Hopefully, Media Matters will be investigated by the IRS

Back in February, Media Matters came under fire after the Daily Caller exposed the liberal watchdog group for accepting a $50,000 grant to monitor and probe religious outlets. The Christian Post first reported that the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), an association of broadcasters and Christian communicators, was anticipating an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service into whether or not Media Matters violated its 501(c)(3) status when it collected money from a special interest group to scrutinize religious conservatives.

Under the IRS requirements, organizations under 501(c)(3) status "are restricted in how much political and legislative (lobbying) activities they may conduct."

The grant was delivered in 2006 from the liberal Arca Foundation "to support a Religious Broadcasting Project to expand the monitoring and fact checking of religious broadcasts." Since the grant was awarded, Media Matters has published at least 65 articles about the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Founded by [David] Brock in 2004 as a liberal counterweight to "conservative misinformation" in the press, Media Matters has in less than a decade become a powerful player in Democratic politics. The group operates in regular coordination with the highest levels of the Obama White House, as well as with members of Congress and progressive groups around the country. Brock, who collected over $250,000 in salary from Media Matters in 2010, has himself become a major fundraiser on the left. According to an internal memo obtained by TheDC, Media Matters intends to spend nearly $20 million in 2012 to influence news coverage.

Donors have every reason to expect success, as the group’s effect on many news organizations has already been profound. "We were pretty much writing their prime time," a former Media Matters employee said of the cable channel MSNBC. "But then virtually all the mainstream media was using our stuff."

A spokesperson for the Arca Foundation claimed that grant recipients largely have the authority to decide how to disperse the funds; however, Arca would sometimes document how the money should be used. And according to IRS guidelines, 501(c)(3) non-profits are restricted from endorsing political stances.

I went to their site  and their "About" very clearly states:

Launched in May 2004, Media Matters for America put in place, for the first time, the means to systematically monitor a cross section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and Internet media outlets for conservative misinformation - news or commentary that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda - every day, in real time.

Using the website mediamatters.org as the principal vehicle for disseminating research and information, Media Matters posts rapid-response items as well as longer research and analytic reports documenting conservative misinformation throughout the media. Additionally, Media Matters works daily to notify activists, journalists, pundits, and the general public about instances of misinformation, providing them with the resources to rebut false claims and to take direct action against offending media institutions. [The only "cross section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and internet media outlets I saw was against conservative media.]

Anyone notice the date that Media Matters started????? In an interview with The Washington Post on November 11, 2003, Soros said that removing President George Bush from office was the "central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death". He said he would sacrifice his entire fortune to defeat President Bush "if someone guaranteed it". Soros gave In 2004, Soros gave $3 million to the Center for American Progress, $2.5 million to MoveOn.org, and $20 million to America Coming Together.  [I wish that would have come true (sacrifice his entire fortune).] 

I hope the IRS does take up the investigation...or else someone in Congress. Even during the questioning of Michael Horowitz today, they brought up MediaMatters as one-sided media working with the DOJ.