Dear Glenn:

Your show on Monday was truly exciting. It's always encouraging to learn that one's work is being followed closely, and after you dedicated an entire program responding to Media Matters' labeling of you as 2009's Misinformer of the Year, I no longer had any doubt that you and your team take the time to read what we write.

And so, I thought I would write you this blog post, just to make sure that you have heard the story of a woman I'll call Mary. She's one of your biggest fans.

2009 was a big year for you, Glenn. Your Fox television program débuted, and became a network hit -- so big that you were kept on even after a major advertiser boycott significantly limited your show's profitability. You published a new book which soon became a top seller. Your radio audience is immense. You began re-imagining yourself as an insurgent leader at the head of throngs of followers. And of course, you were rewarded handsomely for your efforts, raking in tens of millions of dollars.

What will 2010 hold?

Glenn, I watch your show almost every day. I even take notes, like you often ask your viewers to do. What's more, I went to the 9-12 protest in Washington, DC. No, there weren't 1.7 million people there, as you claimed, but there were indeed tens of thousands -- some of your most passionate supporters, no doubt. For more than five hours, I recorded interviews with as many people as I could, repeatedly asking them why they were there, and which news sources they trusted. (Here's one of the videos that came of it.)

And then there was Mary. She was eager to share her views, and I spoke with her for a long time, not far from the Capitol building. Mary was from Maryland, and after we ran through some of her deepest concerns -- ACORN, Obama's czars, and so on -- she felt comfortable enough to really open up. On the brink of tears, she talked about how much your show meant to her, how she rushed home every weekday to make sure she caught it at 5 p.m. on Fox News. Mary talked about the community she now felt she was a part of -- that no matter how bleak things looked, she could always go to the 9-12 website, and put her thoughts down in a message board, and that others would write her back with words of encouragement and support.

And she talked about how much she trusted you.

Glenn, you reach millions of people every single day. People trust you. They listen to you. They count on you to help them understand their world.

There is nothing wrong with challenging conventional wisdom. There is nothing wrong with, as you so often claim to do, speaking without fear. I'm not interested in silencing the passion of your supporters. Yes, there are those among them whose ideas I find deplorable and unworthy of the best traditions of this country. But I also recognize that there are plenty of people out there who feel like Mary does, who just want a government that works for the average person.

Mary's energy is a good thing. Her desire to better her country is encouraging. And you are abusing it.

You are abusing it, Glenn, because you are confusing her. You are misleading her. You are misinforming her. You are distracting her from that which impacts her life the most. You are making her tilt at windmills, and lunge at shadows - and all while you are profiting so mightily from her deception.

At Media Matters for America, we documented hundreds of your statements throughout 2009, taken from your radio show, from your TV show, from your public appearances, and from your books. Sometimes, we would highlight moments of deliberate intolerance and xenophobia, or unprovoked attempts to incite racial fears and tensions. At other times, we focused on your dramatized efforts to convince the public that the Obama administration was literally attempting to physically harm them, or the instances when you joked about killing public officials.

We focused on moments such as these because of our fears concerning the harmful impact you were having on the tenor of our public discourse -- and because we know, as do you, that there are unstable, troubled people among your listeners and viewers who simply need one more push before they do something terrible.

But I'm not worried about Mary being one of those people. I'm worried about Mary for another reason. She watches your show because she wants to be informed, because she wants to know where she should be devoting her energy. And every day, you point her in the wrong direction.

Mary cares about corruption in our government. But because of you, she thinks the source of federal corruption resides solely with ACORN employees. When we talked, she didn't seem concerned with, for example, the massive military contractors and lobbyists that misused far more public money than ACORN could have dreamed of receiving from the government. And little wonder: over a two-and-a-half year period, your TV programs mentioned ACORN 1,045 times. They mentioned Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, Blackwater, Halliburton, and KBR 28 times combined.

Mary cares about limiting the influence of special interests. But because of you, “special interests” for her means SEIU. She's a working person, but you've worked to turn her against a union that tries to better the lot of its more than two million dues-paying members -- and hence millions of working families. Rather than focus on the substance of its work, you have relentlessly and dishonestly portrayed it as a self-interested gang of thugs that should have no impact on legislation.

At the same time, throughout 2009, you repeatedly hosted Phil Kerpen, the policy director for Americans for Prosperity. According to available transcripts, Mr. Kerpen was a guest on your Fox News program at least 7 times during the year (on 6/26, 8/4, 8/21, 8/24, 8/25, 10/19, 10/20 if you are interested). But not once did you mention where Americans for Prosperity gets its money, including more than $3 million in recent years from the Kochs, a billionaire oil family that has also given more than $9 million to the libertarian Cato Institute. Does that count as a special interest in your mind, Glenn? Do you think you owe it to Mary to tell her who is paying the guests you hold up as trustworthy, honest brokers?

This past year, you told her that the White House is using the NEA as a propaganda organ. But where were you when it was revealed that numerous mainstream media outlets -- those same media outlets you constantly castigate for their supposed liberal bias -- failed to divulge that some of their top military analysts had ties to military contractors, seriously compromising their credibility? In May of 2008, a Media Matters study found that over a six-year period, those same analysts had made 4,500 television appearances collectively. I checked the transcripts from your old Headline News program. You didn't mention the story once. That isn't propaganda in your eyes, Glenn? A single NEA conference call represents an existential threat to Mary's liberty, but this massive breach of the public trust didn't?

Where is the consistency here, Glenn? What are the principles you are acting in the name of?

Sadly, these are just a few of the pseudo-scandals you lavished such attention and rage on throughout last year. By doing so, you have engaged in misdirection of the worst sort, abusing the trust of the best members of your audience and fueling the unpredictable ire of the worst.

But it's a new year, Glenn -- and that means you have a new opportunity to use your platform as a tool to help, rather than hurt, this country and your viewers. Imagine if you committed yourself to real reporting, and embraced serious commentary and a balanced selection of independent, uncompromised guests. Imagine if you used your precious airtime to sincerely investigate the issues that tens of millions of Americans are contending with every day. Imagine how much good you could do.

Of course, I'm not expecting you to change. Indeed, you've already promised to double down on last year's strategy. And so, Media Matters and progressive groups everywhere will be ready, exposing the xenophobia, the ignorance, the fear-mongering, and the misinformation that you so cavalierly embrace. And we will continue to do everything we can to help people like Mary understand that they deserve more than to be lied to.