The new "I invented the internet" - Some say... Hillary claims that she help start Mediamatters.org

[devilgrrl]

I smell a scandal brewing!!!!!! :sarcasm:

Who "helped start" Mediamatters.org ?

The blogging world is a complicated place. One leading liberal blog, Daily Kos, held a convention Aug. 4 and asked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who was clearly not a Kos favorite, to speak there. The left-leaning blog preferred Democratic rivals Sens. Barak Obama of Illinois and Chris Dodd of Connecticut to Clinton as a presidential candidates.

At the session, Clinton in an apparent appeal to her critics within the Kos community, said she had been hard at work to build a progressive "network" of think tanks and blogs to compete with well-heeled conservative ones like the Heritage Foundation and the Media Research Group. Media Research has branded nearly every mainstream broadcast personality - outside Fox News - as a liberal.

Clinton told the Kos convention "I helped to start and support Mediamatters (.org) and Center for American Progress."

Mediamatters.org issues daily Web criticisms of news personalities (right and mainstream) of their treatment of Democratic candidates for president, particularly Clinton. On Wednesday, for example, Mediamatters.org frowned at length on news shows who questioned the sincerity of Clinton's laughter, calling it a "cackle."

When The Buffalo News asked Clinton's office if she had indeed "help start" Mediamatters.org, her spokesman Philippe Rienes deflected the question, saying he is unfamiliar with the issue. You Tube videos of Clinton's speech at Kos proliferate, if not pollute the Internet now. As reasonable as creating such a group is, if Mediamatters.org became identified as part of Clinton's campaign apparatus, the organization might lose some of its clout.

Newsday reported weeks ago that Clinton advised David Brock, a conservative-turned-liberal commentator, to create an organization to counter the influence of the Media Research Group. Newsday also suggested she helped raise money for it. Neel Lattimore, Clinton's press secretary when she was first lady, is special projects director for Mediamatters.org.

So The Buffalo News called Mediamatters and asked if is true that Clinton "helped start and support it…? Spokesman Eric Burns replied that "David Brock started Mediamatters on his own."

Later Burns e-mailed a statement, saying "A broad cross section of prominent progressive leaders, including Hillary Clinton has been supportive of Media Matters because they understand the importance of our mission. We value that support, as well as the support of the many thousands of Americans who share our goal of holding the media accountable.

"Sen. Clinton's comments at the Yearly Kos convention are a perfect example of how she and others have helped support Media Matters, by bringing attention to the importance of our work."

There still is no direct answer as to whether she "helped start" it.

http://buffalonews.typepad.com/politics_now/2007/10/who-helped-star.html

[aquart]

1. So David Brock had no help of any kind?

Good to know.

[bryant69]

2. It's possible - but not likely

Not that kind of scandal. Rather i think they would like to paint the left internet sites as kooky crazed far leftists running around being kooky - and say that if Clinton shared America's values she'd stay away from them.

And of course Limbaugh wants to pick a fight with Clinton - so claims she sent Media Matters after him.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[rodeodance]

3. The discourse of the time, including Clinton help it emerge.

[kskiska]

4. When the impeachment effort got underway

Brock approached the Clintons and worked with their legal team, telling what he knew and how the right wing operated. There must have been discourse between Brock and the Clintons and plans for the future "Media Matters" could easily have been discussed. In that sense, Hillary can be said to have given Brock input on it.

[helderheid]

5. Guess she helped start MoveOn.org too. n/t

[blondeatlast]

6. Media Matters is the new target of the RW--because they're successful.

I'm guessing this is a trumped-up, "planted" story stragiht from the Heritage Foundation's e-mail generator.

I'll wait to see what David Brock has to say before I buy a word of any of it--and I'm not supporting Clinton or anyone else right now.

[Bolo Boffin]

11. Yes, they simply write down everything the right wing media says.

And how the rightwingers SCREAM about it!

[Igel]

7. There is no 'direct answer' until you settle upon--and

make explicit--what "help start" means.

Do you mean financial support? Bringing the "right" people together? Offering encouragement? Advising? Going in as partners and actually staffing the office? Something else entirely? Or maybe some specific combination of these and other acts and activities to be specified?

In other words, as long as the question is too fuzzy, you'll get people afraid of a misconstrued answer backing away from an answer. Hell, it's possible that they may even "lie" by understanding the question, and therefore their own answer, differently from the questioner.

So it's quite possible that HRC helped Brock start it and that HRC didn't help start it, and that Brock started it entirely on his own with help from others.

[Nederland]

8. According to Limbaugh she did

He says it's a mouthpiece for the Clintons...

[blondeatlast]

9. See post #6--the RW failed to bring down MoveOn, so MM is next. nt

[Canuckistanian]

10. I'm not seeing the scandal here

So what if Hillary 'helped start it'?

She doesn't run it, directly hold fundraisers for it or even use it that often, judging by what she talks about. MM regularly rails against media coercion and concentration, but I never hear Hillary talk about that.

Seems to me that this is another failed attempt to create controversy where there is none.

[blondeatlast]

12. Yep. nt

[devilgrrl]

14. So you don't think the writer of the blog isn't trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill?

Because that's what I'm seeing.

[Elidor]

13. If she has helped in any way at all

I am appreciative. It would even lessen my loathing of her. I guess I *would* piss on her if she was on fire, after all.

[sandnsea]

15. I hope she did

Although if she did, she only seems to use it to defend attacks against her personality, not progressive policies.