Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by The Four Deuces (talk | contribs) at 01:05, 2 June 2010 (Undid revision 365543649 by Kwd1964 (talk) rv unsourced material). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Media Matters for America

Screenshot from Media Matters for America (April 14, 2009)
Formation	2004
Website	MediaMatters.org

Media Matters for America (or MMfA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2004 by journalist and author David Brock. Media Matters for America describes itself as "a web-based, not-for-profit, progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." Media Matters for America defines "conservative misinformation" as "news or commentary presented in the media that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda." Eric Burns is the president of the organization.

Research work

Media Matters employs a number of researchers who report and analyze instances of what the group terms "conservative misinformation" in the media. Media Matters analyzes the dominant American news sources including NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, and Fox News Channel. It uses a variety of techniques, including content analysis, fact checking, monitoring, and comparison of quotes or presentations from media figures to primary documents such as Pentagon or Government Accountability Office reports.

Analysis of weekend television commentary

On February 14, 2006, the organization released a study of the guest appearances on ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, and NBC's Meet the Press from 1997 through 2005. This study examined over 7,000 guests as either Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive, or neutral. Media Matters stated: "The conclusion is clear: Republicans and conservatives have been offered more opportunities to appear on the Sunday shows - in some cases, dramatically so." The American Spectator, a conservative magazine, criticized the study's characterization of commentators such as Dan Rather as "neutral".

A second analysis was released April 4, 2006 examining Sunday news programs from January through March 2006. Media Matters reported: "Republican and conservative dominance continued unabated, as those from the right outnumbered Democrats and their progressive compatriots." Besides the political stance of the guests, "the Sunday shows feature panel discussions comprising conservative journalists and opinion writers "balanced" by reporters for mainstream news outlets—with no progressive journalist."

The third study was released July 20, 2006 concluding "Republicans and conservatives dominated on all three Sunday shows." Media Matters stated that "Republicans and conservatives outnumbered Democrats and progressives in total guest appearances," more particularly Face the Nation "featured nearly twice as many Republicans and conservatives as Democrats and progressives during the second quarter."

Analysis of syndicated editorial columns

On September 12, 2007, Media Matters released a study examining 1,377 U.S. newspapers and the 201 syndicated political columnists the papers carry on a regular basis. According to Media Matters' analysis, conservative pundits appear in three times as many papers and reach many more readers than do progressives/liberals.

John Diaz, editorial page editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, criticized the study as flawed. He argued that that because the conservative imbalance was most pronounced in the smallest newspapers, which have less reach than major newspapers, the numerical disparity did not accurately reflect how influential conservative columns were. He also wrote that "pigeonholing" columnists as conservative, progressive or centrist obscured columnists' ability to hold nuanced ideological positions.

The Don Imus Controversy

On April 4, 2007, Media Matters for America monitored the Imus in the Morning broadcast when Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team members as "nappy-headed hoes." The organization posted their view of this comment and later a video clip on the Internet, and sent out a bulk emailing to individual journalists and to the National Association of Black Journalists, eventually resulting in CBS Radio and MSNBC canceling his program.

Phony soldiers controversy

In September 2007, Media Matters publicized remarks made by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh under the headline "Limbaugh: Service members who support U.S. withdrawal are 'phony soldiers'". Media Matters' report, which contained a partial transcript of Limbaugh's September 26 show, alleged that he was referring to Iraq war veterans opposed to the war when he used the phrase "phony soldiers" on the broadcast. The national media quickly picked up the story, and by early October, Limbaugh's comment and its possible meaning was being debated on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Limbaugh, conservative pundits, and many Republican congressmen contended that the remark was being taken out of context, and he had actually been referring to Jesse MacBeth, a man claiming be to a decorated veteran who had never actually served in the war. John Gibson, of Fox News, criticized Media Matters' reporting of Limbaugh, and the conservative National Review accused them of creating a "phony controversy" and trying to "manufacture outrage" regarding the remark. The National Review suggested that Media Matters may have intended to present a "completely false account of what happened". Media Matters argued that its item was accurate and included context and that it was Limbaugh and his defenders who sought to remove context in order to cast his remarks in a more favorable light. Lampooning Gibson, and others who rallied behind Limbaugh, Stephen Colbert satirically blamed Media Matters for the controversy. "By posting on the Internet," Colbert said, "the general public words that were meant for people who already agree with us. Hey, Media Matters, you want to end offensive speech? Then stop recording it for people who would be offended."

Misinformer of the Year

An annual feature on the Media Matters website is the title of "Misinformer of the Year," which is awarded to the journalist, commentator, and/or network which, in the opinion of Media Matters, was responsible for the most numerous and/or grievous factual errors and claims made when presenting a pro-conservative position. The complete list of awardees of "Misinformer of the Year" is as follows:

• 2004 – Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly
• 2005 – MSNBC's Chris Matthews
• 2006 – ABC, specifically ABC News director Mark Halperin and the Path to 9/11 miniseries
• 2007 – Title re-tooled as "Misinformation of the Year", detailing instances of derogatory media commentary
• 2008 – Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity
• 2009 – Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck

Funding sources

Media Matters initially received "more than $2 million in donations from wealthy liberals" with ties to the Democratic party (including Peter Lewis of Progressive Insurance, Steve Bing, Marcy Carsey, Susie Tompkins Buell, Leo Hindrey, Gail Furman, and James Hormel) and "was developed with help from the newly formed Center for American Progress". It also has received significant funding from Democracy Alliance (funded in large measure by George Soros), MoveOn.org, and the New Democrat Network.

Staff

Media Matters's staff has included political professionals who have worked for other progressive organizations and politicians. A May 2004 article on Media Matters in the conservative National Review referred to MMfA staffers who had recently worked on the presidential campaigns of John Edwards and Wesley Clark, for Congressman Barney Frank, and for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.. One such professional who worked with the Media Matters in its early stages is Kelly Craighead, who had previously worked for Hillary Clinton when she was First Lady. In July 2006, Media Matters for America opened a state chapter, Colorado Media Matters . Media Matters recruited Colorado natives to run Colorado Media Matters and to analyze the local state media using the original Media Matters' research techniques. The chapter closed its doors in March 2009.

Response

Media Matters has inspired a range of responses. Some news organizations have cited its reports and credited it for bringing attention to issues that may otherwise have slipped beneath the radar, including the Jeff Gannon story. Progressive op-ed writers such as Molly Ivins, and Paul Krugman have cited Media Matters or identified it as a helpful source. Conversely, political analyst and columnist Stuart Rothenberg has said "I don't pay any attention to them. Whether it's conservatives analyzing the media, or liberals analyzing the media, I just have no confidence in the ideological stuff."

On August 19, 2005, Media Matters posted an item regarding a letter that Cliff Kincaid, editor from the conservative, media watchdog organization Accuracy in Media, said he had received from an Afghan ambassador. Media Matters wrote that the letter was not a scanned document and that it "bears all the hallmarks of a do-it-yourself, cut-and-paste job." Within hours of the post, Kincaid posted scanned images of the letter and envelope he said he had received, and wrote that Media Matters had accused him of "having fabricated or forged a letter from the Ambassador of Afghanistan." He characterized the piece as "defamatory" and criticized Media Matters for not obtaining his side of the story prior to publishing their item. Media Matters then issued a subsequent post stating that Kincaid "misrepresented the original Media Matters item" and "failed to point out a single falsehood" in the item, which "simply pointed out that the letter as posted on the America's Survival website consisted of separate elements cobbled together from various sources."

Bill O'Reilly, the subject of many Media Matters items and a frequent critic of Media Matters, has called them a "vile propaganda outfit … which specializes in distorting comments made by politicians, pundits, and media people." O'Reilly said that he believes Media Matters took comments he made on his radio program to Juan Williams regarding a dinner with Al Sharpton in Harlem out of context. O'Reilly said that the Media Matters piece put together two out of context comments that were initially spoken five minutes apart and presented them as one comment in an effort to mislead readers. In an appearance on NBC's Today with Matt Lauer, Media Matters senior fellow Paul Waldman responded that they had included "the full audio, the full transcript, nothing was taken out of context." In response to the controversy, Williams wrote an editorial for Time noting that in his opinion "the attacks on O'Reilly amounted to an effort to take what he said totally out of context in an attempt to brand him a racist by a liberal group that disagrees with much of his politics."

See also

References

1. ""About Media Matters"". Media Matters for America. Retrieved November 29, 2005. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
2. Media Matters
3. MMfA has used the Government Accountability Office in make fact-checking articles. For example, GMA, CNN, print media fail to challenge Bush's missile defense claim. Pentagon reports have been used to debunk claims of WMD claims, such as Hannity criticized media, Bush administration...
4. "If It's Sunday, It's Conservative". Media Matters for America. February 14, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
5. Tabin, John (2006-02-21). "Garbage In, Garbage Out, Continued". AmSpec Blog. The American Spectator. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
6. "If It's Sunday, It's Still Conservative". Media Matters for America. April 4, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
7. ^ Third time's not the charm: Sunday-morning talk shows still imbalanced. Media Matters for America, July 20, 2006
8. "Media Watch: Sunday Morning Blues?". Retrieved 2007-09-26.
9. "Black and White and Re(a)d All Over: The Conservative Advantage in Syndicated Op-Ed Columnists". Media Matters for America. September 12, 2006. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
10. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/30/EDLJSFN16.DTL
11. Barnes, Brooks; et al. (April 13, 2007). "Behind the Fall of Imus, A Digital Brush Fire". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-09-09. {{cite news}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first= (help)
12. "Limbaugh: Service members who support U.S. withdrawal are "phony soldiers"". Media Matters. 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-10-22.
13. Wehner, Peter (September 28, 2007). "Phony Controversy". The National Review. Retrieved 2007-10-05.
14. Media Matters - MEMO: Fact vs. Fiction in the Limbaugh "phony soldiers" controversy
15. "Colbert: "Hey, Media Matters, you want to end offensive speech? Then stop recording it for people who would be offended."". Retrieved 2008-01-09.
16. Howard, Adam (September 10, 2007). "Colbert on Why Media Matters Makes Life Hard for Limbaugh". AlterNet. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
17. ^ "Misinformer of the Year: Bill O'Reilly of Fox News Channel". Media Matters for America. December 23, 2004. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
18. "Misinformer of the Year: Chris Matthews of MSNBC". Media Matters for America. December 23, 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
19. "Misinformer of the Year: ABC". Media Matters for America. December 22, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-14.
20. "Sean Hannity: Media Matters' 2008 Misinformer of the Year". Media Matters for America. December 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
21. "Glenn Beck: Media Matters' 2009 Misinformer of the Year". Media Matters for America. December 21, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-21.
22. Rutenberg, Jim (May 3, 2004). "New Internet Site Turns Critical Eyes and Ears to the Right". New York Times. p. A21.
23. Steinberg, Jacques (2008-11-1). "An All-Out Attack on 'Conservative Misinformation'". The New York Times. ...Media Matters for America, the nonprofit, highly partisan research organization that was founded four years ago by David Brock, a formerly conservative author who has since gone liberal. Ripping a page from an old Republican Party playbook, Media Matters has given the Democrats a weapon they have not had in previous campaigns: a rapid-fire, technologically sophisticated means to call out what it considers conservative misinformation on air or in print, then feed it to a Rolodex of reporters, cable channels and bloggers hungry for grist. ... The group has an annual operating budget of more than $10 million -- up from $3 million in 2004 -- much of it donated by wealthy individuals with ties to the Democratic Party, including Peter B. Lewis, chairman of Progressive Insurance; Steve Bing, a movie producer; and Marcy Carsey, a television producer. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
24. ^ York, Byron (2004-05-28). "David Brock is Buzzing Again". National Review. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
25. VandeHei, Jim (2006-07-17). "A New Allicance of Democrats Spreads Funding; But Some in Party Bristle At Secrecy and Liberal Tilt". The Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved 2010-04-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
26. "Byron York on David Brock and Media Matters on National Review Online". Retrieved 2010-05-01. Launched in early May, the organization says its purpose is to keep an eye on "conservative misinformation" in the American media. "Conservative misinformation," according to the group's mission statement, is defined as "news or commentary presented in the media that is not accurate, reliable, or credible, and that forwards the conservative agenda." ... staff at times resembles that of a political campaign. In the group's K Street offices, there are a number of veterans of Democratic causes. One Brock aide did opposition research for the recent presidential campaign of Sen. John Edwards; another did the same thing for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; yet another worked on the Wesley Clark presidential campaign; another worked for Massachusetts Democratic representative Barney Frank, and so on.
27. Don Van Natta Jr; Jeff Gerth; Van Natta, Don (2007). Her way: the hopes and ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. pp. 268–269. ISBN 0-316-01742-6. Although it was independent, Media Matters had among it earliest supporters and advisers long-standing allies of Hillary and the Democratic Party. One of them, Kelly Craighead, who planned Hillary's trips for eight years when she was First Lady, advised Media Matters "on all aspects" of its launch. And the new group wasted no time becoming an aggressive protector of Hillary's reputation and boasting its role as truth police, forcefully going after journalists for what the group deems to be leaving out key information of cherry-picking material.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
28. "Media Matters no more in Colo. - The Denver Post". 03/18/2009. Colorado Media Matters closed its doors Monday as its parent organization in Washington, D.C., plans more efficient expansions into additional states {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
29. "Web CEO in midst of political scandal | Technology News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle". Retrieved 5/20/2010. That sparked the curiosity of Media Matters for America (mediamatters.org), a Web site that monitors conservative media. The group began scrutinizing Gannon, learning that his real name is James Guckert and saying that his stories were largely regurgitated White House press releases and his questions in White House briefings were softballs. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
30. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/11/ivins.future.journalism/index.html
31. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/the-oil-spill-is-obamas-fault/
32. name=NYTProfile>Steinberg, Jacques (2008-11-1). "An All-Out Attack on 'Conservative Misinformation'". The New York Times. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
33. "AIM's Kincaid posted "letter" from Afghan ambassador thanking him for petition to extradite Newsweek's Isikoff". Retrieved 2007-10-04.
34. "Reply from Cliff Kinciad". Retrieved 2007-10-04.
35. "Kincaid denounced "false" Media Matters item but failed to point out a single falsehood". Retrieved 2007-10-04.
36. "Buying Political Power". Retrieved 2007-10-04.
37. Bauder, David (2007-09-26). "Bill O'Reilly Says He's Being Smeared". AP. Retrieved 2007-09-26.
38. "CNN Goes Over to the Dark Side". Retrieved 2007-10-04.
39. "Media Matters and the Corrupt Press on the Run". Retrieved 2007-10-04.
40. "Media Matters' Waldman: "f Bill O'Reilly got caught robbing a bank he would say he was taken out of context"". Retrieved 2007-09-26.
41. ""What Bill O'Reilly Really Told Me"". Retrieved 2007-10-03.

External links

• Official website

• Media analysis websites
• Political advocacy groups in the United States
• Progressivism in the United States
• Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.