’s when it crosses the line.”

There is ample evidence that Fox News is operating as the public relations arm of the Republican Party. They have had in their employ up to five potential GOP candidates for president. They interview Republican candidates almost exclusively. They have distributed memos instructing their anchors and reporters to use language that parrots Republican talking points. They have even broadcast reports written by the Republican National Committee word-for-word, displaying accompanying graphics that contained the same typos in the original RNC document. That last bit of journalistic cronyism was the work of current Fox News Watch host, Jon Scott.

Media Matters has more than made an effort to substantiate the overtly partisan behavior of Fox. They have proven it beyond a shadow of a doubt. That’s why Fox is scared.

The News Watch segment went on to note the recent financial history of Media Matters. They displayed a chart showing that the group received $8.4 million in grants and contributions in 2007, $8 million in 2008, and 6.7 million in 2009. Then, without any evidence whatsoever, asserted that the decline in receipts is what prompted George Soros to make a $1 million donation in 2010 (his first donation ever, by the way). Jon Scott characterized the donations as “drying up.” I suppose it never occurred to him that the time period he singled out was precisely when the economy collapsed, which undoubtedly impacted the donations of every charitable organization. There was no reason to assume that there was any problem with supporters that involved anything other than the state of the economy.

This was followed by a chart showing that Media Matters had done more stories on Fox News than any other news entity. Why would that surprise anyone? If the mission is to document media misinformation, the most frequent offender is going to show up most frequently. Fox knows that they perpetrate more misinformation than any other news source. That’s why Fox is scared.

The News Watch panel was composed of four conservative defenders of Fox and one lonely, but earnest, liberal, Jehmu Greene. Jon Scott brought up Soros three separate times, but were it not for Greene no one would have heard about the uber-conservative Media Research Center (operator of NewsBusters). The MRC has its own army of billionaires (Koch, Murdoch, Scaife, etc.) funding their partisan enterprise, but no one other than Greene would discuss it. Even after she brought it up, the other panelists scurried away refusing to hear of it. And it should not go without mentioning that Fox News itself is one of the MRC’s biggest supporters. They regularly feature the MRC’s Brent Bozell and much of their news content comes straight from the MRC. Fox’s former news chief, Brit Hume, thanked the MRC saying “I don’t know what we would’ve done without them.”

This farce took up half of the program. As a result, notable media events of the past week were ignored or abridged. Those events included Michele Bachmann’s entry into the presidential race, Glenn Beck’s final show on Fox, and the President’s contentious news conference. Why would Fox News Watch, a show dedicated to the media, deliberately excise and/or abridge coverage of such significant stories in order expand coverage of a media monitoring organization that most Americans have never heard of?

Because Fox News is scared. They are scared of the truth. They are scared that more people will discover that they are a network that peddles garbage and partisan tripe. And as an enterprise with zero journalistic credibility, Fox News has good reason to be afraid. An organization like Media Matters that merely records and replays the lies and bias on Fox News is certain to be their worst enemy.

When Fox News Attacks: The Assault On Media Matters [Updated]

Posted by on July 1, 2011 at 10:45 am. 12 Comments :

[Update July 1, 2011] Fox News continues to hype this issue. They have run numerous stories on air by James Rosen, Steve Doocy, and Bret Baier, many of which include instructions and appeals to file an IRS complaint against Media Matters. Fox Nation has bumped the story to the top of their page all week, including the IRS link. See below for new action items.]

[June 29, 2011] In case you haven’t noticed, Fox News has recently initiated a sustained assault on the media watchdog group, Media Matters. In the past week they have featured numerous stories with the express purpose of challenging the group’s right to exist.


This latest batch of complaints stem from comments made last March by Media Matters founder, David Brock. He was quoted in Politico as saying that the organization was shifting its focus toward Fox News to one of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage.” Under those circumstances it may not be surprising that Fox has taken up a barrage of criticism aimed at Media Matters. It seems only fair that Fox defend itself from such an overt declaration of war.

The only thing that might refute that perspective is – reality.

Fox News began this war long ago with aggressive and false assertions that cast Media Matters as hacks, anti-American, violent, and communist. They alleged that George Soros was pulling their strings long before Soros ever made any contributions the group. Fox stalwarts like Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck engaged in rhetoric so hostile that it inspired actual physical attacks against Media Matters and their progressive allies. So if this is war, it is one wherein Fox is the aggressor.

Another thing that makes this blitzkrieg unseemly is that Fox likes to pretend that it is a news enterprise. While Media Matters has as its mission to monitor the press, report their findings, and take actions to improve the state of the media, Fox is over-stepping ethical boundaries in becoming an activist enterprise targeting ideological foes. That is not the role of legitimate journalism.

The most recent line of attack by Fox is that Media Matters has violated the terms of their tax-exempt status by setting their sights on Fox. They quote from the rules governing non-profits that state that…

“…501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

On the basis of that criteria, Fox News argues that Media Matters is in violation and should have their tax-exempt status revoked. That’s an interesting argument because it implies that attacks on Fox News qualify as opposition to political campaigns and/or candidates. Without that stipulation there is no violation on the part of Media Matters. So Fox is, in effect, admitting that they are a political operation. Shocking, I know.

If Fox wants to acknowledge that they are not a news network, but a political entity, and change their name to the Fox Republican PR Agency, then I would be willing to call on Media Matters to lay off. Absent that, Fox should drop this inane pretense and go back to pretending they are a news network.

Even if Fox were to come out of the propaganda closet, Media Matters would still be in the clear because the non-profit prohibition is explicitly related to campaigns and candidates. While Fox is obviously promoting both on behalf of their conservative pals, Fox itself is neither.

What makes this even worse is that Fox is not merely retaliating to what they regard as attacks on them. Fox is actively participating in a campaign to shut Media Matters down by challenging their tax status. On Fox Nation they posted an article that was nothing more than an appeal to their readers to file complaints with the IRS. The article’s headline says it all: “Want to File an IRS Complaint Against Media Matters? Click Here.” And after posting that article, Fox anchor Steve Doocy made this announcement on his morning show Fox & Friends:

“Somebody has set up a web site and we have linked it, actually, at FoxNation.com. If you go down about half way down you’ll see that logo. If you want to file a complaint with the IRS against Media Matters because you feel they have gone political, they have abandoned their initial quest, then go to that site and go ahead.”

Not only is that a waste of time, because of the reasons stated above that prove the complaint has no merit, it is also unethical. Has anyone ever heard of a news enterprise directing its viewers to file official complaints against another organization that it regards as an enemy? If NBC were to instruct its viewers to file tax status complaints against the Tea Party because its leaders attack the network, would the folks at Fox News consider that acceptable?

Of course not. Fox would regard that as unethical, outside the jurisdiction of a news network, and deliberate harassment. Which is exactly what it is when Fox does it, and it is exactly what Fox is doing.

[Take Action] Fox News is dishonestly attacking Media Matters and harassing them through an organized effort to barrage the IRS with complaints. However, they have no problem with their right-wing allies, like the Media Research Center, who do precisely the same thing that Media Matters does. Therefore, if anyone is interested in filing a complaint against MRC, feel free. Here is the Complaint Form (pdf) and some of the information you’ll need to include.

Media Research Center – A right-wing group that runs Cybercast News Service (CNSNews.com), a conservative news site; NewsBusters.org, a blog devoted to media criticism; the Business & Media Institute, which promotes conservative economic principles; and the Culture and Media Institute, which promotes traditional values in the media. They are funded by the Scaife family, the Koch brothers, Coors, Exxon Mobil, and DeVos (Amway).

Address:
325 S. Patrick Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Federal Employee Identification Number: 54-1429009

Andrew Breitbart’s Latest Lie Attacks Labor And Academia

Posted by on April 29, 2011 at 5:15 pm. 8 Comments :

Andrew BreitbartJon Lovitz used to have a character on Saturday Night live known a the “pathological liar.” He would simply make up things to impress his associates and, as he settled on the perfect deceit, would exclaim, “Yeah, that’s the ticket.”

Andrew Breitbart has taken this notion to new levels. His capacity for dishonesty is boundless and entirely devoid of shame. The latest episode in his recurring series of video lie-fests takes place at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. The video posted at his BigGovernment blog shows a professor and a guest lecturer engaged in a discussion that includes statements that imply they are advocating violence on behalf of labor interests. “Yeah, that’s the ticket.” The only problem with this expose is that, like just about everything else Breitbart does, it isn’t true.

Judy Ancel, Director of Labor Studies at UMKC, is the professor in the video. She responded to Breitbart’s smear in an email with several examples of how Breitbart fiddled with the content to deliberately convey a meaning that did not exist in reality. For instance, she writes…

Breitbart is a master of taking quotes out of context, deletion of what doesn’t serve his purpose, and remixing to achieve totally different meaning. For example he has me saying:

o Breitbart’s version: “Violence is a tactic and it’s to be used when it’s the appropriate tactic.”

o The real version: After students had watched a film on the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike and the assassination of Martin Luther King, they were discussing nonviolence. I said, “One guy in the film. . . said ‘violence is a tactic, and it’s to be used when it’s the appropriate tactic.’. . . ” The class proceeded to discuss and debate this.

It is apparent that Ancel was quoting somebody in the film, not expressing her own views. This is typical of Breitbart and his ilk. It is the point I was making when I posted this video of Glenn Beck admitting that he idolizes Adolf Hitler:

Media Matters has some of the obviously manipulated video as well as the uncut versions that reveal Breitbart’s purposeful deception.

This project has all the earmarks of Breitbart’s modus operandi. It is precisely what he did to Shirley Sherrod. It is the very same tactics he used against ACORN, along with his protege, James O’Keefe. However, there are no credits for the video other than the name “Insurgent Visuals.” It’s odd that no one would want to take credit for what they must regard as a brilliant piece of investigative journalism.

However, after some investigation of my own, I discovered that Insurgent Visuals has a web site. Surely there would be some indication of who was responsible for this story. Nope. Just a short statement on their “About” page saying “We are a small collective of motivated political actionists intent on changing the world.” They are also intent on hiding their identity.

So I continued my investigation and discovered that Insurgent Visuals also had at one time a blog at BlogSpot. The blog was no longer available, but I was able to access it via Google’s cache. Once there I noticed that the blog’s contributors were Bruce Bronson, and some guy named — James O’Keefe! Who’da thunk it? So O’Keefe, a well-known lying video manipulator may have had an invisible hand in Breitbart’s new anonymous smear campaign. He’s certainly the guy I would call if I wanted to produce a phony videotaped assault on someone.

Prof. Ancel’s response to the video is worth reading in full. It outlines the dishonesty that Breitbart perpetuated as well as her outrage at having the privacy of her students violated and the forum for free expression in the classroom replaced with a chilling mood of fear and distrust. The email in full follows:
 
Contine reading →

Who Says Glenn Beck Isn’t Funny?

Posted by on March 25, 2011 at 3:38 pm. 2 Comments :

Glenn BeckOn his TV program yesterday, Glenn Beck launched into a hilarious routine that simply has to be shared with the world. It concerned his paranoid perception that an army of George Soros soldiers are advancing on him and his motley crew.

Beck: And please, enough, George Soros. He’s got 86 people now on staff at Media Matters. Eighty-six! And the CEO of Media Matters said, “Oh, we need to hire some more.” He was fundraising. “We need to hire some more because it takes a lot of people to correct Glenn Beck’s nonsense.” There are ten people. Ten that work on this program. Ten that put it together. TEN! It takes 86 to try to tear us down.

That’s hilarious. I could hardly…oh wait. He was serious. Beck actually thinks that every employee at Media Matters is assigned to watching and fact-checking his program. That includes the accountants and receptionists. And who does that leave to monitor Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly and, well, everybody else at Fox? Not to mention Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin and Andrew Breitbart and everybody at every other television or radio station, or newspaper or Internet site.

Nope. Beck believes that all of Media Matters is wholly dedicated to bringing him, and only him, to ruin, and that George Soros is personally staked out in front of a wall of TVs directing the effort.

I don’t know how many people are actually monitoring Beck’s program, but I can safely assume that it takes at least a few focused researchers to run down the actual facts associated with his wild proclamations, because I do it myself with some frequency.

The advantage Beck has over those of us who rely on facts is that it takes considerable time and effort to confirm or negate information with documentary evidence of your conclusions. However, all it takes is a good imagination if you’re going to make stuff up.

For instance, it takes only a few seconds for me to claim that Beck once hired Monica Lewinsky as an intern on his old Morning Zoo radio show, and that the show’s producer admitted that they sent Lewinsky to Washington as a prank. It would take a legitimate researcher much longer to look into this assertion, acquire documents, compare dates, seek statements from witnesses, etc.

That’s why it only takes ten people to put together Beck’s show. They really don’t have much to do other than keeping the blackboard clean. And they aren’t distracted with pesky little concerns about honesty or proof. In fact, ten people seems a little high to produce the garbage that Beck puts on the air every day. I could probably do myself with an intern and a box of chalk.