Inside Media Matters: 5 days in DC, #3
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Erin Hofteig, Karl Frisch, and Jeremy Holden of Media Matters for America.
Yesterday afternoon we had three principals from the DC headquarters of Media Matters for America talk to us about their organization's beginnings and strategy. It was a fascinating look into their operations and--importantly--the things they do every day to ensure they are credible and fair to all sides.
Media Matters is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, contrary to what you're constantly hearing from right-wingers outraged at how well they do their jobs. Key to what they do is the way they keep their expositories of conservative misinformation dry and factual. They're not concerned with gratuitously piling on a little extra "and he's a right-wing scumbag," because the simple contrasting of baseless innuendo and smear against facts does that job without being inflammatory.
Media Matters was founded by David Brock, a former Republican operative who gradually sickened of the contortions and manipulation of objective truth he used against his political opponents. Seeing the growth of overtly propagandistic right-wing media outlets like Fox News, combined with the apparent success of years of intimidating reporters into a false notion of "balance" to ensure doubt was cast of even the most unconscionable statements and actions, Brock realized that a 24/7 de-spinning operation was necessary.
To get an idea of the enormous importance of what Media Matters has done for the last few years, check this out: the index of all the people the national Media Matters has tracked and corrected, from Dan Abrams to Paula Zahn. They give the context that shows so many pronouncements made on major media, left unchallenged in the minds of millions of viewers, are based on falsehoods, ignorance, and prejudice. They don't have to call what they point out by the indictive terms we use as bloggers and activists, they just give the facts that made your indignant responses undeniable.
In Colorado, we have a unique asset in the form of a state-dedicated Media Matters operation, the only one of its kind of the country. They're here because Colorado has one of the best-organized online progressive activist communities to be found anywhere. It's not just our direct online advocacy component here in ProgressNow, though we've shown how Media Matters research and our megaphone can work together at a local level. It's the aggregate influence of progressive community hubs we have here, from Squarestate.net to Colorado Confidential and yes, even the much-maligned 800 pound moderate gorilla of Colorado Pols. Together, we provide the distribution and amplification for Media Matters' research. We take the truth from them and others and put it into action.
The disciplined factchecking that Media Matters provides has proven to be critical to progressive victories at the polls. But more than that, they've helped give the us the daily facts needed to show millions of people the full picture of things they would miss if dependent on uncorrected media. Part of the same revolution driving all the information ubiquity we take for granted today, they're making the bridge-trolls of old media nervous. And all they're doing in the end is fully reporting the same stories.
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