Thnx.
The nest of vipers who are Brock’s main backers are proof positive that the big money behind Media Matters won’t be drying up anytime soon.
“Standing behind Brock in creating Media Matters was John Podesta, a former chief of staff in the Clinton administration and the head of the “progressive” Washington, DC think tank, the center for American Progress,” according to DiscoverTheNetworks.org. “In 2004, Podest provided Brock with office space for his fledgling enterprise. Soon after, Media Matters received over $2 million in seed donations from a roster of affluent donors including Leo Hindery Jr., a former cable magnate; Susie Tompkins Buell, a co-founder of the fashion company Espirit and a close ally of Senator Hillary Clinton; James Hormel, a San Francisco philanthropist who nearly served as ambassador to Luxembourg during the Clinton administration; Bren Simon, a Democratic activist and the wife of shopping mall developer Mel Simon; and New York psychologist and philanthropist Gail Furman. Media Matters, which can accept tax-deductible contributions under section 501 © (3) of the tax code, has also benefited from the patronage of Peter Lewis, chairman of the Progressive Corporation and a longtime consort of leftist financier George Soros.
“Media Matters has not always been forthcoming about its high-profile backers. In particular, the group has long labored to obscure any financial ties to George Soros. But in March 2003, the Cybercast News Service (CNS) detailed the copious links between Media Matters and several Soros “affiliates”—among them MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress, and Peter Lewis. Confronted with this story, a spokesman for the organization explained that “Media Matters for America has never received funding directly from George Soros.” (emphasis added), a transparent evasion.”
If the King of Switcheroo as head of a media monitoring group that only goes after conservative misinformation is not enough controversy, it has now come to light that not only did Hillary Clinton help start Media Matters with former conservative David Brock in charge, she bragged about it to a convention of the far left. At the Daily Kos convention—a gathering of the far, far left—Hillary Clinton said the following:
“We are certainly better prepared and more focused on, you know, taking our arguments, and making them effective, and disseminating them widely…in a lot of the new progressive infrastructure, institutions that I helped to start and support like Media Matters and Center for American Progress.”
Controversy has not put a crimp in Media Matter’s financial style. Kicked off with $2 million in May of 2004, by August the organization’s operating budget had already doubled to $4 million.
Only one year later, Media Matter’ revenue for 2005 was $8,470,957. From Dec. 31, 2006 a Form 990 shows Media Matter’s assets at $5,874,246.
Brock’s compensation is listed at $230,611 for the year ending Dec. 31, 2006.
Not bad for a guy that David Horowitz, founder of www.FrontPageMag.com says was “a sleazy gossip sort of writer when he was on the right, and he’s a sleazy gossip writer on the left, and an unscrupulous one on both sides.”
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/Media%20Matters%20for%20America%20Treasurer.html