Daily Beast on the fight against Fox: "No one has done it better than Media Matters"
October 30, 2009 3:35 pm ET by Media Matters staff
The Daily Beast's Benjamin Sarlin reports on Media Matters' work exposing Fox:
The White House's war on Fox News may be a new chapter in the administration's relationship with the media. But bashing the conservative press has been an Olympic sport among liberals for years. And no one has done it better than Media Matters.
[...]
In an effort to undermine Fox's claims that its editorial and news reporting are separate, Brock's site has launched a video series of Fox clips Media Matters sees as anti-Obama-using the tagline, "Fox is not news. It's a 24/7 political operation." That's a problem he thinks has grown much more pronounced since the 2008 election. But perhaps most importantly, his group has played a major role in defending administration officials from Fox attacks-sometimes more effectively than the White House itself has.
Earlier this month, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who has spearheaded the anti-Fox effort, came under fire from Glenn Beck for a recent speech in which she referred to Mao Zedong and Mother Theresa as her two "favorite political philosophers." Anticipating the story could have legs, Media Matters staffers raced into action, frantically scouring the Internet for examples of conservatives citing Mao themselves, and published their first quotes within a half hour of the show ending. By the time Beck tried to extend the attack later that week to another Obama official who had cited Mao, "manufacturing czar" Ron Bloom, the list of similar Republican quotes included John McCain, Newt Gingrich, and Ralph Reed. Beck's story bounced around the right-wing press for several days but failed to migrate to the mainstream media.
Brock believes that effort helped contain the story's spread. "Speed was of the essence here," he said. "We're the first line of defense for the progressive movement."
Earlier this month, Media Matters rallied around another one of Fox News' top White House targets, education official Kevin Jennings. Sean Hannity called for him to be fired for reportedly failing to report a statutory rape case to the authorities when a 15-year old gay student asked for Jennings' advice on a relationship with an older man. But Media Matters quickly confirmed with the student in question himself that he was 16 at the time, the legal age of consent in the state, and that he denied any sexual contact with the person in question. The group then posted a Facebook exchange between the student and a Fox News reporter in which the network inquired about his age. Fox issued a correction and without a criminal angle the story failed to gain traction outside of the conservative press. The Atlantic's Chris Good reported that Media Matters' reporting was the key to deflating the attack-especially given the White House's reluctance to rebut the Fox accounts directly.
Cheers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damn Right.
You deserve a standing ovation.
Pointing out that Beck was a hypocrite for highlighting Dunn's comments about Mao was only one of the prongs of the attack, and was a fairly minor one. The best arguments were the debunking of the rightwing spin on what she said that took what she said out of context, ignored her explanations, and cropped her comments to distort the meaning. That happened pretty fast too.
What we are seeing is a vast effort from the rightwing to listen for buzzwords and potential missteps so they can trip up the Obama Administration. That's not the role of a news organization. They shouldn't be out to do that - they shouldn't have their ears so highly tuned to any mention of Mao, for example, that a facetious reference to him being one of her favorite philosophers shouldn't set off a firestorm. Her use of an anecdote from Mao that makes a valid point should never label her as a subversive - and it doesn't if a Republican does the very same thing - that's what lets us see their hypocrisy on display.
As long as they continue with the disreputable behavior, we need to be pointing at it and laughing. For it to get one ounce of credibility it doesn't deserve is poisonous to our national debate.
Documenting the lies on Fox is not "bashing;" it is reporting the truth.
The phrase "15-year old gay student" was a lie, and should have been in quotes or followed by (sic). The word "reportedly" is placed so that it just adds to the confusion.
How does Sarlin know that MMFA's internet scouring is "frantic"?
And so on and so on.
/snark
As the Beast says, "but perhaps more importantly, his (Brock's Media Matters) group has played a major role in DEFENDING ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS from Fox attacks, sometimes more effectively than the White House itself has." (emphasis added).
Love the irony of MM getting all righteous about political activism on Fox's part while it plays D for the White House itself. Thought the mission statement was "comprehensively monitoring, analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media," not taking on the PR function for the administration.
Can you say tax exempt hypocrite?