| Media Matters of bigotry, sexism and hate speech |
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| Written by Catherine Moy | |
| Tuesday, 26 June 2007 | |
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David Brock's henchmen pass three years of spurious spewing in a campaign to silence conservatives Three years ago, David Brock prepared to launch Media Matters for America. The former conservative and admitted liar had collected $2 million from wealthy liberals, consulted Hillary Clinton and her allies, and set out to decimate conservative media. As Brock's nonprofit organization approached its third-year anniversary, the group had its biggest get. They taped radio personality Don Imus making racist and sexist remarks about Rutgers' University women's basketball team. Media Matters quickly sent press releases to friendly media and special interest groups. Brock's group magnified his language in an attack that would help kill Imus's radio and TV gigs. Media Matters' henchmen pounded their chest like schoolyard bullies. Next on their list: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter and anybody else who dares to embrace conservatism. Even those who report fair articles about conservatives face the maniacal wrath of Brock's stable of researchers and writers, a group whose majority is culled from left-leaning groups, journalists, students and former legislators' offices. After three years of taxpayer-subsidized operation, Media Matters' credibility as a media watchdog is questionable. Its leader, Brock, is liar who strong-armed sources that didn't agree with him. While writing his mea culpa, "Blinded by the Right," Brock was hospitalized in a mental facility where he spent time in a "quiet room" and "had delusions, he thought people were trying to kill him," according to the Drudge Report. Media Matters stars, including Brock, Eric Alterman and Ryan Chiachiere, are hypocrites who have used the very sexist, bigoted and racist language for which they crucify others, including Imus. They appear to care more about taking out the kneecaps of conservatives than it is in the truth or accuracy in media. Media Matters allows bigoted posts on its web site – as long as they are directed toward conservatives. Brock spoke with the New York Times three years ago as he launched Media Matters, recognizing that critics would come after him because he is a confessed liar and fabricator, usually a death knell for journalists. Like reformed smokers who can't tolerate cigarette smoke, Brock could no longer stomach conservatives and struck with a vengeance. Perhaps Media Matters' most publicized assault, aside from the April attack on Imus, started when Alterman sniped Time journalist John Cloud, who wrote an April 17, 2005, article about conservative pundit and best-selling author Ann Coulter titled "Ms. Right." "Time's cover story/whitewash of Ann Coulter, here, will make it impossible for serious people to accept what the magazine reports at face-value ever again," Alterman wrote. "It is as if Time had contracted a journalistic venereal disease from Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and is now seeking to lower itself to their level in pursuit of their ideologically-obsessed audiences." I read every word of Cloud's piece several times. I have worked many years as a daily editor. I know the difference between a puff piece, a hit piece, news, opinion and good journalism. I rated each paragraph of the cover article and found that 82 percent of the graphs were neutral, 17 percent negative and 1 percent positive toward Coulter. Cloud's work was well reported, fair and revealing. Cloud defended his work against Alterman's irrational attack. He told the Columbia Journalism Review's daily weblog that Alterman and Coulter "are in the same bunch. They also, by the way, use the same language." Media Matters bristled at Cloud's words, saying Alterman never used language comparable to Coulter – as if that is a sin. "That's a bizarre accusation; as far as we know, Alterman, who has written a number of critically acclaimed books, has never lamented that the New York Times building wasn't blown up or suggested that a sitting president should be assassinated. He has never slurred Muslims or women or disabled Vietnam veterans." Media Matters either doesn't fact-check its own statements, or it lives by the liberal-good-conservative-bad double standard. The group is likely guilty on both counts. Alterman, Brock and Chiachiere may not slur radical Muslims, America's enemies in the War on Terror, but they have no problem smearing Jews, Republicans, straight white men and conservative women. By their standards, a real woman can't be conservative. Perhaps Alterman has not lamented "that the New York Times building wasn't blown up." But he did bellyache that the terrorists who killed U.S. sailors on the USS. Cole in 2000 didn't also blow up the Republican headquarters. Alterman's "justice in the world" includes the language Media Matters claims he would never use: "I got a call one day from a Republican Party functionary telling me that Hillary Clinton supported a Palestinian state and took money from groups that supported terrorist organizations "like the one that just blew up the USS Cole. I told the sorry sonofabitch that like Israel's Prime Minister, I, too, support a Palestinian state. And, if there was any justice in the world, Hillary's "terrorist" friends would blow up Republican headquarters while we were still on the phone, so I could enjoy hearing the explosion," Alterman wrote in the Nov. 9, 2000, issue of The Nation. And women? Media Matters has denigrated so many women the group should be called Media Misogynists. Alterman has a rap sheet longer than the snake of Eden when it comes to slurring women. Of course, he reserves his vitriol for conservative women. Alterman's slurs include this from a Nov. 8, 1999 piece in The Nation: "Remember the MSNBC blondes? Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter and Jennifer Grossman? The three picture-perfect pundettes with one opinion among them are now oh so ten minutes ago," Alterman wrote. Alterman attacked the three blonde women because they are conservative. He used the blonde stereotype. Blonde equals dumb, right? How about anti-Semitism? The cub reporter who busted Imus, Chiachiere, cohosts a website that exploits the worst stereotypes of Jews and Italians: "Republicans . . . or the Mafia: Helping you make sense of today's GOP." On the left side of the site is a picture of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in a fedora. Opposite is a shot of the fictional Mafia Don Corleone with a similar hat. The site's introduction stereotypes of Italians as mobsters and Jews as the "new mafia." "Casinos! Bribes! Hitmen! Is this Season 5 of The Sopranos? No, it's just another day in the life of today's Republican party," the site reports. Then there's Brock, who claims he lied about liberals when he acted conservative. But now that he's come out of the closet as a liberal, he's a truth teller without a scintilla of bigotry. Right? Apparently not. MSNBC pundit Tucker Carlson called Brock out for lying about him in Brock's coming-out book, and for attacking David Horowitz as anti-gay without any verification. And a writer from the leftist Salon.com nailed Brock for fabrications. Brock admitted that he had misreported an issue in his book. I have uncovered instance after instance of sexism, bigotry and distortions by Brock, Alterman and others at Media Matters. But the point is made. During its three years of existence, Media Matters has proven to be a tool of the left to silence conservatives. Its proprietors are careless and cannot be trusted to tell the truth. They ignore the Rosie O'Donnells of the left who slander minorities, but attempt to disembowel conservatives for using less offensive language. Media Matters for America's trail of deceit, disregard for the truth and utter blindness when the cancer of bigotry has poisoned its own should guarantee failure. But the money will pour in from the corrupt George Soroses of society because Brock and his nonprofit speak their language. Liberal is good, Israel is a disease, Christians are dangerous, and America's First Amendment was written for them and only them. Catherine Moy is an award-winning journalist who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She coauthored American Mourning with Melanie Morgan, KSFO morning co-host and chairman of Move America Forward. |
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