Media Matters is a propaganda outfit. Their 501(c)(3) status is a scam. They’re paid operatives whose donors really hate Fox News — so much so that Media Matters violates their own “standards” when deciding what is or isn’t worthy of attention.
You’ve probably heard about Project Gunrunner / Project Fast and Furious. If you haven’t, here’s a quick synopsis by editor emeritus, Michael Walsh (via NYP):
…Operation Fast and Furious, which seems about to explode right in the face of Attorney General Eric Holder — and maybe other administration officials, too.
Also known as Project Gunrunner, the Arizona-based operation was supposed to be a sting, under which the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is part of the Justice Department, allowed “straw purchasers” to transfer weapons from gun shops in Arizona to Mexican drug cartels to trace and halt crossborder arms-trafficking.
That’s the official version, anyway — but it’s crumbling, fast.
This is a scandal. An official US operation has gone terribly wrong. A Federal Agent and who knows how many Mexican civilians have been killed with these guns. Now we’re finding out that Justice Department officials might have been trying to cover up the botched operation (via ABC News):
According to sources close to the investigation, Melson had previously wanted to testify before the oversight committees but Justice Department officials sought to delay his testimony.
Melson is the acting head of the ATF. More:
Melson testified that he and top management at ATF moved to reassign supervisors working on Fast and Furious and that officials at DOJ allegedly tried to prevent ATF from notifying the oversight committees about the full nature of the management moves. The letter sent to Holder notes, “If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand. That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation. The Department’s inability or unwillingness to be more forthcoming served to conceal critical information that we are now learning about the involvement of other agencies, including the DEA and the FBI.”
You’re getting the picture. There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark. So how does the propaganda outfit known as Media Matters cover the coverage (specifically the Fox News coverage) of this obvious scandal? Easy. They characterize it as nothing more than a “controversial” government operation that Fox News is using to push a “conspiracy theory.” No curiosity regarding who authorized it. No. The problem with the story isn’t the story itself, it’s the commentators who are asking questions and speculating about whether there was some political angle to it. (Oh, and of course there’s a little race-card playing in the mix … for spice.)
Apparently, it’s not okay to speculate about the potential political motivations behind allowing guns to flow into Mexico where no one would be able to keep tabs on them. According to Media Matters, there no chance someone might want to legitimize the claims made by some that 80% of the guns used by drug traffickers in Mexico come from the US. It is impossible to think someone might have thought they could control this situation and it went horribly wrong. Nah! It’s just those crazy right-wingers being all skeptical of government again. Totally unfounded. Stick to the facts, they say.
Alright, let’s stick to the facts regarding another scandal which for some reason, Media Matters and their goons on Twitter can’t stop talking about: The News of the World phone hacking scandal. Project Gunrunner, meh. News of the World, oh yeah!
Now, to be fair, this was serious stuff. Apparently, someone at the tabloid decided it was a good idea to hack and gain access to thousands of people’s voicemail. It was an atrocious violation of privacy and downright disgusting. They reportedly targeted the voicemail of families of victims of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London and the voicemail of a young girl who was murdered.
According to the slime merchants at Media Matters, this is “Murdoch’s Watergate.” Remember, though, speculation is bad. Speculation is a tool used to spread misinformation. So let’s look at how Senior Fellow Eric Boehlert – who seems to be the point man on this phone hacking scandal coverage – opens up his article:
Does Rupert Murdoch now know the panic Richard Nixon must have felt when the Washington Post broke the story in 1972 that a $25,000 cashier’s check earmarked for the Nixon campaign wound up in the bank account of a Watergate burglar. Or when it was revealed that Nixon’s Oval Office had a taping system that recorded all his conversations. Or when John Dean told investigators he had discussed the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon three dozen times?
Pick your Watergate reference at will, but one thing is certain: The long-simmering phone-hacking story that has been hounding Murdoch for years took a dire turn this week for News Corp. and it suddenly has the possible makings of a career-defining debacle for the partisan media mogul. It’s a debacle that features Murdoch starring in the eerily similar role as the one Dick Nixon played.
Hmm. That sounds like a lot of speculation and zero evidence to me. As you might imagine the rest of the article provides no evidence that Rupert Murdoch knew about the phone hacking scheme or that he authorized it. It’s a long attempt to equate Murdoch with Nixon at his worst. But hey, he’s the owner of FoxNews so Boehlert is free to smear him because Media Matters doesn’t have to live up to the standards it sets for FoxNews, or something. I guess when you’re engaged in a taxpayer subsidized war on Fox, you can also be a hypocrite. Must be nice.
Media Matters has some sick, twisted priorities. Their full name is Media Matters for America. Why the hell are they focused on a British event? The answer, of course, is FoxNews. These cretins are so focused on making Fox the world’s super-villain, that they will intentionally downplay really important events in order to increase attention on the actions of a few people in England.
They’ve even taken the speculation a step further and are now using completely unsupported allegations to lobby for congressional hearings into the phone hacking scandal happening in the UK. You read that correctly. Congressional hearings:
And why should we care about what’s happening over there?
Simple: Murdoch’s media empire includes Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post. Murdoch has enormous political and cultural influence over our media. In fact, Murdoch’s hand-picked selection to run the Wall Street Journal was longtime loyalist Les Hinton, who oversaw News Corp’s British newspapers during the height of News of the World’s alleged hacking activity. Hinton twice testified to the UK parliament that he had conducted a rigorous inquiry into the papers he oversaw and claimed hacking was limited to one reporter. That’s right: Hinton, who ran the show for Murdoch as phone hacking became standard operating procedure, is now publisher of the one of the largest newspapers in the U.S.For years, with your help, we’ve tracked the lies and deceit coming from Fox News. Now it appears that it’s not just Fox that’s the problem. The pattern of News Corp’s misbehavior goes much deeper–and even into illegal behavior. The British government is investigating and now the Australians are also calling for an investigation of Murdoch’s papers there.
Americans also need to know whether our privacy was violated by Murdoch reporters searching for a good scoop to sell news. Ask Congress to hold hearings to see just how far this scandal goes-and whether News Corp’s record of breaching the public trust has affected us.
Join our call for Congressional hearings here.
We can’t rely on News Corp, with its record of mismanagement, to address the problem. We must take proactive steps to address protect our privacy from News Corp’s mismanagement. Murdoch’s cover-up is falling apart, with serious consequences for hacking victims and News Corp shareholders alike.
With zero evidence themselves, Media Matters is basically accusing a News Corp executive of being involved in the phone hacking scheme. Suddenly, the hacking has become “standard operating procedure” at News Corp. Worldwide. Based on nothing more than Media Matters’ overactive imagination – or marching orders.
Yet, when it comes to Project Gunrunner, Media Matters would rather try to discredit those asking for congressional inquiries into Eric Holder’s knowledge and involvement of the operation. Again, a phone hacking scheme in the UK warrants congressional attention, but a US government operation which has cost at least one federal agent his life is nothing more than a controversial program “right wingers” are making too much noise about. It’s sick.
It wouldn’t be a big deal if 1) taxpayers weren’t subsidizing their activities and 2) if there weren’t other media outlets who picked up Media Matters’ talking points and ran with them (I’m looking at you MSNBC). If these guys want to engage in what I would consider anti-American propaganda, fine. Let them pay taxes like everyone else. I’m sure there are plenty of rich Leftists who would willingly donate to keep them afloat even if they didn’t get a tax break for doing so… right?
And now, right on cue, the Democrat establishment follows the narrative and starts the drumbeat to bring regulatory attention on News Corp to distract attention from real issues while “independent” organizations like CREW demand, you guessed it, congressional hearings.
I would speculate that there’s some coordination going on but that’s a no-no according to Media Matters.