Reading the Daily Caller’s stellar investigative series into Media Matters, the organization begins to sound less like a left-wing media watchdog and more like a drug cartel in the days before the feds close in. There are armed bodyguards, fears of sniper assassins, enemy lists and talk of sending private eyes to follow around high-profile adversaries. All this at a non-profit organization.
It’s no wonder Media Matters’ head David Brock comes off as an unhinged paranoid in the story. When you stake your career on dirty tricks and smear tactics, you start expecting everyone else is out to do the same to you. As the Caller reports, Media Matters was apparently so obsessed with digging up dirt on Fox News it considered hiring detectives to track its employees. To Brock, the declaration that his organization was at “war with Fox News” wasn’t hyperbole – his personal assistant reportedly carried a Glock to prove it.
But behind the colorful detail, there’s also a serious story about media manipulation. In one memo obtained by the Caller, a top Media Matters staffer writes about its plan to turn the Murdoch phone-hacking scandal into major U.S. news:
In at least two places, the memo makes suggestions that in retrospect look like prescient predictions. The first concerns Rupert Murdoch: “Murdoch’s problems in the U.K. (hacking the cell phones of prominent Brits) are hardly known to U.S. news consumers. We should do our best to bring embarrassing Murdoch news to the attention of his U.S. audience.” The effort appears to have succeeded.
The phone-hacking scandal did start catching on in the U.S., thanks in part to reporting campaigns launched by two prominent and respected nonprofit investigative journalism outlets: Pro Publica and the Center for Public Integrity. Note that both organizations have received extensive funding from George Soros, who also funds Media Matters. Was there any coordination between the three groups? At the very least, this raises questions about the independence of non-profit investigative reporting outlets.
And yet they won't touch Fast and Furious with a ten-foot pole.
Brock's own book, assuming he wrote it, describes a conflicted man with deep seated resentment of himself. n nChoosing to work for a person like this is a serious gamble for your own career path. To actually arm yourself to defend him is serious delusion.
If we could only get the Lame-stream media to report on this.
They won the war on Fox. Fox has shifted a lot over the last year. Beck is gone, the Judge is gone
"Was there any coordination between the three groups?" n nWhat a pleasant surprise! I had no idea Commentary offered the added value of scattering little lessons in grammar and literary devices throughout its articles. The question above, referencing the degree of control exercised by "communist capitalist" George Soros over leftist political/cultural organizations he founds and thereafter so very generously and faithfully funds, is a wonderful example of what is known as a "rhetorical question" – that to which the answer is so widely known or so plainly apparent that it need not be answered, and is asked merely for effect. n nPerhaps Commentary doesn't intend the question to be instructive as much as humorous – as it is such a wonderful example of gross understatement, deftly posed. It hardly matters, because it serves equally as well for either. It's a fantastic rhetorical question, in light of Soros's blatant attempts over the past 20 years to undermine both America's commitment to a representative republican form of government as well as its reliance on a primarily free-market economy. But the question, posed in such innocent earnestness and naivety, also gave me a huge belly laugh. I mean, really: as if George Soros would essentially devote his fortune to the goals of these and other similar organizations, and then NOT seek to coordinate their activities. n nAs if, indeed.
That George Soros is the common denominator in this should come as a surprise to exactly no one. The former Nazi collaborator has a long track record of destroying economies. His contempt for innocent people is well documented, and his responsibility for the economic suffering of many is indisputable. He looks upon his meddling in the affairs of many countries around the world as great sport. It is clear that he has focused his efforts on crippling, if not bringing down, America. n nJust for fun, perhaps the DC should do a bit of investigation into Soros' Secretary of State Project, as this is designed to install the political equivalent of Media Matters into power nationwide.
David Brock is a real piece of work, He is a homophobe working hand in hand with a gay president, no wonder he thinks he needs protection against being shot thru the head, Obama knows a thing or two about that.
wow, Brock must have touched a nerver for the far-right to unleash the hounds on him. I watched with much amusement "fox n friends" this am. They had a "psychologist" on to say his being an adopted child turned him into a paranoid, violent person. The doctor previously suggested Newt Gingrinch's many marriages would make him a better President. seriously. look it up. I went to "media matters"… seems most of their "attacks" are simply recordings of the insane things conservatives say.
I've never understood the kind of personality that devotes time to hanging out and filing multiple comments at politically oriented websites devoted to philosophies, perspectives and points of view s/he finds abhorrent. It's a phenomenon I'm confident is exhibited more by liberals than conservatives. n nGranted, this particular comment is infinitely more courteous and less vitriolic than the usual venomous diatribe I find left in the wake of most visitors from the left; and for that I'm thankful. But I still don't understand it, since the effort seems pointless and made in the vain hope of proselytizing some converts.
Re: Brock paranoia…That's what happens when you prostitute yourself between a Nazi collaborator and a Chicago thug.
really jum? this was my first, so bully for you. Try other news sites, they are filled with conservative commentators spewing vitriol, but I'll bet you have rather large blinders to what conservatives do. I only seek truth, no desire to convert the ignorants that fall for the ever-more-lamer GOP talking points spewed from hate-talk radio and the lunatic echo chambers in other media.