The Other McCain

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Media Matters: Tax-Exempt Group’s Perverse Obsession With Fox News

Posted on | April 28, 2012 | 8 Comments

David Brock, founder of Media Matters for America, promotes his
anti-Fox News book in March C-SPAN “Book TV” appearance

What is the annual budget of Media Matters for America? Why is MMFA considered a tax-exempt charitable organization?

What “charitable” purpose is served by paying people to attack Fox News all day long, every day, 365 days a year? MMFA’s Web site has an entire category devoted to Fox News, and on a single day this week — Thursday, April 26 — they posted no fewer than 11 such items:

How can MMFA possibly defend its status as a 501(c)3 charity, when so much of its effort is devoted to criticizing a single entity? As I have mentioned before, Fox News accounts for barely 1/8th of the total national TV news audience. Ratings for March 30-April 4:

NBC Nightly News ………………. 7.9 million
ABC World News ………………… 6.8 million
CBS Evening News ………………. 5.8 million

Total “Big Three” evening news audience …. 20.5 million

Fox News Channel The O’Reilly Factor ……… 3.3 million

O’Reilly is the top-rated show on Fox, so his numbers represent the maximum estimate of Fox’s average audience. Add in MSNBC (about 1.1 million viewers for their highest-rated program, The Rachel Maddow Show) and CNN (about 600,000 for their highest-rated program, Anderson Cooper 360), and you get a combined national TV news audience (NBC, ABC, CBS, FNC, MSNBC, CNN) of 25.5 million, of which the Fox News Channel’s share is a mere 12.9 percent.

Why, then, is this multimillion-dollar “charity,” Media Matters, devoting such enormous attention to this one cable TV channel?

Providing employment to demented left-wing moonbats whose only “journalism” skill is their venomous hatred of Republicans?

Well, yeah, I guess that could be considered a charitable endeavor, but how does MSNBC manage to do it on a for-profit basis?

 


Category: Fox News, Media Bias

Comments

8 Responses to “Media Matters: Tax-Exempt Group’s Perverse Obsession With Fox News”

  1. DaveO
    April 28th, 2012 @ 4:50 pm

    The Left has said, repeatedly, that Fox News is the #1 enemy.

    Funny thing being, as many leftists as conservatives watch Fox for the same reason: to find out what’s going on in the world without Progressive filters and messaging.

    If Fox goes, where will the Left go for facts? Mother Jones?

  2. Adobe_Walls
    April 28th, 2012 @ 5:02 pm

    Because Bolshevik talking points are accepted as educational whether  the Social Democrats or Republicans are in charge.

  3. ThePaganTemple
    April 28th, 2012 @ 5:36 pm

    Why, then, is this multimillion-dollar “charity,” Media Matters, devoting such enormous attention to this one cable TV channel?

    Because they report the facts and try to tell the truth?

  4. TR
    April 28th, 2012 @ 6:50 pm

    Big Fur Hat gives you props! http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=130753
    Watch out, next thing you know he will be calling YOU on his 90 sec radio show.

    Think of it, RSM, Ann Barnhardt and the incomparable Pamela Geller recorded and together (sortof) in the annals of blog history.

  5. M. Thompson
    April 28th, 2012 @ 6:52 pm

    So where’s the FEC or the DoJ?

    Oh, yeah, they’re ignoring the real problems with the country.

  6. SDN
    April 28th, 2012 @ 7:59 pm

    If the FEC were actually doing it’s job, Obama wouldn’t have been allowed to take office after deliberately disabling the identity, credit card fraud, and donation restriction checks (for amount and country of origin) on his 2008 campaign website.

    But they didn’t, so naturally he has done it again in 2012.

  7. Dianna Deeley
    April 28th, 2012 @ 9:14 pm

    I have not dug out MMFA’s 990-PF, and (given that I’ve done something nasty to my shoulder and need to rest) I’m not going to. But if anyone else has the energy, I have a couple things you might look for.

    Are they receiving more than 15% of their revenue from a single source? If so, they have “tipped”, and are a private foundation – and the rules are a bit different.

    If their stated purpose is not being fulfilled, it is possible to challenge their exempt status. If they are interfering in or advocating for particular candidates (and I think they are), then the time and activities surrounding this are not exempt.

    Non profit world is not immune. You can challenge exempt status.  Calling attention to MMFA’s behavior will have an effect, eventually; a letter to the exempts section will have a stronger one.

  8. JanetC
    April 29th, 2012 @ 3:23 pm

    I do think that someone or many will serve jail time for that. It will be after the current POTUS is no longer the POTUS however.