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Home , David Brock, Sharyl Attkisson

Media Matters for the Left David Brock’s mission to boost and smear non-leftist sources of news and commentary

By Matthew Vadum

Summary : David Brock defected from con- servatism and now runs a political empire, sliming those who threaten his pals like President Obama and Hillary Clinton. He fi rst established, with help from George Soros, the nonprofi t Media Matters for , a fake watchdog on the press. Now he also enjoys doling out millions of dollars for political activism with his new super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century.

onservatism is a disease in need of eradication, according to Media CMatters for America (MMfA), a decade-old pretended media watchdog that focuses on a unicorn known as “conservative misinformation.” Of course, those few con- servatives who actually work in the liberal- dominated media are not infallible. A bona fide media watchdog that monitored the Right Media Matters for America, a character assassination factory, refl ects the patholo- and kept reporters and pundits honest might gies of its famously erratic CEO David Brock (above). Brock is said to be “vicious- contribute something of value to society, but ly mean” and “abusive” to employees, which may explain why the group’s workers that’s not what Media Matters is about. unionized. A gun control advocate, Brock hired a bodyguard who illegally carried fi rearms to protect him from imagined threats and “had more security than a Third World dictator.” His stunning hypocrisy notwithstanding, the Left -- and especially MMfA’s primary mission at the moment is his ally Hillary Clinton -- still sees something in him. protecting Hillary Clinton, who is expected eventually to announce her 2016 presidential in spring 2004, in time for the presidential run. The electoral wipeout of Democrats election campaign. It was initially funded December 2014 coast-to-coast in the November congressional by $2 million in contributions that radical elections may free up MMfA’s resources to philanthropist George Soros and former CONTENTS focus on getting Mrs. Clinton past the fi n- Clinton White House chief of staff John Media Matters for America ish line. Clinton bragged in 2007 that she Podesta helped raise. Page 1 helped create what she called “a lot of the Briefl y Noted new progressive infrastructure,” including Media Matters CEO David Brock is a former Page 12 Media Matters. The group was founded Clinton antagonist who made peace with the Organization Trends

Clintons years ago. “David is immensely 2014). complements the providing them with the resources to rebut valuable to Hillary,” an affl uent Democrat work of American Bridge 21 st Century, a false claims and to take direct action against with ties to Brock told a newspaper. “It’s super PAC, that was also founded by Brock offending media institutions.” like having your former prosecutor running as part of his growing empire of activism around saying you were wrongfully pros- and “dark money.” The news content analysis of Media Matters ecuted. He’s living proof the right wing is is a complete sham. Such examinations of out to get Hillary. ... I don’t think anyone Earlier this year Brock was elected chairman political news traditionally focus on detect- really trusts him. He’ll never get a job in of the ethically shaky left-wing watchdog ing journalistic bias, but MMfA’s approach the [Hillary Clinton] White House, but he’s group CREW, which stands for Citizens for is to try to stamp out views with which its useful” ( Newsday , Sept. 6, 2006). Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. left-wing content analysts disagree. That But Media Matters is still the crown jewel Brock even founded a group in late 2013 isn’t hard to do if you can think creatively in Brock’s constellation. Masquerading as called Correct the Record to fend off pesky and tolerate mind-numbing hairsplitting. an impartial media watchdog, it is actually questions about Hillary Clinton’s behavior Media Matters will typically isolate a small a left-wing opposition research organiza- and record in political offi ce (Slate, July 29, facet of a media story that can be twisted in tion that aims to bully reporters into toeing such a way that suggests that the reporter the liberal line and to terrorize . Editor: Matthew Vadum or commentator is a liar or hypocrite. That Even describes Media tidbit is then used to suggest that everything Publisher: Terrence Scanlon Matters as a “highly partisan research orga- the original source says must be false and nization” (Nov. 1, 2008). Every working Organization Trends deserving of censure. is published by Capital Research day the lavishly funded outfi t churns out Center, a non-partisan education and research organization, classifi ed by political propaganda calculated to pressure Come down on the wrong side of an issue the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. journalists into unquestioningly backing and risk being labeled ignorant or evil by Address: the Democratic Party line. It has absurdly the smear website. Say that tax cuts lead to 1513 16th Street, N.W. characterized Chris Matthews and former Washington, DC 20036-1480 economic prosperity, and you’re attacked. New York Times editor Bill Keller as sellouts Criticize illegal immigration, and you’re Phone: (202) 483-6900 to the left-wing cause. Long-Distance: (800) 459-3950 attacked. Say affirmative action is racist and discriminatory, and you’re attacked. E-mail Address: Media Matters’ mission is to stigmatize and [email protected] Republican pollster describes marginalize conservative ideas in order to Media Matters as “one of the most destruc- Web Site: save Americans from themselves. It carries http://www.capitalresearch.org tive organizations associated with American out this crusade via an aggressive outreach politics today … They are vicious. They Organization Trends welcomes let- program. The group says it works “to notify ters to the editor. only understand one thing: attack, attack, activists, journalists, pundits and the general Reprints are available for $2.50 pre- attack.” paid to Capital Research Center. public about instances of misinformation, 2 December 2014 Organization Trends

David Folkenflik, media reporter for liberal “from Daily Kos to Salon. Greg Sargent [of dishonest tactics used to foist the so-called National Public Radio, was similarly unim- ] will write anything on an unsuspecting pub- pressed by Media Matters. “They’re looking you give him. He was the go-to guy to leak lic. Citizens’ stupidity allowed Democrats at every dangling participle, every dependent stuff.” to get away with so much, Gruber bragged. clause, every semicolon, every quotation to “Lack of transparency is a huge advantage. see if there’s some way it unfairly frames a Uncooperative journalists felt heat from And basically, you know, call it the stupid- Media Matters supporters. “If you hit a ity of the American voter or whatever. But cause, a party, a candidate that they may have reporter, say a beat reporter at a regional basically that was really, really critical to some feelings for.” The group’s website, newspaper,” an MMfA source explained, getting the thing to pass.” MediaMatters.org, relies heavily on personal “all of a sudden they’d get a thousand hostile attacks, rather than substantive or fact-based arguments. It settles scores.

It slavishly defends the corrupt Obama administration, parsing, rationalizing, hair- splitting, and sometimes lying outright to cre- ate the false impression that the Chicagoland gang running the White House are decent, honest, honorable people. It attacks conser- vatives constantly, questioning their motives, sanity, intelligence, and worth as human be- ings. Media Matters is a magnet attracting the most loathsome spin doctors of the Left, giving its alleged media bias analysts free rein to defame and intimidate their enemies. They are attack dogs, Obama zombies, and purveyors of malicious gossip.

For example, Media Matters takes credit for having CBS Radio fi re Don Imus in 2007 Hillary Clinton boasts that she was instrumental in the creation of Media Matters. and for ’ departure from CNN in 2009. It also engineered a campaign against emails. Sometimes they’d melt down. It Yet according to Media Matters, rampant dis- Glenn Beck when he had a Fox News show. had a real effect on reporters who weren’t honesty when creating legislation that seizes Media Matters gave a $200,000 grant to used to that kind of scrutiny” (Daily Caller, control of one-sixth of the U.S. economy Citizen Engagement Laboratory in 2010, the Feb. 12, 2012). isn’t a big deal. One headline on the MMfA parent group of Color of Change, a radical website berated Fox News for paying any Afrocentrist group co-founded by . Parse, Dissemble, Lie, Misdirect attention at all to the story, screaming “Fox The declared purpose of the grant was for Media Matters has been working overtime Devoted 57 Segments To Manufactured a “campaign to expose Glenn Beck’s racist recently, putting out fi res all across the ACA Scandal.” Another whined about “The rhetoric in an effort to educate advertisers fruited plain in an effort to shield President Fraudulent Media Campaign To Scandalize about the practices on his show.” Obama from the consequences of his actions. Obamacare’s Passage.” Anything that could hurt Obama is deemed Media Matters has been very successful in a phony scandal, a reckless accusation, or MMfA’s Zachary Pleat argued in a Nov. 13, putting its left-wing talking points in the even a Republican lie. 2014 post that everybody does it, so move hands of journalists. “We were pretty much along, nothing to see here. Instead, Pleat writing their prime time,” a former MMfA For example, MIT professor Jonathan Gru- shoots the messenger, claiming: staffer said of the cable channel MSNBC. ber, touted as a key architect of Obamacare, “The entire progressive blogosphere picked was caught on video repeatedly insulting the “Fox News dishonestly claimed that MIT up our stuff,” a Media Matters source said, American people while he explained the ugly, economist Jonathan Gruber’s comment that December 2014 3 Organization Trends the Affordable Care Act (ACA) ‘was writ- ten in a tortured way’ to minimize criticism proves that the law was passed deceitfully. In fact, Congress routinely crafts bills to fi t legislative rules and politically acceptable limits, and health care reform was trans- parently debated for years with input from Republicans.”

It’s what’s called a Big Lie. Republican lawmakers were shut out of the law-drafting process. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) infamously bragged about the lack of transparency at the time. “But we have to pass the bill so you can fi nd out what is Media Matters “senior fellow” Eric Boehlert in it, away from the fog of the controversy,” It is certainly true that the federal government watched was jailed on the thinnest of legal she said. has obsolete computer equipment and loses pretexts after Mrs. Clinton vowed to griev- track of many emails, but the IRS admitted ing relatives of the four dead men that the Former IRS mandarin Lois Lerner, a in court last month that it hasn’t even tried administration would catch the video maker fi ercely partisan Democrat, orchestrated an to fi nd the emails in question (CNSNews. she claimed had caused the attacks. White unprecedented crackdown on Tea Party and com, Nov. 6, 2014). House advisor Susan Rice went on TV to conservative groups and then attempted to back up the administration’s lie that the as- scapegoat those nonprofi ts, blaming them Benghazi too is a fake scandal, a conspiracy sault was related to the video. Eventually for the harsh treatment they received at her theory hatched in the fevered minds of jingo- the administration acknowledged that the instigation. President Obama claimed that istic Americans, according to Media Matters. battle was a terrorist attack. there was not even “a smidgen of corruption” The Obama administration’s refusal to launch in the IRS affair, but anyone with eyes can a rescue mission on Sept. 11, 2012, mere Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News has been a see how the Obama administration has been weeks from a hotly contested presidential thorn in the side of the Obama administration stonewalling and intimidating witnesses election, is also a non-issue, according to on Benghazi and a host of other scandals. She who know the ugly truth about these banana Media Matters. believes the administration hacked into her republic-style tax abuses. And potentially computer, much as it monitored the emails damning government emails providing evi- Recall that during the 2012 campaign and phone calls of Fox News reporters, and dence of the abuses have disappeared from the president had claimed al-Qaeda was she eventually left CBS News, where her IRS servers. Nobody in the government decimated and on the verge of annihilation. boss was David Rhodes, brother of Deputy knows where they are, or so offi cials claimed When it turned out the terrorist organization National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, who at press time. was doing just fi ne, he decided to scapegoat was intimately involved in the Benghazi a YouTube video instead of admitting that scandal. That’s just another phony scandal, according al-Qaeda was roaring back, stronger than to Media Matters. In a June 18, 2014 post ever, in recent years. His secretary of state Media Matters would have us believe Attkis- MMfA writer Thomas Bishop opined: at the time, of course, was Hillary Clinton, son is a loon, an incompetent reporter, and who aspires to be the 45 th president of the a drama queen with disdain for the facts. “Fox News personalities baselessly accused United States. MMfA analysts Ellie Sandmeyer and Sophia the Obama administration of engaging in a Tesfaye wrote on April 22, 2014: cover-up following reports that the IRS lost For two weeks after the terrorist attack in emails connected to the alleged targeting Benghazi, Libya the Obama administration “Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson has of organizations seeking tax-exempt status, said over and over again that the incident stepped up her campaign to paint herself as a ignoring the fact that government agencies was inspired by a low-quality anti-Islam victim of media bias by fl oating half-baked video on YouTube. The American resident regularly lose emails due to antiquated conspiracy theories about the research that who made the video that virtually no one computer systems and policies.” exposed factual issues with her work. These 4 December 2014 Organization Trends newest allegations are as unsubstantiated Media Matters ineptly tried to spin the damn- Buyer’s affairs, giving her credit for asking as the shoddy reporting that has previously ing email exchange. In a post dated Nov. “some tough questions.” tarnished her—and CBS’—record as a reli- 21, 2014, MMfA writer Timothy Johnson able source.” wrote an attack post headlined “Conservative This raises the obvious question: Why is Media’s Latest Sharyl Attkisson ‘Bombshell’ this disreputable 501(c)(3) nonprofit still This is nonsense on stilts. The Emmy Award- Is A Dud.” Yet the entry by Johnson, whose tax-exempt? And why has Media Matters, winning Attkisson is one of the few main- online bio states he “previously spent time at unlike conservative and Tea Party groups, stream media reporters who has taken any the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence been mysteriously immune from IRS audits? interest at all in investigating the activities Legal Action Project and the Coalition to C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel to of the Obama administration. Media Mat- Stop Gun Violence,” doesn’t deny that the President George H.W. Bush, has complained ters “clearly targeted me at some point,” she Justice Department coordinated with the to the IRS about MMfA, which he accurately said. “They used to work with me on stories White House. Nor does it deny that the describes as a “Democratic training camp.” and tried to help me produce my stories, Justice Department put heat on Attkisson Giving Media Matters tax-exempt status and I was certainly friendly with them as by contacting CBS News. affords it an advantage not enjoyed by its anybody—good information can come from victim, Fox News. That tax-exemption in any source. But when I persisted with Fast Johnson dismisses the administration’s at- effect legitimizes MMfA “by having the and Furious and some of the green energy tempt to strong-arm CBS as unimportant. government affi rm that the organization’s stories I was doing, I clearly at some point “That the Obama administration would operations are truly ‘charitable’ and therefore became a target. ... I don’t know if someone complain about Attkisson’s reporting is un- consistent with ’s public policies,” paid them to do it or if they took it on their remarkable -- the central contention of the according to Gray. own” ( , April 21, 2014). article they were complaining about was in fact inaccurate, as later confi rmed by a 2012 Tax-exempt status comes with a set of condi- Media Matters is tight with its allies in the independent investigation into Operation tions. “Tax benefi ts to charitable organiza- Obama administration. Fast and Furious.” Attkisson stands by the tions are three-fold: exemption from federal published emails Sept. 18, 2012 showing article and has pointed out that it won an that MMfA has worked closely with Jus- Emmy award and an Edward R. Murrow Please remember CRC in tice Department offi cials to impact media award for investigative reporting. In this your estate planning. coverage of the Obama administration. context, Johnson’s post seems pointless. And government emails that Judicial Watch Perhaps Media Matters simply wanted to A simple, commonly used method obtained through the Freedom of Information have the last word. to ensure CRC’s legacy is to name Act back up Attkisson’s allegation that the the Capital Research Center as a administration targeted her. It needs to be noted that Attkisson is no benefi ciary in your will. You can do conservative shill. When she has gone after this in several ways, such as giving One email sent Oct. 4, 2011 by Tracy Republicans, she has earned praise from the specifi c assets or a percentage of Schmaler, then-spokeswoman for the Justice Left. For example, MSNBC’s Rachel Mad- your estate. Whichever method you Department, complained to the White House dow praised Attkisson in a broadcast about choose, if properly structured your that Attkisson, who was covering the Fast and an interview she conducted with then-Rep. bequest will be fully deductible from Furious gun-running scandal at the time, was Steve Buyer (R-Ind.). The interview was your estate, thus decreasing your “out of control.” Schmaler, emailing White about questionable accounting at his chari- tax liability. The estate tax charitable House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz, table organization and the pharmaceutical deduction is unlimited. wrote that she intended to contact Attkisson’s industry’s infl uence over the charity. editor and CBS anchor about For more information, contact Attkisson’s reporting. “No infl uence, you say? This is your cue, Sharyl Attkisson of CBS—go! Go! Go! Gordon Cummings Schultz was delighted. “Good. Her piece Go!” Maddow cheered in a Nov. 12, 2009 Capital Research Center was really bad for the AG,” a reference to broadcast. On the same day left-wing web- 1513 16th St. NW Attorney General (Townhall. site Talking Points Memo was similarly Washington, DC 20036 com, Nov. 21, 2014). enthusiastic about Attkisson’s digging into 202.483.6900 December 2014 5 Organization Trends income tax, tax-deductible contributions and tax-exempt bonds,” says Sen. Chuck Grass- ley (R-Iowa). Such groups pay no federal income tax because it is presumed that what they do benefi ts the public. A 501(c)(3) non- profi t is not allowed to “attempt to infl uence legislation as a substantial part of its activi- ties” or “participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.”

Will the incoming GOP-dominated 114 th Congress examine MMfA’s seemingly du- bious claim to tax-exempt status? Nobody knows yet.

Finances Media Matters has had little trouble raising money because the scales are tipped in favor of the Left. Left-wing nonprofi ts, many of which rely on radical billionaires for funding, vastly outspend conservative groups, which tend to rely more on grassroots donations. Leftist organizations operate with almost Texas political gadfl y Kinky Friedman (left) shakes hands with former U.S. Rep. complete impunity nowadays, unimpeded as Chris Bell (D-Texas) in an undated photograph. they strive to infl uence American politics and fundamentally transform our Republic. Unlike organizations on the right, left-wing year the Alliance recommends worthy left- activist groups can count on a seemingly wing causes and encourages its well-heeled Conservative groups have been swimming endless supply of cash from radical, deep- members to fund them in an effort to build against the tide for decades, but the Obama pocketed philanthropists such as anti- left-wing political infrastructure. (For more era has made things far worse. The activist American hedge fund manager George Soros, on the Democracy Alliance, see Foundation Right is severely outgunned by the activist predatory lender Herb Sandler, Taco Bell Watch , October 2014.) Left, as David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin heir Robert McKay Jr., Facebook co-founder exhaustively documented in their 2012 book, Chris Hughes, singer Barbra Streisand, and With much fanfare in 2010, George Soros, The New Leviathan: How the Left-Wing Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of U.S. Secretary a leading fi gure in the creation of the Alli- Money Machine Shapes American Politics of State John Kerry. ance, gave $1 million to MMfA, apparently and Threatens America’s Future . out of his personal funds. Fashion magnate As the book observes, the collective assets Susie Tompkins Buell, a Democracy Al- This vast network of left-wing funders and of liberal-progressive grant-making founda- liance member, sits on MMfA’s board of activist groups dwarfs anything the activist tions are in fact 10 times the size of the assets directors, according to the group’s 2012 tax Right has to offer. It is “self-suffi cient and of conservative foundations. fi ling. Strangely, philanthropy databases do self-perpetuating … an aristocracy of wealth not show donations from her foundation to whose dimensions exceed any previous Many of MMfA’s largest institutional donors Media Matters. accumulations of fi nancial power, whose are charitable foundations connected to infl uence already represents a massive dis- members of the ultra-secretive Democracy Below is a list of some of the most generous enfranchisement of the American people and Alliance. The shadowy club for radical mil- institutional donors to MMfA. An asterisk whose agendas pose a disturbing prospect lionaires and billionaires who want to turn (*) marks where the foundation is connected to a member or former member of the De- for the American future,” according to the America into Greece was founded soon after mocracy Alliance: authors. John Kerry’s defeat in the 2004 presidential election. At closed-door meetings twice a

6 December 2014 Organization Trends

Foundation to Promote Open Society ily Foundation ($150,000 since 2006, Former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas) ($1,275,000 since 2010; * George Soros , *Albert J. Dwoskin , president); Sagner was listed as the group’s treasurer. Bell is founder); Tides Foundation ($3,603,362 Family Foundation ($120,000 since 2004; a former journalist who represented the 25 th since 2003; * Drummond Pike , founder; *Deborah Sagner , president); Lear Family congressional district in the Lone Star State Joanie Bronfman , director); Stephen M. Foundation ($55,000 since 2005; * Norman from 2003 to 2005. He is also, according Silberstein Foundation ($2,625,000 since Lear , founder); Barbara Lee Family Foun- to his website, a trial lawyer specializing in 2003; * Stephen M. Silberstein , founder); dation Inc. ($55,000 since 2005; * Barbara truck accidents. Ford Foundation ($2,311,466 since 2010); F. Lee , a philanthropist in Cambridge, Mass., Bohemian Foundation ($1,925,000 since is founder); Carnegie Corp. of New York “It’s important that you contact an 18 wheeler 2005; * Patricia Stryker , president); Dy- ($50,000 since 2008); and Bernard & Irene lawyer so that you can pursue damages from son Foundation ($1,700,000 since 2005; Schwartz Foundation Inc. ($35,000 since the driver, trucking company, or any other *Robert R. Dyson , president); Gill Foun- 2007; * Bernard L. Schwartz , director). dation ($1,610,000 since 2006; * Tim Gill is founder); Leland Fikes Foundation Inc. ($1,030,000 since 2007); Bauman Family Foundation ($950,000 since 2005; *Patricia Bauman , president; Anne Bar- tley , director); Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($931,000 since 2008); New York Community Trust ($902,000 since 2006); Susan Thompson Buffett Founda- tion ($799,934 since 2012); Glaser Progress Foundation ($600,912 since 2005; * Rob Glaser , founder); Schumann Center for Media and Democracy Inc. ($600,000 since 2005); Carsey Family Foundation ($550,000 since 2007; * Marcia L. Carsey , president); Baytree Fund ($455,000 since 2005; * Judith Avery , president); Joyce Foundation ($400,000 since 2010); Pritz- ker Family Foundation ($400,000 since 2007); Lotus Foundation ($370,000 since 2005; * Rachel Pritzker , president); Lewis Media lapdog: Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent “will write anything you B. & Dorothy Cullman Foundation Inc. give him,” a Media Matters source said. ($300,000 since 2006; * Lewis B. Cullman , Thanks to these generous donors, David responsible party,” the website states. Bell founder); Sandler Foundation ($300,000 Brock is able to reward himself handsomely was also an early leader in the lawfare cam- since 2008; * Herb and the late Marion for captaining the helm of Media Matters, paign against then-House Majority Leader Sandler , co-founders); McKay Foundation which appears to have a staff of around 100 Tom DeLay (R-Texas). In a 187-page eth- ($285,000 since 2005; * Robert McKay Jr. , people. As chairman of the MMfA board, ics complaint, Bell said, “It’s my opinion executive director); Wallace Global Fund Brock receives a salary of $273,954 for a Mr. DeLay is the most corrupt politician in II ($275,000 since 2009); Edlis-Neeson workweek of just 22.5 hours, according to America today” (CNN.com, June 15, 2004). Foundation ($250,000 since 2009; * Stefan the group’s tax fi ling (IRS Form 990) for the A decade after his political career was ruined Edlis , founder); Goldman Sachs Philan- year ending Dec. 31, 2012. In that year the by Bell’s attacks, DeLay was entirely exoner- thropy Fund ($242,500 since 2008); H. group had a budget of $10.4 million. MMfA ated by the Texas courts. Van Ameringen Foundation ($235,000 also disclosed a $400,000 grant it made in since 2006; * Henry P. Van Ameringen , 2012 to American Independent News Net- trustee); PBL Fund ($200,000 since 2008; The Weird World of David Brock work for a “joint media project,” the details *late Peter B. Lewis , founder); Rockefeller It is impossible to examine the foibles and of which were not provided. Brothers Fund Inc. ($200,000 since 2011; dysfunction of Media Matters for America *Anne Bartley , trustee); Dwoskin Fam- without examining the vast eccentricities December 2014 7 Organization Trends of its troubled founder. David Brock is now being developed in response to a series adding that Brock’s bodyguards rarely left demonstrably paranoid. This is no mere of court rulings forcing the District to abide him alone. “What movement leader has a fi gure of speech. He has suffered at least one by the Second Amendment. detail?” a source said (Daily Caller, Feb. full-blown mental breakdown. In summer 12, 2012). 2001 he “was committed to the psychiatric In addition, multiple fi rearms were purchased ward of Sibley Hospital in Northwest Wash- to protect Brock, with his blessing, and ap- Brock was reportedly “terrifi ed” that his ington,” according to an exclusive Drudge parently with MMfA’s money—despite the gun improprieties would become publicly Report story. group’s strident advocacy for gun control known. “George Soros and a lot of groups that reached a fever pitch following the connected to gun control are funding this “The breakdown came just months before December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook group, and they wouldn’t be too happy that Brock fi nalized production of his bestselling book —a book that has been widely challenged on points of accuracy! ‘He had delusions, he thought people were trying to kill him,’ reveals a source who befriended Brock last July at the hospital. Brock told fellow patients that he did not feel safe—even inside of the hospital’s secure medical setting! “He spent time in the ‘The Quiet Room,’ there was just a mattress on the fl oor, and he had some books. He was so tired and stressed’” (Drudge Report, May 21, 2002).

Reached by telephone at the time, Brock did not deny the hospitalization. He told the Drudge Report, “I am not going to comment on private medical matters.” By 2010 Brock Media Matters critic Boyden Gray had become increasingly concerned “that he was being targeted by right-wing assassins” Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the an employee of Media Matters was carrying (Daily Caller, Jan. 27, 2013). That Brock Daily Caller discovered. The Glock hand- a gun, especially when it was illegal in D.C.,” believed anyone was trying to dispatch him gun was purchased with cash in Maryland, one source said. The Joyce Foundation, a is testament both to his paranoia and infl ated an act that would reduce the likelihood the Chicago-based charity whose board of direc- sense of self-importance. transaction would show up in the group’s ac- tors included from 1994 to counting records. Price-Morris also obtained 2002, gave MMfA $400,000 in 2010 for “a In an episode that was strange even by David a shotgun for his security work. gun and public safety issue initiative.” Brock standards, Media Matters became involved in illegal gun-running. Brock hired “Price-Morris was regularly armed when Price-Morris returned the weapons to Media an illegally armed bodyguard to provide accompanying Brock on trips around the Matters through a third party, according to personal security. A one-time aide named country, according to a source, and his fi rearm the Daily Caller. Haydn Price-Morris, who worked for MMfA possession in Washington, D.C. constituted from early 2009 through late 2010, carried a multiple felonies,” the Daily Caller reported. Brock and Mental Illness concealed Glock handgun when accompany- “On at least one occasion, Brock—accompa- Even in the modern era mental illness is ing Brock to events in the nation’s capital, nied by his armed aide—visited California widely misunderstood and stigmatized. Just which until recently had arguably the strictest to attend a ‘Democracy Alliance’ summit of because someone has occasional bouts with, gun control laws in America. The aide had major Democratic donors and lawmakers.” for example, disorders related to anxiety, no concealed-carry permit for his gun in the mood, eating, or obsessive-compulsive be- District of Columbia. Such a thing didn’t Brock “had more security than a Third World haviors, doesn’t mean the individual can’t exist at the time—a permitting system is only dictator,” one Media Matters employee said, function in society. 8 December 2014 Organization Trends

Abraham Lincoln suffered from depression so severe that he sometimes engaged in thoughts of suicide. Mood disorders have plagued actress Patty Duke, playwrights Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill, and others in the artistic community. But people with mental illnesses have pressed on and succeeded, often brilliantly.

Given David Brock’s abundant psychiatric challenges, one might expect Media Mat- ters to deal with mental health issues with a degree of compassion. Wrong. The group has been known to hound its targets and label them as mentally ill in an effort to ridicule and discredit them.

On the Media Matters website, MMfA senior fellow Eric Boehlert mocked talk show host Glenn Beck, who has struggled with alcohol- ism and other destructive behavior, as “the guy who was too crazy for Fox News” (Jan. Media Matters benefactor George Soros 24, 2014). Simon Maloy, who has since moved on to Salon, a website with even less Matthews. “Where do you think the words peached president. But then something integrity than Media Matters, called radio idiot, imbecile, cretin, moron, come from?” changed. As he conducted research for what talker Michael Savage “Crazy, stupid, crazily Coulter said. “These were all technical terms was supposed to be a hit piece on Hillary stupid.” Maloy referred to Savage’s mind as at one time. Retard has been used colloqui- Clinton, he decided he liked the style and “the house of shattered mirrors that is Michael ally to just mean ‘loser’ for 30 years” (Oct. corrupt politics of the Clintons. In the men- Savage’s psyche” (Dec. 2, 2010). 25, 2012). dacious Clintons, Brock had found kindred spirits. His book, The Seduction of Hillary While attacking some persons for allegedly But President Obama is exempt from this Rodham , disappointed readers hoping for a suffering from one kind of mental problem, standard. When Obama mocked the devel- stinging exposé and also marked a turning Media Matters has hypocritically howled opmentally handicapped on “The Tonight point in Brock’s disordered thinking. with indignation when the intellectually Show,” by quipping that his average score of handicapped have been attacked—but only 129 during bowling at the White House “was After the book was published Brock wrote when they are attacked by the wrong people. like the Special Olympics or something,” a series of apologias, begging the forgive- MMfA takes exception to the use of the Media Matters gave him a pass. The stron- ness of the Clintons and of , the now-politically incorrect adjective “retard” gest criticism Boehlert could muster was to lying law professor who told a story of when it is used by individuals the group say that the Special Olympics comment was in an almost-successful despises. merely “ill-advised” (March 31, 2009). attempt to derail the confi rmation of Supreme Court Justice . Brock dis- MMfA’s Hannah Groch-Begley sanctimo- The Origins of Brock’s Anti- tanced himself from his acclaimed exposé, niously denounced author Ann Coulter for Conservative Animus The Real Anita Hill , and his other works using the word “retard,” which “is widely When David Brock worked for the Ameri- and set about ingratiating himself with the considered a slur and disability advocates can Spectator magazine, he used to be a Democratic Party establishment. Brock argue it is hate speech,” Groch-Begley hero to the Right for taking on President and the Clintons kissed and made up, and wrote. Coulter defended her non-clinical . Throughout the 1990s he Brock recanted his sensational use of the term, which she has applied to relentlessly attacked the Man from Hope, “Troopergate” stories. President Obama and MSNBC’s Chris digging up mountains of muck on the im- December 2014 9 Organization Trends

In his autobiographical book, Blinded by In other words, Brock’s progressive totali- midlevel employees. As Politico reported the Right , Brock tried to spin his apparent tarianism holds that conservative thinking is at the time: mental breakdown as a sincere change of not only wrong but antisocial. Media Mat- heart. After reading the apostasy memoir the ters, which aspires to correct “conservative “It has hired an activist who has led a suc- late leftist intellectual misinformation,” actually aspires to extin- cessful campaign to press advertisers to avoid skewered its author. Brock “is incapable Glenn Beck’s show. The group is assembling guish conservative thought altogether. The of recognizing the truth, let alone of telling a legal team to help people who have clashed pretended media watchdog is not concerned it.” He described the book as “fl imsy and with Fox to fi le lawsuits for defamation, with factual accuracy but with conservative self-worshiping,” “an exercise in self-love, invasion of privacy or other causes. And ideas themselves. Such ideas are, after all, disguised as an exercise in self-abnegation,” it has hired two experienced reporters, Joe and as “dismally written, pick-nose, spiteful “filth,” according to Brock. Strupp and Alexander Zaitchik, to dig into and furtive” ( Nation , May 27, 2002). Fox’s operation to help assemble a book on Those who question the Left are blacklisted the network, due out in 2012 from Vintage/ In the book Brock reveals himself to be a as contemptible bigots. Conservative, lib- Anchor.” deeply narcissistic formerly conservative ertarian, anti-tax, pro-life, pro-family, and journalist who renounced his beliefs in immigration reduction activists are all seen It also planned to harass shareholders of Fox the 1990s because of imagined conserva- as legitimate targets for demonization. They parent News Corp. and was considering open- ing a branch of Media Matters in London, tive intolerance of his homosexuality and must be marginalized and delegitimized. because the pay and social scene were bet- England, to hurl slime against Murdoch’s ter on the Left. Hitchens mocked Brock’s company over there. Media Matters got The War on Fox News melodramatic tale of sexual preference-based its comeuppance in a sense the same year MMfA claims to combat “conservative persecution as a work of fi ction. when the late night Fox News show “Red misinformation” but concentrates its fi re on Eye” bitingly attacked the group in a mock “On page 121 Brock makes the demented as- Fox News Channel because it dares to air interview with a man portraying a Media sertion that the GOP had ‘virtually launched political viewpoints that sometimes overlap Matters analyst. an antigay pogrom,’ before sobbing, ‘there with the views of Republicans. The ultimate was far less ideological affi nity between the purpose of Media Matters is to silence op- “It’s horrible. All we do is sit and watch Fox GOP and me than when I had fi rst come to position to the Left. News and make up stuff about Fox News. It Washington. The party had left me and many is the saddest place I have ever seen in my other libertarian-leaning conservatives back Brock, who described himself as a “hit man” life. I think about it, and I want to throw up,” the make-believe MMfA employee said. “I in Houston.” when he was a conservative, declared in 2011 get to work and I take off my clothes, and that MMfA’s mission was to wage “war on “The defamation game,” Hitchens conclud- they strap me into a chair in front of a TV Fox [News]” as well as “to disrupt [News ed, “is still all that this creep knows.” with [Fox News Channel] on. They keep Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch’s] commercial my eyelids propped open like in Clockwork interests” and to turn regulators against his Media Matters is now Brock’s personal defa- Orange , and I sit and type all day.” mation factory. It is the Thought Police. media outlets. “If there was no [Glenn] Beck, George Soros Brock lays out his justification for taking on “The strategy that we had had toward Fox would come down and demand we make it America’s conservatives in his book, The was basically a strategy of containment,” up,” the character said. “I would watch the ‘Flintstones’ and transcribe Fred Flintstone’s Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing said Brock, who referred to Fox as the “nerve words and attribute them to Beck. It was the Media and How It Corrupts Democracy . In center” of the conservative movement. Brock only way to get Soros to stop hitting me.” the 2004 book the admitted serial liar labels thought that challenging the factual claims made on the cable TV channel would help the “verbal brownshirts” of the Right a threat Brock, of course, is nothing if not delusional, to keep conservative ideas out of the media to the Republic. This brutal propaganda and a year ago Media Matters claimed “vic- machine will carry on “until its capacities to ecosystem ( Politico , March 26, 2011). tory” in its war against all things Fox. spread filth are somehow eradicated.” Taking a page from Machiavelli, Media Mat- “In the coming years, Fox will no longer be ters went after top Fox News executives and the center of Media Matters’ universe,” Me- 10 December 2014 Organization Trends dia Matters executive vice president Angelo of Community Organizations for Reform call with the Obama White House, joined by Carusone declared. That’s because MMfA Now (ACORN) fought unionization efforts the left-wing Center for American Progress, believed it has succeeded in discrediting the in its own house (Daily Caller, April 29, whose founder, , is now a senior network’s wish to be regarded as “fair and 2014). White House advisor. Media Matters sends balanced.” a representative every Tuesday night to the Media Matters employees were outraged that left-wing Common Purpose Project meet- “The war on Fox is over,” Carusone said. their employer was opposed to their forming ing at the Capitol Hilton, just a few blocks “And it’s not just that it’s over, but it was very a union. The organizing committee posted from the White House (Daily Caller, Feb. successful. To a large extent, we won.” a statement on the website of Service Em- 12, 2012). ployees International Union Local 500 that Commentator John Nolte ridiculed Media criticized the nonprofi t for “the unexpected Media Matters conducts boot camps for bud- Matters at the time, comparing it to “a frus- and unexplained path our leadership has ding progressive infl uencers. Its Progressive trated child who fl ips over a board game taken in response to our efforts to unionize,” Talent Initiative (PTI) founded in 2009 has and screams, ‘I win!’” Even though Fox adding that “the actions of Media Matters trained pundits who have appeared at least News “regularly pulls in more viewers than executives have placed employees in the 800 times on TV and radio. “Media Matters both of its left-wing counterparts (CNN and impossible position of continuing to produce uses that metric to pitch donors for more MSNBC) combined, and recent polls show content espousing pro-labor values for an contributions, but its leadership believes that Fox is trusted more than almost every employer who is challenging our right to that the surge of camera-ready liberals has other news source, Media Matters would like unionize.” According to the post: recaptured lost ground in the media wars its donors to know it has won.” against conservatives,” according to the “Media Matters employees often write in Washington Post . “Fox News isn’t just dominant; its competi- defense of organized labor, and our work tion is in deep, deep water and either drown- has demonstrated the virtues of organizing Participants learn that reporters are “confl ict- ing or barely treading water,” Nolte wrote. through card-check and the perils of being seeking showmen easily disarmed by the “If that’s a victory for Media Matters, I’d love forced through a protracted NLRB election use of their fi rst names or compliments on to know what defeat looks like” (Breitbart process. It is fi tting, then, that we’ve chosen the cleverness of their questions.” They News, Dec. 13, 2013). to unionize and attempt to lead our own lives also become “adept in the craft of the pivot by the principles we regularly advocate for and setting up far-left straw men to make MMfA’s War on its Own Workers in our work.” their own left-leaning positions seem more Nobody would accuse David Brock of being moderate.” The importance of storytelling a nice guy. “Viciously mean” is a phrase used This past summer MMfA staff voted to is emphasized. As instructors explained, by someone who watched Brock interact with form a union. Perhaps seeing the writing “A good story is a Trojan horse” to “deploy Media Matters employees. “He spent a lot of on the wall, management was conciliatory. your ideas,” and once the horse is inside the time ripping up researchers. It was abusive. “We have always respected the rights of walls, “gut everyone” ( Washington Post , I never understood why more people didn’t Media Matters employees to organize and March 22, 2011). quit.” One employee remembered Brock collectively bargain,” said MMfA president saying he would like to dismiss a research Bradley Beychok. “We look forward to the Sticking the knife in and twisting it is David employee for being physically repugnant. next steps in this process and thank our staff Brock’s specialty, after all. “David defi nitely does not like ugly people” and allies in the progressive community (Daily Caller, Feb. 12, 2012). for their support.” (Huffi ngton Post, July Matthew Vadum is a senior editor at Capital 1, 2014). Research Center. His book, Subversion Similarly, elitist left-wingers like Brock talk Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are a good shtick when it comes to labor unions, Spreading Influence Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American but when unions arrive on their doorstep, they Distributing media criticism, harassing Taxpayers , was published in 2011. change their tune. When MMfA employees enemies, and browbeating conservatives is decided to pursue union certifi cation, Brock just part of the Media Matters repertoire. OT fought it, just as the now-defunct Association MMfA began a weekly strategy conference

December 2014 11 Organization Trends Briefl yNoted

National Action Network founder Al Sharpton played a signifi cant role in President Obama ’s selection of federal prosecutor to replace Eric Holder as U.S. attorney general, according to various news reports. Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, was fi rst appointed by President Obama in 2010. She shares a lot of Sharpton’s radical left-wing views such as the belief that voter ID laws are racist. Lynch also belonged to the Harvard Black Law Students Association in the 1980s when she was a student. That radical group brought representatives from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to speak on campus, GotNews.com reports. BLSA leader Mohammed Kenyatta called for the “liberation of Palestine” and expressed support for the PLO.

Voting by illegal aliens and other non-citizens is so prevalent throughout the nation that it gave us Obamacare, according to a study by two Old Dominion University political science professors. The new report by Jesse Richman and David Earnest “examines participation rates by non-citizens using a nationally representative sample that includes non-citizen immigrants,” a fi rst in voting studies, they claim. “Non-citizen votes,” which are almost always illegal, “likely gave Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome fi libusters in order to pass health care reform and other Obama administration priorities in the 111th Congress,” the au- thors write. North of 14 percent of non-citizens in both the 2008 and 2010 samples reported being registered to vote. “Our best guess, based upon extrapolations from the portion of the sample with a verifi ed vote, is that 6.4 percent of non-citizens voted in 2008 and 2.2 percent of non-citizens voted in 2010,” they wrote. And yet left-wing groups such as Demos , Brennan Center for Justice , Center for American Progress , and Ad- vancement Project claim voter fraud is a myth.

The old Missouri chapter of now-defunct ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now ) is playing at least a supporting role in the violent unrest and crime wave that has plagued Ferguson and St. Louis, Mo., since the Aug. 9 police shooting of Michael Brown . Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE), a 501(c)(4) nonprofi t, is the rebranded Missouri branch of ACORN, the left- wing activist network that fi led for bankruptcy in 2010. MORE has been active in the protests and in efforts to free jailed demonstrators so they can continue vandalizing businesses, intimidating perceived adversaries, setting fi res, throwing projectiles and urine at cops, and engaging in the Left’s usual modes of so-called non- violent protest. President Obama used to work for ACORN, and he represented it in court as a lawyer.

The government of the United Arab Emirates has designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a terrorist organization. Although CAIR claims to be “a leading advocate for justice and mutual under- standing” whose mission “is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding,” the U.S. government named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case. That founda- tion was found guilty of aiding Hamas terrorists. Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy calls CAIR a “Muslim Brotherhood bullhorn created to cheerlead for sharia, for Hamas, and for sundry other jihadists—all under the guise of ‘civil rights.’” Amazingly, the Obama administration refuses to designate CAIR a terrorist organization. CAIR was profi led in Organization Trends , August 2005.

Terrorist Rasmea Odeh , associate director of the Chicago-based Arab American Action Network (AAAN), was convicted last month by a Detroit jury of immigration fraud. Prosecutors accused Odeh of killing two Israe- lis in the Sixties and then lying about it in U.S. immigration papers. Odeh previously received a sentence of life imprisonment from Israel but was released after 10 years as part of a prisoner swap. AAAN receives fund- ing from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation , Tides Foundation , and Woods Fund of Chicago .

12 December 2014