Media Matters E-mail from 9/17/09

From: "Eric Burns, Media Matters"
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 1:55:05 PM
Subject: Fight Fox


September 17, 2009



Dear Friend,

Since President Obama's inauguration, Fox News has officially abandoned its already dubious standing as a news organization and is now engaging in outright political activism, completing its transition into the 24/7 media wing of the far-right conservative movement.

Fox News' leaders have admitted as much themselves. In a March interview with the Los Angeles Times, Fox News chief Roger Ailes described his network as "the Alamo," and Fox News vice president for programming Bill Shine has referred to the station as the "voice of opposition." Clearly, Fox's employees have taken their bosses' words to heart. Led by resident demagogue Glenn Beck, Fox has spent much of the year openly advocating against the Democratic Congress and White House. Beck and Fox aggressively promoted and encouraged attendance at the anti-Obama Tax Day tea parties in April and subsequent follow-up events, including this past weekend's 9-12 protest in Washington, D.C. During the August congressional recess, Fox hosts frequently lauded and encouraged the health care town hall disrupters. And now, emboldened by the resignation of White House green jobs adviser Van Jones, Beck and Fox have launched an all-out witch hunt against Obama officials and nominees.

Fox isn't going to change on its own. We have to expose the network for what it is. We have to fight back.

Tell 10 of your friends to sign up for Media Matters action alerts so they can be on the cutting edge of the fight against conservative misinformation and the activism it fuels: http://mediamatters.org/action/fightfox/

If you have a Twitter account, follow Media Matters so you can get up-to-the-minute updates on our latest items, clips, and blog posts: http://twitter.com/mmfa

Media Matters has been a leading voice in the progressive community's effective and escalating response to the propaganda of the Right. In recent weeks, our friends at Color of Change have built a massive, ongoing campaign focused on getting advertisers to boycott Glenn Beck in response to his accusation that President Obama is a racist. Media Matters was the first group to capture and post the statement, which might have otherwise gone unnoticed. In the following days, we clipped dozens more outrageous Beck comments, documented his complete disregard for facts in a host of research items, produced a series of videos highlighting his abuses, and publicized a running tally of the companies that continued to advertise on his show.

The results have been immediate and significant. Within a few weeks following his initial outburst, Beck has lost an estimated 62 advertisers. According to Color of Change, this ad boycott costs Fox News nearly $600,000 every week. But we're not going to stop there. We're keeping the heat on Beck and will continue holding him accountable for his outlandish, incendiary rhetoric every day.

The pressure is working. Help us keep up the fight:

Tell 10 of your friends to sign up for Media Matters action alerts so they can be on the cutting edge of the fight against conservative misinformation and the activism it fuels: http://mediamatters.org/action/fightfox/

If you have a Twitter account, follow Media Matters so you can get up-to-the-minute updates on our latest items, clips, and blog posts: http://twitter.com/mmfa

Together, we are going to keep winning this fight. Thank you for your continued commitment to fighting conservative misinformation in the media.



Eric Burns
President
Media Matters for America


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