Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a nonprofit left-leaning and progressive watchdog journalism organization.Hogue, Ilyse (May 23, 2012). "Getting rid of census survey is wasteful". CNN. Founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media Research Center, it seeks to spotlight "conservative misinformation" in American media; its methods include issuing reports and quick responses.
Two of its notable initiatives are the "Drop Fox" campaign (2011–2013), which sought to discredit Fox News's claims of producing "fair and balanced" coverage, and a 2023 report about X (formerly Twitter) that highlighted antisemitism on the platform.
Organization overview
Founding Media Matters for America was founded in May 2004 by David Brock, a formerly conservative journalist. Brock said that a central goal of the group would be to monitor journalists and outlets for misleading conservative claims and then flag them. He argued that existing conservative-monitoring groups had been doing this and pushing mainstream journalists, the media, and American politics to the right as a result. Brock founded the group with help from the Center for American Progress.
Funding In 2004, MMfA began with the help of $2 million in donations. That year, MMfA received the endorsement of the Democracy Alliance, a partnership of wealthy and politically active progressive donors. The Alliance itself does not fund endorsees, but many wealthy Alliance members acted on the endorsement and donated directly to MMfA. In 2010, George Soros donated $1 million to MMfA, citing concern that the "incendiary rhetoric of Fox News hosts may incite violence". In a 2014 CNN interview, David Brock said that Soros's contributions were "less than 10 percent" of Media Matters's budget.Transcript of David Brock on Soros contributions to Media Matters , CNN. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
Personnel John Podesta, the former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, provided office space for Media Matters early in its formation at the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank Podesta established in 2002. Hillary Clinton advised Media Matters in its early stages out of a belief that progressives should follow conservatives in forming think tanks and advocacy groups to support their political goals. According to The New York Times, Media Matters "helped lay the groundwork" for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
Media Matters has hired several of the best-known political professionals who have worked for Democratic politicians and progressive groups. In 2004, 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. Eric E. Burns served as MMfA's president until 2011. Burns was succeeded by Matt Butler, and then, in 2013, by Bradley Beychok. In late 2016, Angelo Carusone replaced Beychok as MMfA's president. Under Carusone, the organization's focus shifted to the alt-right, conspiracy theories, and fake news.
In 2014, the Media Matters staff voted to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Initially, Media Matters management declined to recognize the union through a card check process, instead exercising its right to force a union election, which delayed the process until July, when the vote favored unionization. In May 2024, a dozen staffers at Media Matters were laid off amid a series of lawsuits and legal investigations by Elon Musk and Republican state attorneys general.
Initiatives
Early research Media Matters analyzes American news sources from networks and channels to websites, including NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, One America News Network, Breitbart, and Fox News, as well as conservative talk radios. Its techniques include content analysis, fact checking, monitoring, and comparison of quotes or presentations from media figures to primary documents, such as United States Department of Defense and Government Accountability Office reports. Since 2006, Media Matters for America has released studies documenting that Republicans and conservatives outnumber Democrats and progressives in guest appearances on television news programs.
On September 12, 2007, Media Matters released a comprehensive study of 1,377 US newspapers and the 201 syndicated political columnists the papers carry on a regular basis. Media Matters wrote, "In paper after paper, state after state, and region after region, conservative syndicated columnists get more space than their progressive counterparts." John Diaz, an editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, cautioned that small-town columnists lean significantly to the right, which he felt could explain the rightward slant in columnists even if the trend does not hold for papers with the largest readership.
"Misinformer of the Year" An annual feature on the Media Matters website is the title "Misinformer of the Year", given to the journalist, commentator, or network Media Matters contends was responsible for the most factual errors or claims. Past recipients include Rupert Murdoch, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Bannon.
Progressive Talent Initiative The initiative seeks to train mid-career liberal pundits in media skills like TV interviews using four-day bootcamps.
Media Matters Action Network In 2010, David Brock established Media Matters Action Network, a 501(c)(4), to track conservative politicians and organizations. In 2009, Media Matters Action Network launched the Conservative Transparency website, aimed at tracking the funding of conservative activist organizations. Media Matters Action Network established the Political Correction project with the goal of holding conservative politicians and advocacy groups accountable.
Equality Matters
On December 23, 2010, Media Matters Action Network started Equality Matters, a media and communications initiative in support of LGBT rights in the US. It was described as a "communications war room for gay equality". The site fully incorporated Media Matters's content on LGBTQ issues. Brock set up the project to provide talking points for liberal activists and politicians.
Richard Socarides, a longtime LGBT rights activist and former senior advisor to President Bill Clinton on gay civil rights issues, served as the founding president of Equality Matters, and Kerry Eleveld, journalist for The Advocate, served as editor beginning in 2011. Both announced their departure from the organization in November 2011. Since their departures, Equality Matters has remained active as a mirror site for Media Matters' LGBT content, with a separate Equality Matters blog and podcast by Bradley Herring and Carlos Maza.
The website featured a blog, a fact-checking section, videos, and "Top Picks of the Week", which the organization called its "picks for the most interesting, outrageous, or thought provoking stories of the week." Brock said:Equality Matters will build on the work done by [Media Matters and Media Matters Action Network]. Through strategic communication, research, training and media monitoring, Equality Matters will strengthen efforts for full LGBT rights and correct anti-gay misinformation. Its goal is to enhance advocacy and activism across all platforms and to leverage expertise in support of others who are working to make full equality a national imperative.
Brock said Equality Matters would "expose right-wing bigotry and homophobia wherever we find it" and "stiffen the spines of progressives." Gay author and activist David Mixner said of the group, "while a range of groups are working to advance gay rights, the movement has lacked a national rapid-response war room of the sort that can push back against homophobic messages in the media and the political arena and keep the pressure on elected officials."
Soon after it launched, Equality Matters faced some criticism about the way it was run. Peter Rosenstein of the Washington Blade wrote, "Over the past couple of months it appears that Equality Matters may have been launched too soon and before its organizers had a real strategy and mission for what they would do."
In 2015, the formal Equality Matters program was deactivated and merged with the LGBTQ program within Media Matters.
American Bridge 21st century Brock established American Bridge 21st Century as a super PAC focused on opposition research in 2010.
Don Imus On April 4, 2007, Media Matters posted a video clip of Don Imus calling the Rutgers University women's basketball team members "nappy-headed hoes" and made their discovery known in Media Matters' daily e-mailing to hundreds of journalists. According to The Wall Street Journal, top news outlets did not mention the incident until objections made to CBS Radio by the National Association of Black Journalists led to an on-air apology from Imus. MSNBC, calling Imus's comments "racist" and "abhorrent", suspended Imus's show, and within minutes, CBS suspended the show. The Wall Street Journal said Imus's apology "seemed to make matters worse, with critics latching on to Mr. Imus's use of the phrase 'you people.'" Among those dissatisfied with Imus's apology and suspension were the Rutgers team's coach and a group of MSNBC African-American employees. After Procter & Gamble pulled advertising from all of MSNBC's daytime schedule, and other advertisers, including General Motors and American Express, requested that CBS cancel any upcoming advertising they had bought for Imus in the Morning, MSNBC and CBS dropped Imus's show.
Rush Limbaugh "phony soldiers" In September 2007, Media Matters reported that conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh had called Iraq War veterans opposed to the war "phony soldiers". Limbaugh later said he was speaking of only one soldier, Jesse Macbeth, who had falsely claimed to have been decorated for valor but had never seen combat. Limbaugh said he was the victim of a "smear" by Media Matters, which had taken his comments out of context and selectively edited them. After Limbaugh published what he said was the entire transcript of the "phony soldiers" discussion, Media Matters reported that over 90 seconds was omitted without "notation or ellipsis to indicate that there is, in fact, a break in the transcript". Limbaugh told National Review that the gap between referring to "phony soldiers" and MacBeth was a delay because his staff printed out an ABC news story that reported on what it called "phony soldiers" and that his transcript and audio edits were "for space and relevance reasons, not to hide anything". The Associated Press, CNN, and ABC reported on the controversy, as political satirist and fictional pundit Stephen Colbert lampooned Limbaugh and his defenders saying: "Hey, Media Matters, you want to end offensive speech? Then stop recording it for people who would be offended."
Bill O'Reilly Harlem restaurant In October 2007 television and radio host and commentator Bill O'Reilly said a Media Matters headline declaring "O'Reilly surprised 'there was no difference' between Harlem restaurant and other New York City restaurants" took out of context comments he made about a pleasant dinner he shared with Al Sharpton at a Harlem restaurant. O'Reilly said Media Matters misleadingly took comments spoken five minutes apart and presented them as one. On NBC's Today, Media Matters senior fellow Paul Waldman said Media Matters had included "the full audio, the full transcript, nothing was taken out of context".
Laura Schlessinger racial slur