David Brock says he got famous for calling Anita Hill “a slut.” That is his own description of how he became famous. Compounding the irony, David Brock says Rush Limbaugh made him famous. That’s right folks, the head of Media Matters For America, on a personal quest to destroy Rush Limbaugh after spectacularly failing to do the same to Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Anita Hill, and more, actually said, “Limbaugh was making me famous for calling Anita Hill a slut.” If you haven’t paid attention these past few months, from the Daily Caller investigation into David Brock to David Brock trying to get Rush off the air, David Brock really thinks the world revolves around David Brock. And David Brock tries to set up as much spin as he can to try to make you think the world revolves around David Brock. In fact, the reality is David Brock has a self-inflated sense of self-worth. He surrounds himself with bodyguards convinced someone somewhere wants to do him harm while he maligns the reputations of others, dabbled in illegal drugs, seemingly suffers from some level of instability , and felt obligated to pay his ex-boyfriend $850,000.00 to keep the ex-boyfriend quiet about Media Matters. It’s no wonder, with all the stories pouring out about how pathetic David Brock actually is, that David Brock is trying to divert attention to Rush Limbaugh. But you know what? Not only is the effort against Limbaugh failing, it is failing badly. Consequently, Brock is shifting gears — bragging about the money he is raising, which he actually isn’t, and trying to take credit for Cumulus Media potentially replacing the Rush Limbaugh Show with the Mike Huckabee Show, which so far hasn’t panned out. First, let’s look at the failing Limbaugh campaign. David Brock wants you to know he can take out Rush Limbaugh. His effort has been so effective Rush Limbaugh’s ratings are up pretty significantly. But it is not just that. As I told you would happen, new advertisers are filling the void left by other advertisers fleeing. The hit to Rush’s bottom line really never happened. Not only that, the much ballyhooed memo from Cumulus directing stations to move barter advertisers around Limbaugh’s show has been recinded. On Monday, the 600 or so radio stations that air Limbaugh’s program were told by his syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks, to resume running “barter” ads during his program. Stations are required to run these ads in exchange for paying discounted fees to Premiere to air Limbaugh’s show. Premiere, which is owned by radio giant Clear Channel Communications, had suspended the “barter” requirement for two weeks in a move widely seen as a way to give advertisers a chance to lie low while Limbaugh was in the news. So what is Media Matters left to do? Try to take credit for Mike Huckabee’s show potentially replacing Limbaugh. Follow along here. There is no doubt Media Matters and MoveOn.org are working together on this project. The Washington Post notes that MoveOn.org wants Rush off 180 stations. Media Matters is running an ad campaign in seven markets to aid in that effort. What they are not pointing out is that Cumulus Media expects to have Mike Huckabee in 140 markets with an initial launch of 50 markets. As I reported last week, Media Matters is running anti-Rush ads on several Cumulus stations that are thought likely to replace Rush Limbaugh with Mike Hucakbee if only to save the stations money. Huckabee, a Cumulus property and a new show, would be vastly cheaper than Rush Limbaugh. When Huckabee’s show expands and Cumuls begins the replacement process, MoveOn.org and Media Matters will undoubtedly take credit for something they had absolutely nothing to do with. It is typical David Brock. But wait . . . there’s more. It’s not just the craptacular effort to get Rush off the air, David Brock wants you to think he is a fundraising machine. According to the New York Times, he raised $23 million for his various projects in 2010. New York Magazine says the same. He wants to be the guy who takes down Fox, the guy who takes down Rush, and be forgotten as the guy who never took down the Clintons, Anita Hill, or really anyone else. There’s just one problem. According to the Media Matters for America (MMFA) and related Media Matters Action Network (MMAN) 2010 990′s, their 2010 fundraising was about $14.6 million. The 501(c)3 raised $13.2 million and the 501(c)4 raised $1.4 million. That leaves them almost $9 million short of the $23 million David Brock bragged about (assuming they raised nothing after Brock claimed $23 million in the November 2010 New York Times article). David Brock also has “Equality Matters”, but that seems to be a project within MMAN, which did not launch until December 2010, and the Progressive Talent Initiative, but that is also a project within Media Matters, not a separate group. And then there’s American Bridge….but that raised $0 in 2010. In the 990s, a Democratic fundraising shop, Bonner Group, is credited with all, or almost all, fundraising for Media Matters. Isn’t David Brock supposed to be some kind of “legendary” fundraiser? Just get a load of the self-indulgent quotes from Jason Zengerle’s New York Magazine article. “With doors opened, Brock got busy with what has emerged as perhaps his greatest talent: persuading rich liberals to give him their money.” “Brock’s fund-raising prowess is the stuff of legend—and some mystery—on the left. He explains it as simply a question of having the right attitude.” “But Brock’s greatest fund-raising tool is his personal story…” “Brock received the news of Beck’s departure just as he was about to walk into a meeting with potential donors at a hedge fund in midtown.” “In an interview with the New York Times, he boasted of his fund-raising record with Media Matters and predicted even greater success for American Bridge…” Of course all this bragging may get David Brock and Media Matters into trouble. Consider these similarly self-indulgent quotes from a New York Times profile of David Brock. “Certain to set off debate, however, is that Mr. Brock appears to be positioning his new organization so that fund-raising consultants can raise money for Democratic-oriented media efforts not just through American Bridge but also via one of the nonprofit organizations Mr. Brock currently runs, Media Matters Action Network, which does not disclose its donors.” “The action network, which tracks conservative politicians and advocacy organizations, is organized as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group and is set to take on an expanded role in the 2012 elections, including potentially running television ads, according to an internal draft concept paper about American Bridge’s and Media Matter Action Network’s plans obtained by The New York Times.” Based on the second quote, shouldn’t every candidate Media Matters supports have to answer to Alan Dershowitz over Media Matters’ well documented anti-semetism ? Adding those quotes to what the Daily Caller and others have turned up, won’t the IRS be interested into Media Matters’ tax status? Between David Brock hyping his own importance and his fundraising numbers with nothing to really show for either, surely Democratic donors who’ve been far more willing to hold their action groups accountable than the right will start questioning him. And surely the IRS will too.
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The World According to David Brock
Today is March 23rd. On this date, in 1775, Patrick Henry famously said “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Today is also the 2nd anniversary of the passage of Obamacare. Things sure do change. Also on this date, in 1957, the U.S. Army apparently sold the last of its homing pigeons, having shut down the Pigeon Corps the year before. Statues and cars could not be reached for comment. On this date in 1983, President Ronald Reagan first proposed the “Star Wars” missile defense system. To be fair to people in the 80s, no one had seen Phantom Menace yet. On March 23, 1994, Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe’s (no relation probably) record when he scored his 802nd goal. And finally, today is National Puppy Day ! Our puppy’s name is Indiana (“We named the dog Indiana” – Dr. Jones Sr.), and this is how he takes a nap . Consider this an Open Thread . Obamacare: The reckoning | Charles Krauthammer “Obamacare dominated the 2010 midterms, driving its Democratic authors to a historic electoral shellacking. But since then, the issue has slipped quietly underground. Now it’s back, summoned to the national stage by the confluence of three disparate events” MSNBC: Racism of Limbaugh Had ‘Lethal Consequences’ for Trayvon Martin | Newsbusters “MSNBC analyst and Democratic strategist Karen Finney disgustingly smeared Rush Limbaugh and several Republican presidential candidates on Thursday, charging that the racist hate of these conservatives had “lethal consequences” in the case of Trayvon Martin, an African American teen shot in Florida.” Now Playing On Youtube And Facebook: ‘Kill Rush Limbaugh’ | Big Hollywood “If any sacred cow whines to YouTube and Facebook, whatever that sacred cow is whining about is immediately taken down. But a song that openly calls for the killing of Rush Limbaugh apparently doesn’t offend YouTube or Facebook, in the least.” “Chicken Nuggets” Teacher Breaks Down in Tears, Resigns | Civitas “Do you realize this four year old child went all day long with only 3 chicken nuggets to eat since breakfast? And you still don’t remember. If you don’t remember what does that tell me about your knowledge in the classroom?” CNN also not sure how Obama is going to expedite pipeline | The Right Scoop “So once again Obama is taking credit for something that he has no power to take credit for, and CNN says the White House can’t really explain how they will expedite it” Today’s Word of the Day comes via Merriam-Webster. cavil : intransitive verb to raise trivial and frivolous objection transitive verb to raise trivial objections to
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Daily Links – March 23, 2012
The Washington Times has the story of Media Matters’ latest effort to drive Rush Limbaugh from the airwaves . They’ll use radio ads in eight cities. In one of the anti-Limbaugh ads, listeners are urged to call the local station that carries Limbaugh to say “we don’t talk to women like that” in our city. Ad time was purchased in Boston; Chicago; Detroit; Seattle; Milwaukee; St. Louis; Macon, Ga.; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The cities were selected to support active local campaigns against Limbaugh or because of perceptions Limbaugh may be vulnerable in that market, said Angelo Carusone of Media Matters. What I found interesting was Media Matters listing Macon, GA. I’m writing this from Macon right now. It’s where I got my start on the radio and where I live. There is no active local campaign to silence Rush Limbaugh. That’s when I realized what Media Matters is doing. They say they are advertising in some locations because “of perceptions Limbaugh may be vulnerable in that market.” Media Matters is trying to be a glory hound and take credit if Rush Limbaugh is dropped when they have nothing to do with it. Three stations in the list, Macon, Detroit, and Chicago, are Cumulus Media stations. Cumulus Media has plans to launch Mike Huckabee as a competitor to Rush Limbaugh later this year. In fact, Cumulus’s management has, though to a lesser degree than Media Matters, been playing up Rush Limbaugh’s comments on Sandra Fluke suggesting Mike Huckabee would be a more responsible alternative. Already I’m being told Cumulus will offer Huckabee as a cheaper programming option than Limbaugh. Likewise, they plan to start putting Huckabee on a number of Cumulus stations around the country as their contract with the Premier Radio for Rush’s show expires. Even Rush’s flagship station, WABC, might go to Huckabee as it is owned by Cumulus. When it happens, Media Matters will try to take credit when, in fact, these are business decisions by Cumulus Media, which is struggling financially following its purchase of Citadel Broadcasting and wants some in house talent it can syndicate instead of having to pay Premier syndication fees. What’s most important though is why Media Matters is trying to keep the focus on Rush Limbaugh. Media Matters is trying to steer this conversation away from all the problems Media Matters has had in the past month. The Daily Caller began their “Inside Media Matters” coverage on the evening February 12, 2012 ; they would file several more entries in the category over the coming weeks . Media Matters might have been able to skate by a while longer without much notice except Alan Dershowitz came out against Media Matters over its use of anti-semitic slurs. He even argued that Media Matters could become the Jeremiah Wright of 2012. Media Matters had to find a target to which they could redirect attention. David Brock and Media Matters have by now become conspicuously silent over the Daily Callers reporting — despite being the self-appointed conservative misinformation police — including largely ducking a Daily Caller question at a Brock book event on February 27, 2012, over M. J. Rosenberg’s use of the anti-Semitic “Israel firster” slur, arguing that they “don’t [have to] respond to trolls.” The heat was on. On February 29, 2012, the Rush Limbaugh controversy came to life. Bill Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel r an a full-page ad in the New York Times on March 1, 2012 calling out both Media Matters and the Center for American Progress — and their donors — for their involvement in promoting the interests of the murderous Iranian and Syrian regimes on the Israeli-Palestinian question. Alan Dershowitz, in a March 18 interview with NewsMax , noted that the White House appears to be distancing itself from Brock and Media Matters as the election grows closer; for a guy like Brock, who wants to style himself as a “ kingmaker in Democratic politics ,” even a tacit snub from the President and the White House has got to be personally painful. Media Matters put its years-in-the-making astroturf campaign to strip Limbaugh of his sponsors into effect right as Bill Kristol, Alan Dershowitz, and others were getting media traction. That Media Matters had had its astroturf campaign against Rush just sitting on a shelf collecting dust was uncovered by Prof. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection on March 15, 2012 . Lefties tried to laugh off the astroturf charge, but two days ago an excellent bit of investigation revealed that Jacobson was, in fact, right . David Brock wrote an op-ed about Rush Limbaugh and placed it in Politico the other day — a full three weeks after the Sandra Fluke story began, after ducking and dodging probing questions about their organization, leadership, about M.J. Rosenberg, and possibly not-really-tax-exempt practices . It’s not like Brock wrote this op-ed three weeks ago when the whole thing blew up and had some kind of trouble placing it. I think just about everyone inside and outside of journalism knows the Politico and MSNBC serve as near proxies for Media Matters’ hit jobs. David Brock and Media Matters have been trying to bully, intimidate, and otherwise silence other views for some time. As conservatives finally started digging into Media Matters, the organization had to do something to get attention away from them. They grabbed hold of Rush’s comment and fired up their dormant Stop Rush campaign right as the heat was building on Media Matters. That now presents a conundrum for conservatives. We absolutely should be defending Rush Limbaugh. But in the mean time we should also not let up on Media Matters and its tax exempt status. The Daily Caller’s reporting suggests Media Matters should not be tax exempt. Media Matters’ behavior of late also suggests while they want to shut down Rush by driving away his advertisers, Media Matters might have its own problems with its donors.
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Media Matters’ Desperate Need to Focus on Rush Limbaugh
RedState Morning Briefing March 23, 2012 Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge. 1. Media Matters’ Desperate Need to Focus on Rush Limbaugh 2. People Are Badly Misinterpreting Rick Santorum 3. Obama’s Secret Debt Milestone 4. Washington Post’s Lisa Miller Is An Idiot. Part 2. 5. The Club for Growth on the Ryan budget 6. Same Talking Points For ALL The Countries ———————————————————————- 1. Media Matters’ Desperate Need to Glory Hound Rush Limbaugh The Washington Times has the story of Media Matters’ latest effort to drive Rush Limbaugh from the airwaves. They’ll use radio ads in eight cities. “In one of the anti-Limbaugh ads, listeners are urged to call the local station that carries Limbaugh to say “we don’t talk to women like that” in our city. “Ad time was purchased in Boston; Chicago; Detroit; Seattle; Milwaukee; St. Louis; Macon, Ga.; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The cities were selected to support active local campaigns against Limbaugh or because of perceptions Limbaugh may be vulnerable in that market, said Angelo Carusone of Media Matters.” What I found interesting was Media Matters listing Macon, GA. I’m writing this from Macon right now. It’s where I got my start on the radio and where I live. There is no active local campaign to silence Rush Limbaugh. That’s when I realized what Media Matters is doing. They say they are advertising in some locations because “of perceptions Limbaugh may be vulnerable in that market.” Media Matters is trying to be a glory hound and take credit if Rush Limbaugh is dropped when they have nothing to do with it. Three stations in the list, Macon, Detroit, and Chicago, are Cumulus Media stations. Cumulus Media has plans to launch Mike Huckabee as a competitor to Rush Limbaugh later this year. In fact, Cumulus’s management has, though to a lesser degree than Media Matters, been playing up Rush Limbaugh’s comments on Sandra Fluke suggesting Mike Huckabee would be a more responsible alternative. Already I’m being told Cumulus will offer Huckabee as a cheaper programming option than Limbaugh. Likewise, they plan to start putting Huckabee on a number of Cumulus stations around the country as their contract with the Premier Radio for Rush’s show expires. Even Rush’s flagship station, WABC, might go to Huckabee as it is owned by Cumulus. When it happens, Media Matters will try to take credit when, in fact, these are business decisions by Cumulus Media, which is struggling financially following its purchase of Citadel Broadcasting and wants some in house talent it can syndicate instead of having to pay Premier syndication fees. What’s most important though is why Media Matters is trying to keep the focus on Rush Limbaugh. Please click here for the rest of the post. 2. People Are Badly Misinterpreting Rick Santorum Much hay is being made of Rick Santorum saying he’d prefer Obama to Romney. Except that is not what he said or what he meant. Certainly he could have had a clarifying clause in his statement, but given the context, I think he was saying no more and no less than what I have been saying. I’m on record thinking it is over and Romney is the nominee, but the hand-wringing over Santorum is juvenile and reminds me again why I so dislike Team Romney. We’re going to have put up with months of Team Romney whining about things if he is the nominee. This is the latest example. Please click here for the rest of the post. 3. Obama’s Secret Debt Milestone Here is a debt milestone that we surpassed this week, yet you won’t read about it anywhere in the media. The gross federal debt has increased more under Obama in just 3.2 years than it did during Bush’s entire 8-year tenure. And Bush was no limited government conservative either. When President Bush was sworn in on January 20, 2001, the total federal debt stood at $5.728 trillion. On January 20, 2009, the day he left office, the debt had increased to $10.629 trillion, a jump of $4.9 trillion. Just 38 months later, the debt has increased another $4.954 trillion to a grand total of $15.583 trillion! Amazingly, $4.514 trillion, or 91% of the debt increase comes from the public share of the debt, which now stands at $10.8 trillion. We should also keep in mind that we are on pace to breach the $16.394 trillion debt limit before the November elections, even with the uptick in revenue. That means that he will have amassed almost $6 trillion in debt by the time he, God willing, leaves office next January. And it’s not just the $6 billion. He has set us on such an unsustainable trajectory that we will never achieve a balanced budget without massive restructuring of government. If Obama’s proposed budget blueprint was allowed to come to fruition, the federal debt would reach $26 trillion in 10 years assuming rosy revenue predictions. Please click here for the rest of the post. 4. Washington Post’s Lisa Miller Is An Idiot. Part 2. Earlier this month I posted on the attack by Lisa Miller, the Washington Post’s egregiously stupid religion correspondent, on Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney because they had large families. Miller found large families to be vaguely threatening to her self esteem and indicative of a “smug fecundity” and not valuing women for anything other than their ability to reproduce. Today Miller doubles down and accuses Rick Santorum of being a “cafeteria Catholic.” For those who aren’t familiar with the term, a cafeteria Catholic applies to Catholics who dissent from Church dogmas. These are the “smells and bells” Catholics who have some cultural attachment to the Church but find that its teachings on sodomy, birth control, etc. gives them hives and boils on their butt. For her evidence, Miller trots out the following killer evidence. Please click here for the rest of the post. 5. The Club for Growth on the Ryan budget Yesterday, the Club for Growth released a statement saying that the Ryan budget was “on balance, a disappointment to fiscal conservatives.” We applauded the strong pro-growth reforms in the bill, but the reasons for our opposition were twofold: First, the budget doesn’t balance within 10 years, or for that matter, even 20 years. Our country is currently enduring unsustainable trillion-dollar deficits. We cannot wait until 2040 — the year the Ryan budget balances (page 84) — in order to arrest our ever-growing national debt. Second, we are opposed to how the budget dismantles the annual sequestration spending cuts enacted into law by last year’s Budget Control Act (also known as the debt-limit deal). As you may recall, the debt deal established annual discretionary spending caps for the next ten years. But the debt deal also required additional cuts (both discretionary and mandatory) because the supercommittee failed. Therefore, for the upcoming year, the real number that needs to be achieved, beyond the spending cap, is $110 billion in cuts in total spending authority. But Ryan’s budget achieves less than that: $19 billion in discretionary cuts and $53 billion in cuts to mandatory authority, of which only $18 billion would be included in budget reconciliation, a fast-track process requiring committees to actually pass implementing legislation. Please click here for the rest of the post. 6. Same Talking Points For ALL The Countries Danish broadcaster Thomas Buch-Anderson from Detektor has analyzed some of what President Obama has to say about other nations. Please click here for the rest of the post.
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Morning Briefing for March 23, 2012
(click image for video) According to the Douchemaster, Rush calling Fluke a “slut” is an unforgivable sin, not so much when Maher called Palin a “c-nt.” Via RCP: Axelrod: The difference here is that Rush Limbaugh singled out this — first of all, I’ll condemn anyone who uses that kind of language or depictions of
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Axeldouche Yet Again Declines To Return Bill Maher’s $1 Million Campaign Donation, Condemns Rush…
