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The Daily Caller is running an expose on Media Matters. The lowlights from the first installment -
1. Media Matters coordinates weekly with the White House.
2. Media Matters is being run by David Brock, a paranoid manic depressive who supplements his meds with cocaine.
3. The Soros-funded Media Matters plans to spend $20 million influencing news coverage in 2012.
4. Media Matters targets reporters who do not report their spin, orchestrating massive negative e-mail campaigns to the reporter.
5. Media Matters targets company's that advertise on conservative programs. They have successfully gotten Imus and Lou Dobbs fired and may well have played a roll in Glen Beck's departure from Fox.
6. Media Matters has more than a few partners in the media:
“The entire progressive blogosphere picked up our stuff,” says a Media Matters source, “from Daily Kos to Salon. Greg Sargent [of the Washington Post] will write anything you give him. He was the go-to guy to leak stuff.”
“If you can’t get it anywhere else, Greg Sargent’s always game,” agreed another source with firsthand knowledge. . .
“The HuffPo guys were good, Sam Stein and Nico [Pitney],” remembered one former staffer. “The people at Huffington Post were always eager to cooperate, which is no surprise given David’s long history with Arianna [Huffington].”
“Jim Rainey at the LA Times took a lot of our stuff,” the staffer continued. “So did Joe Garofoli at the San Francisco Chronicle. We’ve pushed stories to Eugene Robinson and E.J. Dionne [at the Washington Post]. Brian Stelter at the New York Times was helpful.”
“Ben Smith [formerly of Politico, now at BuzzFeed.com] will take stories and write what you want him to write,” explained the former employee, whose account was confirmed by other sources. Staffers at Media Matters “knew they could dump stuff to Ben Smith, they knew they could dump it at Plum Line [Greg Sargent’s Washington Post blog], so that’s where they sent it.”
Smith, who refused to comment on the substance of these claims, later took to Twitter to say that he has been critical of Media Matters.
Why am I not surprised by any of this, including the fact that the White House and Media Matters are in bed together. Expect that to be studiously ignored by the news media. Regardless, if this is only Part I of the DC's expose, the follow-on stuff ought to be pretty juicy.
