Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

New Liberal Group Hopes to Be “As influential as the MRC”
MRC ^ | 5/3/04 | Brent Baker

Posted on 05/03/2004 9:33:24 AM PDT by pookie18

The influence earned by the MRC is the model for a new liberal group which will monitor the so-called conservative media. A New York Times story on Monday by Jim Rutenberg, on how David Brock “will start a new Internet site this week that he says will monitor the conservative media and correct erroneous assertions in real time,” relayed how Brock hopes to emulate the MRC: “Mr. Brock said he hoped his new project could be as influential as the Media Research Center, a conservative media monitoring group run by L. Brent Bozell III that frequently calls attention to what it calls examples of liberal bias in the news media. Its findings often become subjects for conservative radio and cable talk shows.”

An excerpt from “New Internet Site Turns Critical Eyes and Ears to the Right,” a May 3 Business section story by Rutenberg:

David Brock, the former right-wing journalist turned liberal, describes himself as once having been a rather large cog in the machinery of the conservative media....

With more than $2 million in donations from wealthy liberals, Mr. Brock will start a new Internet site this week that he says will monitor the conservative media and correct erroneous assertions in real time.

The site, called Media Matters, was devised as part of a larger media apparatus being built by liberals to combat what they say is the overwhelming influence of conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly.

Mr. Brock's project was developed with help from the newly formed Center for American Progress, the policy group headed by John D. Podesta, the former Clinton chief of staff. And Mr. Brock said he hoped it could help provide fodder for fledgling liberal radio talk shows being started across the country, including those of the comedians Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo.

For Mr. Brock, 41, the project is yet another considerable step in his public evolution from conservative muckraker to liberal activist. That evolution began after Mr. Brock began publicly apologizing in the late 1990's for reporting that brutally criticized Anita F. Hill and a report that Arkansas state troopers had helped Bill Clinton procure paramours when he was the governor of Arkansas, the veracity of which he is no longer sure....

Mr. Brock said he hoped his new project could be as influential as the Media Research Center, a conservative media monitoring group run by L. Brent Bozell III that frequently calls attention to what it calls examples of liberal bias in the news media. Its findings often become subjects for conservative radio and cable talk shows.

Mr. Brock argued that such monitoring groups have helped build the conservative media's influence, in part by making mainstream journalists toe a more conservative line by convincing them that they are liberally biased.

"The right wing in this country has dominated the debate over liberal bias," Mr. Brock said during an interview Friday. "By dominating that debate, my belief is they've moved the media itself to the right and therefore they've moved American politics to the right."

He added, "I wanted to create an institution to combat what they're doing."...

In Mr. Brock's new K Street offices on Friday morning, a team of nearly a half-dozen researchers, overseen by Katie Barge, who last worked for the opposition research arm of Senator John Edwards's presidential campaign, sat before a bank of computers and televisions in a room that was otherwise dark.

Some of the researchers wore headphones as they scanned episodes of cable news programs stored on digital recording devices, among them "Hannity & Colmes" on Fox News Channel, "Dennis Miller" on CNBC and "Scarborough Country" on MSNBC. Two researchers have been assigned to cover Mr. Limbaugh, whose program they will regularly transcribe....

While Mr. Bozell did not argue with Mr. Brock's assertion that his group opened the door to greater influence for more conservative outlets, he did not agree with his central premise that conservative commentators had made the mainstream media more conservative.

"I don't think we have pushed the mainstream media to the right," Mr. Bozell said. "I think what we have done is to neutralize their credibility, and every survey in the world shows that the public doesn't believe that these reporters are objective."

But, he said, Mr. Brock's new venture would have greater problems than that. "The problem is that David Brock is a certified liar," he said. "He will forever have a credibility problem. One doesn't know what to believe in David Brock."...

Among Mr. Brock's donors is Leo Hindery Jr., the former cable magnate; Susie Tompkins Buell, who is co-founder of the fashion company Esprit and is close to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and Ms. Buell's husband Mark; and James C. Hormel, a San Francisco philanthropist whose appointment as ambassador to Luxembourg was delayed for a year and a half in the late 1990's by conservative lawmakers protesting what they called his promotion of a "gay lifestyle."...

END of Excerpt

For the New York Times story in full: www.nytimes.com

# Speaking of those who think the media are biased to the right, Janeane Garofalo is the scheduled guest on tonight’s (Monday) Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. Bob Woodward is scheduled to appear Tuesday night on NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: ccrm; davidbrock; mediamatters; susietompkinsbuell
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last

1 posted on 05/03/2004 9:33:24 AM PDT by pookie18
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: pookie18
Monkey See, Monkey Do.

-Dan
2 posted on 05/03/2004 9:36:17 AM PDT by Flux Capacitor (If the zombies arose today, would you be prepared?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Flux Capacitor
I hope they don't bounce any checks to their ISP and domain host.
3 posted on 05/03/2004 9:37:06 AM PDT by mlbford2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: pookie18
Once again, the liberal media completely misses the target. Rush et al are successful BECAUSE of their listeners. It isn't the broadcasters who have the influence over the audience, it's the audience who have the influence needed to make the broadcasters successful.
4 posted on 05/03/2004 9:44:07 AM PDT by Little Pig
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pookie18
The influence earned by the MRC is the model for a new liberal group which will monitor the so-called conservative media. A New York Times story on Monday by Jim Rutenberg, on how David Brock “will start a new Internet site this week that he says will monitor the conservative media and correct erroneous assertions in real time,”

I guess it never occurred to them that the reason the MRC is so successful is that liberal media lies far, far more than the conservative media, thereby keeping the MRC well-armed with material.

5 posted on 05/03/2004 9:46:17 AM PDT by dirtboy (John Kerry - Hillary without the fat ankles and the FBI files...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pookie18
Mr. Brock said he hoped it could help provide fodder for fledgling liberal radio talk shows being started across the country, including those of the comedians Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo.

If he wants to "provide fodder" for Air America, I'm thinking he'd better hurry up. The news I'm reading about Air America suggests the clock is running out. Isn't it amazing, too, how all the "dumb" conservatives have managed to take over the media outlets? And those media people are all so smart, too!

6 posted on 05/03/2004 9:50:15 AM PDT by GraceCoolidge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy
Hopefully, they'll be as successful as their radio counterpart, Err America ;-)
7 posted on 05/03/2004 9:50:48 AM PDT by pookie18
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: pookie18
Brock is an idiot. Of course Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Miller, etc. are biased. They are commentators not news reporters. Reporters operate under the guise of being neutral source reporting facts, while everyone knows the biases of commentators. I would like Brock to honestly look at news reporting at NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and even Fox and try to find evidence of 'conservative' bias which far left-wing wackos insist is there. What Brock is doing is the equivalent of proving Al Frankin is bias. Do you automatically lose your intellect when you become a liberal?
8 posted on 05/03/2004 9:51:11 AM PDT by Always Right
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Always Right
If they had any intellect, maybe they wouldn't have become liberals ;-)
9 posted on 05/03/2004 9:54:47 AM PDT by pookie18
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Little Pig
Once again, the liberal media completely misses the target. Rush et al are successful BECAUSE of their listeners.

You miss the obvious point. Limbaugh et al are commentators, of course they are bias, that is their job. MRC targets news sources, not commentators.

10 posted on 05/03/2004 9:55:32 AM PDT by Always Right
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: pookie18
The MRC (almost entirely) provides reports of bias from self-proclaimed-unbiased sources, and the outrageous activities of other sources.

Rush Limbaugh et al, do not claim to be unbiased. Nor is anything they say particularily outrageous.

So, this outfit claims to be a counter to the MRC, but it is not. It is simply more of the same BIADBIAL ("Bush is a dope, Bush is a liar"), which anyone can get from any other biased source.

I predict failure due to lack of interest.
11 posted on 05/03/2004 9:58:43 AM PDT by kidd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Always Right
I know Rush et al are commentators, and that this guy is going after them claiming bias when it is already patently obvious that they aren't actually news media. I was highlighting the subtext of any of these get-the-rightwing-radio attacks that implies (as always) that somehow the audience is being force-fed these opinions as part of some plot to quash liberal opinion. This MRC "competitor" will fail not only because they are attacking opinion commentators rather than news outlets, but also because the audience made these shows what they are (the people asked for them) rather than the other way around.
12 posted on 05/03/2004 10:03:39 AM PDT by Little Pig
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Little Pig
"Once again, the liberal media completely misses the target. Rush et al are successful BECAUSE of their listeners. It isn't the broadcasters who have the influence over the audience, it's the audience who have the influence needed to make the broadcasters successful."

So true. Perhaps the libs thinking that they can just "buy" an audience is the same so called thinking they did when many said before the war..."No need for a war. Just go in and arrest Saddam"!




13 posted on 05/03/2004 10:07:06 AM PDT by BillyCrockett
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: pookie18; Timesink; *CCRM; governsleastgovernsbest; martin_fierro; reformed_democrat; Loyalist; ...
Media Shenanigans ping - Brock And Podesta Plan To Monitor FOXNews

With more than $2 million in donations from wealthy liberals, Mr. Brock will start a new Internet site this week that he says will monitor the conservative media... (all FOX of it)

Mr. Brock argued that such monitoring groups have helped build the conservative media's influence, in part by making mainstream journalists toe a more conservative line by convincing them that they are liberally biased.

On, Off, or grab it for a Media Shenanigans/Schadenfreude/PNMCH ping:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~anamusedspectator/

14 posted on 05/03/2004 10:08:29 AM PDT by an amused spectator (Kristen Breitweiser didn't want to learn how to land the 9/11 Commission; she only wanted to steer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pookie18
David Brock, the former right-wing journalist turned liberal...

Gee, there certainly isn't any bias in that description, now, is there? How about conservative journalist turned left-wing?

15 posted on 05/03/2004 10:15:25 AM PDT by Bob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pookie18
Competition is a good thing. Only problem for these windbags is that they will lose the race. Check the polls on how the American public distrust big media. You can't fool all the people all the time. ABCCBSCNNNBCNYT etc. have had their day.
16 posted on 05/03/2004 10:17:36 AM PDT by RKV (He who has the guns makes the rules.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: an amused spectator
I guess they must have explored the "copyright infringement" and "Demi prosecutor seizes medical records" routes, and found them to be non-starters...

Now they actually have to put out real money for a Brocking Frankens, And The Franken Brockers Who Brock Them website...

Brock will have to spend the first million just trying to FIND the "conservative media"... ;-)

17 posted on 05/03/2004 10:17:56 AM PDT by an amused spectator (Kristen Breitweiser didn't want to learn how to land the 9/11 Commission; she only wanted to steer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: pookie18
Why even do it. The problem with the media is they don't tell the truth.
18 posted on 05/03/2004 10:39:20 AM PDT by freekitty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Always Right
yes
19 posted on 05/03/2004 10:52:43 AM PDT by Notwithstanding (Good parents don't let their kids attend public school or watch most TV)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Always Right
"Brock is an idiot. Of course Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Miller, etc. are biased. They are commentators not news reporters...
...What Brock is doing is the equivalent of proving Al Frankin is bias. Do you automatically lose your intellect when you become a liberal?"

I have to think, yes... they must.

20 posted on 05/03/2004 10:54:56 AM PDT by TXFireman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson