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The chorus is growing for the IRS to scrutinize Media Matters' tax-exempt status as the left-leaning media watchdog group wages a "war" on Fox News.
Recent questions about Media Matters' activities stem from a campaign against Fox News that founder David Brock described in an interview this year as "guerrilla warfare and sabotage." By its own admission, the group is conducting "opposition research" against certain executives and producers. It also features a link on its website called "Drop Fox" which helps users contact advertisers and urge them to boycott the network.
As Glenn Beck’s finale show on Fox News draws near, the folks at George Soros’ progressive Media Matters are tickled pink. So much so in fact, they even hosted a soiree to celebrate their victory. The group gives themselves a hearty pat on the back and all the kudos for “getting Glenn off the air” by claiming to have pressured advertisers into pulling out of Beck’s time-slot.
Huffington Post’s Zach Carter interviewed various Media Matterites at the event, many of whom said now that Beck is “gone” they’ll be ever-vigilant of the remaining “right wing media nuts” out there — which, according to one attendee, constitutes the entire Fox News network. Ironic, considering a recent UCLA study actually puts Fox News left of center.
Media Matters' founder and CEO is David Brock. A reporter for the conservative magazine The American Spectator in the 1990s, Brock (in the aftermath of his biography of Hillary Clinton that brought disastrous reviews) engaged in a public self-denunciation, characterizing all his past writings critical of liberal figures as a confection of lies and slanders. In Brock's present judgment, the mainstream media have fallen under the sway of conservative ideology. He believes that conservatives have moved the mainstream media “to the right and therefore they've moved American politics to the right. … I wanted to create an institution [Media Matters] to combat what they're doing."
Standing behind Brock was John Podesta, a former chief of staff in the Clinton administration and the head of the "progressive" Washington, DC think tank, the Center for American Progress. In 2004 Podesta provided Brock with office space for his fledgling enterprise. Soon after, Media Matters received over $2 million in seed donations from a roster of affluent donors including Leo Hindery Jr., a former cable magnate; Susie Tompkins Buell, a co-founder of the fashion company Esprit and a close ally of Senator Hillary Clinton; James Hormel, a San Francisco philanthropist who nearly served as ambassador to Luxembourg during the Clinton administration; Bren Simon, a Democratic activist and the wife of shopping-mall developer Mel Simon; and New York psychologist and philanthropist Gail Furman. Media Matters, which can accept tax-deductible contributions under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, has also benefited from the patronage of Peter Lewis, chairman of Progressive Corporation and a longtime consort of billionaire financier George Soros.
Media Matters has not always been forthcoming about its high-profile backers. In particular, the group long labored to obscure any financial ties to George Soros. But in March 2003, the Cybercast News Service (CNS) detailed the copious links between Media Matters and several Soros "affiliates"—among them MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress, and Peter Lewis. Confronted with this story, a spokesman for the organization explained that "Media Matters for America has never received funding directly from George Soros" (emphasis added), a transparent evasion.
Nor were groups cited by CNS the only connection between Media Matters and Soros. As investigative journalist Byron York has noted, another Soros affiliate that bankrolled Media Matters was the New Democratic Network. In addition, Soros is reported to be involved in the Democracy Alliance, a partnership of some 80 affluent financiers who each vowed to contribute $1 million or more in order to build up an ideological infrastructure of leftist thinks tanks and advocacy groups. News reports list Media Matters as a main beneficiary of the Alliance's funding. By August of 2004, Media Matters' operating budget had already doubled to $4 million.
To summarize, Soros and his Open Society Institute has poured millions of dollars into the coffers of MoveOn, the Center for American Progress, and Democracy Alliance. In turn, these organizations have funneled some of that money to Media Matters.
In October 2010, Soros openly announced that he was donating $1 million to Media Matters, which would use the money to hold “Fox [News] host Glenn Beck and others on the cable news channel accountable for their reporting.”
Originally posted by FoxStriker
reply to post by boondock-saint
I highly agree with your post, but it begs the question, whos scrotom are they fondling in order to recieve tax exept status?
One must wonder how they recieved it... who let them recieve it, and why has no one ever questioned it? The IRS can catch Mr. and Mrs. Nobody with a huge audit based on a 20 cent discrepency, but why not them...
Fox
In 2007, Mrs. Hilary Clinton told the YearlyKos convention of leftwing bloggers
that she "helped to start and support" Media Matters.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, as well as the offshoot CAIR Foundation, was included earlier this month on a massive list of 275,000 organizations that the IRS said were losing their tax-exempt status because they did not file required annual reports.
Most of the groups on that list are presumed to be defunct, but CAIR is not -- its website continues to solicit "tax-deductible" donations.
Originally posted by David9176
Boondock, I'm looking forward to you showing who is donating what to every and all Conservative think tanks and websites.
Ooops...I'm sorry...forgot you only have a fixation with George Soros.
Originally posted by David9176
reply to post by boondock-saint
This shows what the Koch bros and Soros are paying to think tanks and corporations....keep in mind...this is only 2 (well 3 really) people....all of whom have their own agendas.
Here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
Not a single comment on this thread btw.
Soros actually didn't spend much in the 2010 campaign but is planning on increasing that the next go round.
Originally posted by David9176
reply to post by boondock-saint
My fair and balanced approach didn't work eh?