N/P's also put phantom employees on the payroll and book phony line items like "maintenance, PR, building, legal fees, administration" to siphon off tax-free monies for themselves.
What's next for the fascistic MM---book burning? (/snix)
Posted on 03/26/2011 7:04:52 AM PDT by kristinn
The liberal group Media Matters has quietly transformed itself in preparation for what its founder, David Brock, described in an interview as an all-out campaign of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” aimed at the Fox News Channel.
The group, launched as a more traditional media critic, has all but abandoned its monitoring of newspapers and other television networks and is narrowing its focus to Fox and a handful of conservative websites, which its leaders view as a political organizations and the “nerve center” of the conservative movement. The shift reflects the centrality of the cable channel to the contemporary conservative movement, as well as the loathing it inspires among liberals — not least among the donors who fund Media Matters’ staff of about 90, who are arrayed in neat rows in a giant war room above Massachusetts Avenue.
“The strategy that we had had toward Fox was basically a strategy of containment,” said Brock, Media Matters’ chairman and founder and a former conservative journalist, adding that the group’s main aim had been to challenge the factual claims of the channel and to attempt to prevent them from reaching the mainstream media.
The new strategy, he said, is a “war on Fox.”
In an interview and a 2010 planning memo shared with POLITICO, Brock listed the fronts on which Media Matters – which he said is operating on a $10 million-plus annual budget — is working to chip away at Fox and its parent company, News Corp. They include its bread-and-butter distribution of embarrassing clips and attempts to rebut Fox points but also a series of under-the-radar tactics.
Media Matters, Brock said, is assembling opposition research files not only on Fox’s top executives but on a series of midlevel officials. It has hired an activist who has led a successful campaign to press advertisers to avoid Glenn Beck’s show. The group is assembling a legal team to help people who have clashed with Fox file lawsuits for defamation, invasion of privacy or other causes. And it has hired two experienced reporters, Joe Strupp and Alexander Zaitchik, to dig into Fox’s operation and to help assemble a book on the network, due out in 2012 from Vintage/Anchor. (In the interest of full disclosure, Media Matters last month also issued a report criticizing “Fox and Friends” co-host Steve Doocy’s criticism of this reporter’s blog.)
Brock said Media Matters also plans to run a broad campaign against Fox’s parent company, News Corp., an effort which will most likely involve opening a United Kingdom arm in London to attack the company’s interests there. The group hired an executive from MoveOn.org to work on developing campaigns among News Corp. shareholders and is also looking for ways to turn regulators in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere against the network.
The group will “focus on [News Corp. CEO Rupert] Murdoch and trying to disrupt his commercial interests — whether that be here or looking at what’s going on in London right now,” Brock said, referring to News Corp.’s — apparently successful — move to take a majority stake in the satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
SNIP
But Media Matters says its digging has begun to pay off. The group has trickled out a series of emails from Washington Bureau Chief Bill Sammon, leaks from inside the network, which show him, for instance, circulating a memo on “Obama’s references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists.”
The leaks are part of a broader project to take advantage of internal dissent, Media Matters Executive Vice President Ari Rabin-Havt said.
“We made a list of every single person who works for Fox and tried to figure out who might be disgruntled and why, and we went out to try to meet them,” he said. “Clearly, somebody in that organization is giving us primary source documents.”
Media Matters, he said, is also conducting “opposition research” on a dozen or so “mid- and senior-level execs and producers,” a campaign style move that he and Brock said would simply involve recording their public appearances and digging into public records associated with them.
And Brock’s 2010 planning memo offers a glimpse at Media Matters’ shift from media critic to a new species of political animal.
“Criticizing Fox News has nothing to do with criticizing the press,” its memo says. “Fox News is not a news organization. It is the de facto leader of the GOP, and it is long past time that it is treated as such by the media, elected officials and the public.”
Time for an undercover sting targeting Media Matters.
Could you (or anyone reading this) refresh my memory about Major Garrett? I remember being disappointed when he left, but where did he go and were there some circumstances around his departure that I don’t know about?
The trouble with all these ersatz "philanthropies" is the lack of laws demanding full disclosure of donor's names. That should be an easy law to change.
For instance, Planned Parenthood does not have to list their donors, but they can donate money to 528's. And if you have a 501c3 that donates to PP, you have to list that donation on YOUR tax forms. You can trace donations to PP that way, but it is arduous.
A lot of these charities spend a lot of time and money just donating to each other to frustrate both the IRS and public knowledge.
Liz, what do you think or know about the Major Garrett references in this thread?
They had better not be a tax-exempt organization. Of course, if they are, they have nothing to worry about until President Palin is sworn in.
N/P's also put phantom employees on the payroll and book phony line items like "maintenance, PR, building, legal fees, administration" to siphon off tax-free monies for themselves.
What's next for the fascistic MM---book burning? (/snix)
Major Garrett is now a Congressional correspondent with the National Journal.
Isn’t that kind of a come-down from being such a popular correspondent on Fox? It’s like he disappeared. Most news guys have more ego than that.
Probably his best offer.
Here's his latest--talking up intervention in Libya on MSNBC.
You know, having watched his reportage for so many years, and seeing this sudden change...wouldn't be surprised if Podesta and his bunch might have something really bad on Garrett.
Beck is also being forced out-—supposedly starting his own cable channel.
If you go to the link I added, he tells it.
Forewarned is forearmed.
I would be surprised if Murdock doesn’t already have dossiers on that faggot Brock and his hot tub buddies.
MM own website says that any donation “is fully tax deductible”. I think I’ll research it a bit more.
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Great post, btw.
DemocracyInAction also lists itself as a 501(c)3 - they are the company that handles the technology and “donations” to Media Matters. Actually, they refer to themselves as “a progressive 501(c)3.”
He is tight with the Clintons. He wanted Mo out and Hillary and the rest of the malevolent scum in the WH went along.
20 months is a long time when we are struggling to save our Country.
God Help Us.
Millions of people will watch it. The ad revenue will be fantastic. The American people see what's going on with our country and Obama's (and D.C. in general) current and future Marxist/New World Order plans. We also see that most of the politicians aren't like the rest of us. America isn't courtrooms, ivory academic towers or chronic bureaucratic inertia in Washington D.C.
People are thirsty for "the real news" and want to be more educated. Since the sleeping giant is now fully awake, we want more. We want to be an 'informed electorate without spin', to hear real conservative news, (we don't need fair and balanced, we've already decided we Want Conservative!) The elections in November were a start and we're on a roll!
The Conservative Cable Network will be factual, double sourced and triple checked. Potential topics: tons of American History ideas, in depth Constitution review, original documents, 'decade studies', 'citizen debates', specials on Reagan and other famous conservatives, 1776 series, core conservative values shows, the hardships of the early settlers, Judeo-Christian origins, Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers, the Frontier and struggles therein, early state governments, conservative book reviews and ongoing live 'book club' discussions, segments on conservative activism, voter education, Tea Party segments, 2nd Amendment issues, the Fed, government corruption, flat or fair tax alternatives, current conservative news and electoral candidates.
All the top Conservatives will have a daily hour show or a weekly hour show. I can think of a bunch of people right off the bat. Seems to me you could do a 24/7 conservative meme with not enough time in a week.
Get ready. . . we're up for the fight!
On yesterday's TV show Glenn said that Media Matters has 86 People working just to track him and what he says every day. And then they post 'corrections' (rebuttals) to his 'lies' on the MM website.
So George 'Spooky Dude' Soros better keep his checkbook out as Media Matters is gonna need a boatload of money on a regular basis if they intend to go after everyone at FNC.
an aside: Just for kicks, about a year ago I registered at the MM website to get their email 'news' updates (not with my main email account). Well, their 'news updates' got so bad it turned into Spam. I was getting about 5 emails a day and every one was on Glenn Beck and 'His Lies'. So now i go to that secondary email account every other week just to clear my Spam Folder.
I missed Garrett on “Morning Joe.” About a week ago he was on a panel which was aired on C-SPAN. His wife, Julie Kirtz, continued on Fox after he left but I haven’t seen her lately so I don’t know if she is still working for them. Julie’s father is a retired Marine officer (WWII veteran) but I don’t know if that has any influence on Major Garrett’s outlook.
When did Fox replace Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the GOP?
Seriously, who believes this crap? In what world would Fox news network be considered the leader of anything?
Maybe a "mouthpiece", but by claiming it's the "leader", Media Matters reveals the truth of it's work.
Of course, doing an expose of media matters would be useless, because nobody cares what you learn about them. Just as most of those who listen to MM don't really care about the truth, just about whether they can acheive their goals.
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