Left-leaning Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz is vowing to begin a campaign to personally make the Media Matters for America controversy into a re-election issue for President Obama.
A series of reports has exposed the embattled Media Matters’ purported illicit tactics, including compiling a de facto enemies list; announcing an all-out campaign of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” aimed at the Fox News Channel; and reportedly seeking to investigate the personal lives of reporters and news personalities.
The information came amid reports White House staffers held regular meetings and even a weekly conference call with Media Matters.
Dershowitz took particular issue with Media Matters coverage of Israel, including rhetoric from Media Matters Action Network senior fellow M.J. Rosenberg, who is known for his extreme anti-Israel views.
Rosenberg has been pushing the phrase “Israel Firster,” implying those who support the Jewish state put Israel’s needs before those of the U.S.
“Not only will [the Media Matters controversy] be an election matter, I will personally make it an election matter,” said Dershowitz.
Continued Dershowitz: “I will speak to every Jewish group that invites me, and I think it’s fair to say I speak to more Jewish groups than probably any other person in the world. I spoke to over a million Jews over the years. You know, just last Thursday spoke to 1200, just in the next weeks alone I’ll be speaking and in the past weeks to thousands of American Jews. And believe me, I will not let them ignore this issue.”
Dershowitz was speaking today on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s WABC Radio.
Click here to listen to Klein’s interview with Dershowitz.
Dershowitz contended many donors to Media Matters didn’t know the group would take such extremist positions.
“They began to donate to the organization just because they thought it was a counterweight to Fox News,” he told Klein.
“I don’t know whether President Obama has any idea that Media Matters has turned the corner against Israel in this way,” Dershowitz said. “I can tell you this: he will know very shortly because I am beginning a serious campaign on this issue and I will not let it drop until and unless Rosenberg is fired from Media Matters, or Media Matters changes its policy or the White House disassociates itself from Media Matters.”
Has America’s top leftist been neutered?
Media Matters for America has so far not responded to many reports alleging illicit tactics.
The progressive media organization is usually rife with attack pieces on WND, Fox News and the Daily Caller. However, it hasn’t made a peep in response to the ongoing controversy being pursued by those news organizations.
A section at Media Matters’ main website titled “Fox Attacks Media Matters” has not been updated since Feb. 8, before the Daily Caller began releasing a series of investigative reports on Media Matters.
The Fox News Channel has since aired numerous segments on Media Matters, yet none were posted on Media Matters website, which has until now been regular practice.
Media Matters also has not responded to a series of investigative pieces produced by WND in recent days, which include these revelations:
- One of the single largest donors to the embattled Media Matters for America is a controversial far-left clearinghouse that funds groups such as MoveOn.org, ACORN and a litany of anti-war organizations, the Tides Foundation. The group is funded in part by billionaire George Soros, himself a prominent Media Matters donor.
- President Obama served eight years on the board of the Joyce Foundation, a charity that is a top donor to Media Matters.
- Obama is also tied to numerous other top Media Matters donors and fundraisers, including a foundation run by the finance chairman of his 2008 presidential campaign, Penny Pritzker. The Pritzker Family Foundation donated a total of $400,000 to the progressive attack group in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
- Another key funding tie for Media Matters is the Center for American Progress, led by John Podesta, who directed Obama’s White House transition team. Media Matters reportedly entered into a fundraising-sharing agreement with the Center for American Progress, whose extensive reports and research reportedly help to inform Obama administration policy.
- A marketing outfit called the Herndon Alliance reportedly received a grant from the lobbying arm of Media Matters for America. Herndon reportedly helped the White House craft and market Obamacare.
- The Media Matters-funded Herndon Alliance recently recommended that Obama make contraception an election issue after conducting polling with a George Soros-funded progressive group.
