...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Monday, May 03, 2004
      ( 12:41 PM )
 
Media Matters

The internet's abuzz today with the launch of David Brock's new non-profit organization/website Media Matters. Of course Brock is the guy who wrote the book Blinded By the Right, wherein he confessed to participating in the actually-true-to-life right-wing conspiracy in the media. He is now on a mission to hold the right wing media and press accountable for the dirt they spout on a daily basis. A look at his new site and I'm already a fan. It's well organized and has loads of articles debunking stuff very quickly. Brock explains:

In my book Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an
Ex-Conservative (2002), I revealed how this
misinformation -- deliberately bought and paid for by
covert political forces -- enveloped the media, poisoned
public discourse, and nearly toppled a president.

Today, the misinformation pumped out by the
conservative media machine -- a multibillion-dollar
network of talk radio shows, cable television, heavily
subsidized newspapers and magazines, political
pundits, partisan thinks tanks, and high-traffic Internet
sites -- is even more pervasive, spreading like a virus
into professional media venues. Rush Limbaugh
analyzed election night results for NBC News. Ann
Coulter marches through major TV studios with her
allegations of "treason" against half the American
populace. Rupert Murdoch's top-rated FOX News Channel
exerts pressure up and down the TV dial to compromise
standards. And it is an open secret that in newsrooms
across the country, the right-wing Drudge Report
website -- judged to be only 80 percent accurate by
its proprietor -- is the home page for many editors,
reporters, and TV and radio producers.

The net effect of these corrosive trends has been to
skew the media playing field to the right -- and, with
it, the public debate. With progressives focusing on
specific issues and public policy battles, conservatives
have been working for decades, subtly amassing
media power and influence. According to a new poll
conducted by the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group and
commissioned by Media Matters for America, a plurality
of the American electorate has concluded that
conservatives have more power and influence in the
media today than do liberals.

It appears that Brock and his band of merry men and women are set up to watch and read all the conservative media outlets and then report on the lies that came out of them. A non-stop machine of counterpunches. Excellent. Now, will anyone pay attention?

Daily Kos has more.


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