Eric Boehlert is an American writer at Media Matters for America. Prior to this he was a senior writer for Salon for five years, and before that a contributing editor to Rolling Stone
Posted on 03/26/2011 10:34:10 PM PDT by Nachum
Politico published an eye-opening report on Saturday by Ben Smith about “Media Matter’s war against Fox.” Smith wrote that the organization continues to transform itself into an exclusively Fox News-battling group.Media Matters founder David Brock told Politico that his organization’s activism has developed into a “strategy of containment.” This strategy includes extensive work to compile intelligence on the employees of the cable news channel. (Snip)“Somebody in that organization is giving us primary source documents.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Fox Reporter’s Racist Tweet: “Blacks Riot At Burger King”
Media Matters for America
March 25, 2011
Media Matters has documented that Fox Nation has frequently race-baited.
******
The White House is ‘helping’ liberal groups to get their political messages in sync with the official line.
Ben Smith at Politico reported on the latest development in this White House-coordinated campaign to use these think-tankers to whip up support for its agenda. It is a newly formed coalition, the Common Purpose Project, which blogger Jane Hamsher describes as “one of the many groups Rahm Emanuel has set up to coordinate messaging among liberal interest groups.” This one includes the direct participation of White House officials, according to Smith:
It sounds like Nixon’s enemies list
The Common Purpose meeting every Tuesday afternoon at the Capitol Hilton brings together the top officials from a range of left-leaning organizations, from labor groups like Change to Win to activists like MoveOn.org, all in support of the White House’s agenda. The group has an overlapping membership with a daily 8:45 a.m. call run by the Center for American Progress’ and Media Matters’ political arms; with the new field-oriented coalition Unity ‘09; and with the groups that allied to back the budget as the Campaign to Rebuild and Renew America Now.
Unlike those other groups, however, the Common Purpose meeting has involved a White House official, communications director Ellen Moran, two sources familiar with the meeting said. It’s aimed, said one, at “providing a way for the White House to manage its relationships with some of these independent groups.”
Common Purpose was founded by Erik Smith, a former aide to Dick Gephardt. The group’s political director is former Obama aide, Miti Sathe. “Common Purpose is formed as a 501(c)(4), which leaves it focused on policy, rather than electoral, work,” notes Smith. “Part of the group’s role is to enforce a kind of message discipline.” He tells the story of how last month “some of the more liberal members of the coalition” were launching a campaign against conservative Democrats under the banner “Dog the Blue Dogs.” The White House, Smith alleged, “was in the midst of discussions with members of the congressional Blue Dog caucus, and objected to the slogan, which was promptly changed, and the page describing the drive is gone from CAF [Campaign for America’s Future, a participant in the Common Purposes calls]’s website.”
Terrific! You have a great site with lots of valuable information. A shame to tear it down but...for the collective good as the left might say...:) I don’t have a window email...can you freepmail me/us? We need to have a place where we can all talk together...is that possible on your site?
I have some skills and experience but am disabled and cannot be counted on to be very productive. All I can offer is to do what I can do - searching the web and formatting data and such as I find it - and that is it. If I were more capable I could get off of SSDI and get a job, but I haven’t been able to do that for a very long time.
AFL-CIO’s Rich Trumka recently gave a speech in which he said, “We are working to counter the Glenn Beck effect and turn anger into action for real change.”
AFL-CIO then linked to a Media Matters article about Fox News.
Additionally, Media Matters promoted its funder’s speech before a Harvard University audience.
Another? Media Matters has consistently defended SEIU.
Consider this small group of funders:
Service Employees International Union – 10/09 and 11/09 – $50,000
National Education Association – 8/19/09 – $100,000
AFL-CIO – 10/23/08 – $25,000
In response to an article in Thursday’s National Review by Byron York where the columnist accused the Soros-funded Media Matters for America of being “an avowedly political institution,” the liberal smear outfit let loose with perhaps the funniest lines of the campaign season to date:
Media Matters is not, as the National Review claims, “an avowedly political institution,” but a nonpartisan, progressive nonprofit that is unaffiliated with any political party or candidate.
Gibson also claimed Media Matters “get[s] Soros support.” As Media Matters has repeatedly noted, it has received no money from philanthropist George Soros — either directly or indirectly.
For the record as York points out, Media Matters is a non-profit 501(c)(3) and is therefore precluded from engaging in any partisan activity. But the laughable denial above only shows the breath taking dishonesty of the group when it comes to their mission, best described as smearing Republicans and their allies.
And the blatant lie about Soros not funding Media Matters “directly or indirectly” flies in the face of the organization’s own statements on the matter as well as several investigations - one by York himself - regarding their ties to the mysterious Mr. Soros:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/10/media_matters_claims_nonpartis.html
That sounds great to me paul. We just have to find some place on the web where we can all talk as a group. The more minds the better so anyone else who reads this are also very welcome (except for recent signups because you could be a mole - sorry).
Soros claims he’s coming clean on the perpetual lie because of his contempt for FOX News. This could make a mess of Media Matters’ “not-for-profit” status with the IRS.
The fact that the ultra-liberal New York Times is breaking, and not BURYING, this revelation about Media Matters is intriguing. The left-wing spinmeisters usually defend one another or ignore negative information. Someone with half a brain at NYT must have suddenly noticed that the polls have been favoring conservative congressional candidates and predicting a Democrat bloodbath in the upcoming election and they want to be on the winning side.
Stop laughing…
From NY Times, Soros Donates $1 Million to Media Matters:
Media Matters, the liberal activist group that wages a rhetorical war against Fox News Channel and others in the conservative press, will announce on Wednesday the receipt of a $1 million donation from the philanthropist George Soros.
In a statement obtained by The Caucus, the organization says it plans to use the money to intensify its efforts to hold the Fox host Glenn Beck and others on the cable news channel accountable for their reporting.
“Fox has transformed itself into a 24-7 G.O.P. attack machine, dividing Americans through fear-mongering and falsehoods and undermining the legitimacy of our government for partisan political ends,” the group will say in the statement, to be released Wednesday afternoon.
In an accompanying statement, Mr. Soros, a billionaire who has a history of supporting liberal politicians and causes, accused Fox News hosts of “incendiary rhetoric” and said he hoped that his money would be used “in an effort to more widely publicize the challenge Fox News poses to civil and informed discourse in our democracy.”
For years, conservatives have accused Media Matters of being a front organization for Mr. Soros. In May, Mr. Beck referred to Media Matters as “the left-wing George Soros-funded media machine that is now referring to me as a jihadist.” In 2007, Fox’s Sean Hannity called it “Hillary Clinton’s George Soros-funded group Media Matters.”
Officials at Media Matters regularly deny that they have ever taken money from Mr. Soros, who repeats that denial in Wednesday’s statement, saying, “I have not to date been a funder” of the liberal organization. Now, he will officially be a donor, and likely a fresh target for criticism from the right.
Mr. Soros has been a disappointment to some liberals during the current election cycle because he has largely sat on the sidelines. In an interview with my colleague Sewell Chan earlier this month, Mr. Soros said he was concerned about a Republican surge in Congress but was not participating as he did in the past.
OK... why don’t you keep a ping/FReepmail list and please put me on it. I’d be happy to do what I can as long as my many limitations are understood. I can write and research in my limited way and I want to contribute.
Aw: Soros donates $1 million to Media Matters
“Wait,” you say, “hasn’t Soros been funding them for years?” Not exactly: He’s been donating to other lefty groups for years — Tides, Democracy Alliance, etc — and they’ve in turn been donating to Media Matters. The big news today is that he’s decided to cut out the middleman.
In an accompanying statement, Mr. Soros, a billionaire who has a history of supporting liberal politicians and causes, accused Fox News hosts of “incendiary rhetoric” and said he hoped that his money would be used “in an effort to more widely publicize the challenge Fox News poses to civil and informed discourse in our democracy.”
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/10/20/aw-soros-donates-1-million-to-media-matters/
Media Matters has not always been forthcoming about its high-profile backers. In particular, the group 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.
Among these are Media Matters’ chief communications strategist Dennis Yedwab, who is also the Director of Strategic Resources at Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Brock’s personal assistant, Mandy Vlasz, is a Democratic pollster and a veteran consultant to Democratic campaigns, including the 2000 Gore/Lieberman campaign. Katie Barge, the Director of Research at Media Matters, formerly presided over opposition research for Senator John Edwards’ unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign.
A notable figure at Media Matters is senior fellow Eric Boehlert, who was among the most passionate defenders of University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian after the latter was accused of having been the North American leader of the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In an article titled “The Prime-time Smearing of Sami Al-Arian,” Boehlert charged that: “In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, all four media giants, eagerly tapping into the country’s mood of vengeance and fear, latched onto the Al-Arian story, fudging the facts and ignoring the most rudimentary tenets of journalism in their haste to better tell a sinister story about lurking Middle Eastern dangers here at home.”
Media Matters’ Senior Advisor Jamison Foser wrote on May 26, 2006: “The defining issue of our time is the media. ... The dominant political force of our time is the media. Time after time, the news media have covered progressives and conservatives in wildly different ways — and, time after time, they do so to the benefit of conservatives.”
Media Matters’ Editorial Director is Marcia B. Kuntz, who formerly headed the Judicial Selection Project of Alliance for Justice.
Media Matters receives financial support from the Tides Foundation, the Arca Foundation, the Peninsula Community Foundation, and the San Francisco Foundation.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/printgroupProfile.asp?grpid=7150
Eric Boehlert is an American writer at Media Matters for America. Prior to this he was a senior writer for Salon for five years, and before that a contributing editor to Rolling Stone
Jamison Foser is Executive Vice President at Media Matters for America.
Foser "has extensive experience in progressive research, communications, and strategy, having worked for nearly a decade in national politics. Most recently he served as Research Director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for the 2002 cycle."
He said they were moving beyond the containment strategy to something like war.
November 23, 2010
Democrats are officially launching their own outside-money push ahead of the 2012 presidential campaign.
Media Matters founder and author DavidBrock plans to file paperwork Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission detailing plans to raise and spend unlimited funds to influence the upcoming election.
The group will be called American Bridge, and Brock tells the New York Times’ Michael Luo that he’s already gotten $4 million in pledges from Democratic donors including Rob McKay, heir to the Taco Bell fortune, and longtime TV producer Marcy Carsey, best known as the executive producer of “The Cosby Show.”
The chairwoman of American Bridge will be Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy.
But Brock isn’t the only Democrat plotting outside efforts in the 2012 campaign. A group of liberal donors met last week in Washington to discuss outside efforts. And on Monday, the operatives behind America Coming Together, a 527 group that spent millions to boost John Kerry in 2004, also held talks about the upcoming campaign.
Leading Democratic donors who have already pledged money to the group include Rob McKay, heir to the Taco Bell fortune and chairman of the Democracy Alliance, a partnership of wealthy liberal donors; Robert Dyson, who heads Dyson-Kissner-Moran, a takeover and acquisitions firm in New York City; and Marcia L. Carsey, a television producer who gave $1 million to Democratic outside groups in 2004.
Guess that’s how most folk missed that Media Matter’s Treasurer, Rachel Pritzker Hunter is among the Who’s Who in the George Soros $100 million clearing house known as the Democracy Alliance (DA).
“Rachel Pritzker Hunter of the Hyatt Hotel Pritzkers was a DA board member after the group was created.” (Matthew Vadum James Dellinger, Capital Research Center, Canada Free Press, Jan. 10, 2008).
A founding DA member, Pritzker Hunter, a nutritionist claiming expertise in sensitivity to foods by profession
Probably could be one of dozens of low-level, lefty NYC admin, production assistant or intern types. Some Code Pink aspiring actress with a day job.
George Soros’s Democracy Alliance
The “Partners”: Who’s Who in the Democracy Alliance
George Soros is founder of Quantum Asset Management and the grant-making Open Society Institute. He donated close to $24 million
His son Jonathan is also a member of the DA.
Peter B. Lewis is a billionaire insurance magnate ‚Äî chairman of Progressive Casualty Insurance Co., the nation’s third-largest automobile insurer. He gave $23 million
Herb and Marion Sandler are the co-founders of Golden West Financial Corp. They sold their S&L holding company to Wachovia in 2006 for $24 billion in cash and stock. In 2004 they gave $13 million
Silicon Valley venture capitalists Andy and Deborah Rappaport overlap significantly with those of the Alliance
The Rappaports founded New Progressive Coalition LLC, (“Your political giving advisor”), which is technically a for-profit corporation that allows individuals to “invest” in Political “Mutual Funds
Tim Gill is the software entrepreneur who created Quark, the design and layout publishing program. Gill, who also dabbles in state and local politics, is president of the Gill Foundation in Denver, a funder of gay rights organizations. Gill’s political giving grew from $300,000 in 2000 to about $15 million in 2006
Rachel Pritzker Hunter of the Hyatt Hotel Pritzkers was a DA board member after the group was created.
Gara LaMarche became president and CEO of the Atlantic Philanthropies in April 2007. Previously, he was vice president and director of U.S. Programs for Soros’s Open Society Institute.
Guy Saperstein, is an Oakland, California trial lawyer. In 2007, he created the National Security/Foreign Policy New Ideas Fund (newideasfund.org), with DA funding.
Rob Reiner, a Hollywood actor-director, is chairman of Parents Action for Children, a 501(c)(3) advocacy group. In 2005 he promoted Proposition 82, an unsuccessful California ballot initiative that would have raised state taxes to fund preschool for all four-year-olds. (See “The Teachers Unions Fight for Universal Pre-School,” by Ivan Osorio and James Dellinger, Labor Watch, June 2007.)
Herb Miller is a Washington, D.C., real estate developer and Democratic Party fundraiser.
David A. Friedman, a philanthropist and self-described centrist, is treasurer of the Friedman Family Foundation.
Ann S. Bowers is the widow of Intel cofounder Robert Noyce, inventor of the integrated circuit and “mayor of Silicon Valley.” Bowers is board chairman of Noyce Foundation.
Albert C. Yates is former president of Colorado State University.
Davidi Gilo is a high-tech entrepreneur and founder of Vyyo Inc. who made the Mother Jones 400 list of big leftist donors. His wife, Shamaya, created the Winds of Change Foundation in 1998, and is a heavy donor to Democratic candidates.
Mark Buell is a businessman. His wife, Susie Tompkins Buell, co-founded the clothier Esprit with her ex-husband, Douglas Tompkins, who is president of the Foundation for Deep Ecology.
Fred Baron, one of America’s wealthiest plaintiffs’ attorneys, was finance chairman for Senator John Edwards‘s 2004 presidential campaign.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is an institutional member of the DA. SEIU President Andrew Stern and MoveOn.org‘s Eli Pariser have created a political action committee called “They Work for Us,” to take on Democratic candidates deemed insufficiently left-wing on economic issues. The labor coalition SEIU broke away from, the AFL-CIO, is also an Alliance member.
Alan Patricof is co-founder of private equity firm Apax Partners. From 1993 to 1995, he was chairman of the White House Conference on Small Business.
Bren Simon is president of MBS Associates LLC, a property management and development firm. Her husband, Melvin, ranks on the Forbes list of the world’s richest people. He is a part owner of the Indiana Pacers and runs the Simon Property Group, developer of shopping malls. (It is not known if Mr. Simon is active in the DA.)
Software entrepreneur Chris Gabrieli, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Massachusetts governor in 2006, co-founded and heads Massachusetts 2020 Foundation.
Anne Bartley, the daughter of Winthrop Rockefeller, is vice chairman of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and a trustee of the Jennifer Altman Foundation.
Simon Rosenberg, the founder and president of the New Democrat Network (NDN), ran unsuccessfully in 2005 for the DNC chairmanship.
Lewis B. Cullman is a financier and philanthropist whose website says he and his wife, Dorothy, have given away $223 million to date.
Rob Johnson, a DA board member, is a partner at Impact Artist Management and former portfolio manager for Soros’s Quantum Fund.
Michael Kieschnick is founder of Working Assets. Every time a customer uses one of the Working Assets donation-linked services (long distance, wireless and credit card),
Steven M. Gluckstern, a former chairman of the Alliance, is a founding managing directorof Azimuth Alternative Assets, an investment banking firm.
Inventor William Budinger, who founded and ran Rodel, Inc.,is a DA board member.
DA board member Robert H. Dugger is a managing director of Tudor Investment Corporation, an asset management company. Previously he was chief economist at the American Bankers Association.
Manhattan psychologist Gail Furman, a DA board member, is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She serves on the boards of Human Rights First and The Brennan Center for Social Justice at NYU Law School.
San Francisco attorney and political organizer Steven Phillips is president and founder of PowerPAC.org, which focuses on California politics. He is a DA board member.
Charles Rodgers, a DA board member, is president of the New Community Fund, a family foundation in Massachusetts.
DA board member Deborah Sagner is a social worker and president of the Sagner Family Foundation.
Michael Vachon, a DA board member, is Soros’s spokesman and political director.
Patricia Stryker is granddaughter of Homer Stryker, who founded Stryker Corporation, a medical technology company.
Rutt Bridges is founder of Advance Geophysical. He ran for governor of Colorado in 2005 but dropped out of the race.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/1297
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