Dear Friends:
Media Matters for America is under attack by a vicious group of conservative commentators and activists who want to be free to mislead the American people with impunity.
They're attacking because Media Matters has proven to be extremely effective in combating conservative misinformation in the media.
Media Matters was recognized by Cox News Service as the first organization to take on the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. We led a coalition that forced Sinclair Broadcasting to alter plans to air an anti-Kerry attack film just weeks before election day. When a right-wing publisher produced The Truth About Hillary, a book filled with vicious smears and factual errors, Media Matters debunked it, knocking it off the bestseller lists. Media Matters drew attention to Pat Robertson's recent call for the assassination of Venzuelan president Hugo Chavez, leading to international condemnation of Robertson. And we were first to expose Bill Bennett's recent comments about crime, race and abortion.
Every day, Media Matters and our readers fight the flood of conservative misinformation in the media with cold, hard facts. Please donate now to help support our work.
But our success has made right-wing commentators like Bill O'Reilly desperate. They know that we won't let them get away with their lies any longer, and they don't like it.
So O'Reilly, with help from activists funded by Richard Mellon Scaife - the billionaire best-known for funding smear campaigns against Bill and Hillary Clinton -- has launched an all-out assault on Media Matters. O'Reilly has dedicated two recent television broadcasts to attacking Media Matters. He calls us "paid assassins," "inherently dishonest," and "vicious." He says he "loathe
" Media Matters.
O'Reilly has said "If you attack someone publicly ... you have an obligation to face the person you are smearing. If you don't, you are a coward." But he won't face us. He smears us, insults us, and attacks us - and he does it all while refusing our request that he allow us to appear on his television show to respond.
But O'Reilly isn't alone. Rush Limbaugh calls us the "middle-finger appendage of the Democratic Party" and a "hack little website." The Scaife-funded Center for the Study of Popular Culture calls us "zombie-like" ... the list goes on and on.
These attacks and insults confirm what you already know: that we're doing something right. Media Matters won't back down in the face of this all-out assault by the right wing.
But we can't do it without your help. Please donate now to help combat conservative misinformation - and be sure to sign up to receive email updates from Media Matters.
Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/