About Hillary's "Media Matters" and "Blue Nation Review"

[RiverLover]

We've learned much about these "media" outlets thanks to our excellent DUers' posts here.

But some of the following SuperPAC info was new to me, so in the interest of sharing more & for the sake of transparency about the fake news sources....

"Correct The Record" is a SuperPAC for Hillary which spun off from American Bridge. American Bridge doesn't have to reveal its donors so it doesn't. It also gives "donations" to another Hillary SuperPAC which does have to reveal donors. So it just lists American Bridge as a donor, and the secret donors can be assured their anonymity will remain in tact. (see link below)

12/2015 -

....snip.....

Correct the Record was originally part of the American Bridge super PAC, but was spun off in May 2015 to be its own super PAC. It’s headed by Brad Woodhouse, the past president of American Bridge 21st Century and former communications director of the Democratic National Committee. Correct the Record is located in the same offices as Media Matters and American Bridge; as National Journal pointed out, “When long­time Demo­crat­ic op­er­at­ive Brad Wood­house left his job head­ing one su­per PAC to lead an­oth­er, he didn’t even change desks.” Most of Correct the Record’s staff used to work at the super PAC arm of American Bridge, according to FEC filings.

The FEC has stated that it only regulates Internet activity when it is “communication placed on another person’s website for a fee.” So, Correct the Record says it actually can communicate with the campaign because all of its activity is on its own website. (This underscores the so-called "Internet “blind spot” that we pointed out a couple weeks ago.)

In theory, Correct the Record could coordinate with the campaign, then coordinate with the other super PACs. We don’t know if that is true, and even if it was, it’s doubtful the FEC would do anything about it. But Campaign Legal Center’s Paul Ryan has described the group’s activity as “creating new ways to undermine campaign regulation.”

The New York Times has reported that Brock, who officially left American Bridge for Correct the Record when it was formed, is “focused on paying attention to the activities of Correct the Record and Media Matters, which will play the biggest role in defending Mrs. Clinton throughout the campaign.”

Since it was formed in May, Correct the Record has raised $1.4 million from some of the same donors as American Bridge — big donors Steve Silberstein, Joan Cooney and Barbara Lee have donated to both. Correct the Record was only active for about a month before its first and only FEC filing, so we’ll know more about their finances in January. (Yes, super PACs go six months without divulging donor information some years.) The Clinton campaign itself is Correct the Record’s single biggest contributor, at $275,615.

Correct the Record also has a joint fundraising committee with Priorities USA, called American Priorities, but it’s raised no money and spent only $1,200.

.......snip.......

In interest of transparency: Libby Watson, who contributed to writing this post, was formerly an employee of Media Matters.

https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/12/03/behind-the-clinton-campaign-dark-money-allies/

[Octafish]

1. PACs are like Shell Companies.

There's a reason people need to hide the truth.

[RiverLover]

3. I would love to see an investigative journalist dig into this & expose those donors.

I can just imagine who they really are & what a bombshell it would be.

[Kip Humphrey]

2. Creating new ways to undermine campaign regulation.” Sums up perfectly the Hillary campaign to date:

more republicon than republicon with more dirty tricks and undermining fair election principles than Richard Nixon or Karl Rove, IMHO.

[RiverLover]

4. Exactly.

She's republicon on every level but how she labels herself. She talks leftie when running though, & sadly that's enough for many people.

[Kip Humphrey]

5. You will NEVER find her calling herself a Liberal (her Daddy would not like that!).