Posted 1:04 AM by Scoobie Davis

Media Matters Derangement Syndrome

I have pointed out that what makes the media watchdog Media Matters for America dangerous is not that it lies about the right's media apparatus. Rather, what makes it dangerous is that it cuts through the fog in an elementary way: 1) The correspondents at MMFA record the words of the right's media figures; 2) MMFA gives an explanation about the statements given by the media figure. It's that simple.

Because MMFA uses verbatim quotes by right-wing media figures, the figure in question can't accuse them of making stuff up. At first, wing-nuts accused MMFA of taking their words out of context (El Rushbo did this when MMFA was a new site). The problem with the out-of-context argument is that when a post on Media Matters quotes a wing-nut saying something misleading, stupid, or slanderous, it usually provides a transcript of the entire conversation and audio or video so that the reader can determine if the quote is in context and if the criticism is warranted.

When that defense fell flat, wing-nut media figures like Bill O'Reilly used the Nazi non-argument. That hasn't gained any traction.

It makes me wonder why Fox News Democrat Tammy Bruce would use this desperate tactic. In a recent post on her blog, Bruce refers to MMFA as a "brown-shirt cadre", one of George Soros' "Gestapos" representative of "today's fascists." Bruce gives no evidence for the alleged fascism of MMFA. I guess we're supposed to take her word for it.

By the way, Bruce's website used to have a picture of Bruce proudly posing with wingnut G. Gordon Liddy (who in his memoirs wrote about his fondness for the Horst Wessel Song and that listening to Adolf Hitler made Liddy "feel a strength inside [he] had never known before"). More on Liddy can be found on Media Matters' web site.

UPDATE: The derangement continues: Rush Limbaugh referred to Media Matters as "Stalinist" and part of the "Clinton machine agenda."

UPDATE II: Also, Media Matters has more on Bruce

UPDATE III: WorldNetDaily's Melanie Morgan referred to MMFA as "left-wing free speech Nazi's [sic]."

UPDATE IV: Media Matters has Keith Olbermann's hilarious video segment on Bill O'Reilly's Media Matters Derangement syndrome.