The Daily Caller has released the first in a series of reports [1] on Media Matters for America ("MMFA") based on internal memos, statements from former staffers, and other interviews. Notes follow, first an excerpt:

...[a former staffer says] "We were pretty much writing (MSNBC's) prime time... But then virtually all the mainstream media was using our stuff."

(an internal memo about their campaign against Lou Dobbs says:) "As part of the Drop Dobbs campaign... Media Matters produced and was prepared to run an advertisement against Ford Motor Company on Spanish Language stations in Houston, San Antonio, and other cities targeting its top selling product, pick-up trucks, in its top truck buying markets."

Ford pulled its advertising from Dobbs’s program before the television ad aired, but Media Matters kept up its efforts, working primarily with Alex Nogales of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and with the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and other self-described civil rights groups.

In November of 2009, Dobbs left CNN. "We got him fired," says one staffer flatly.

“Certainly Media Matters deserves a lot of credit for the work they did,” Nogales said in an interview. “They’re very effective.”

...(a former staffer claims MMFA deserves more credit for getting Glenn Beck off Fox than Van Jones of Color of Change)

...“The entire progressive blogosphere picked up our stuff,” says a Media Matters source, “from Daily Kos to Salon. Greg Sargent [of the Washington Post] will write anything you give him. He was the go-to guy to leak stuff.”

“If you can’t get it anywhere else, Greg Sargent’s always game,” agreed another source with firsthand knowledge.

Reached by phone, Sargent declined to comment.

“The HuffPo guys were good, Sam Stein and Nico [Pitney],” remembered one former staffer. “The people at Huffington Post were always eager to cooperate, which is no surprise given David’s long history with Arianna [Huffington].”

“Jim Rainey at the LA Times took a lot of our stuff,” the staffer continued. “So did Joe Garofoli at the San Francisco Chronicle. We’ve pushed stories to Eugene Robinson and E.J. Dionne [at the Washington Post]. Brian Stelter at the New York Times was helpful.”

“Ben Smith [formerly of Politico, now at BuzzFeed . com] will take stories and write what you want him to write,” explained the former employee, whose account was confirmed by other sources. Staffers at Media Matters “knew they could dump stuff to Ben Smith, they knew they could dump it at Plum Line [Greg Sargent’s Washington Post blog], so that’s where they sent it.”

Smith, who refused to comment on the substance of these claims, later took to Twitter to say that he has been critical of Media Matters.

(Brock and former MMFA president Eric Burns met with Valerie Jarrett and Anita Dunn in the White House on June 16, 2010, then Burns "chatted with [Dunn] frequently" afterwards. MMFA and the Center for American Progress conduct weekly phone calls with the White House.)

...During the 2008 presidential campaign, for example, author Jerome Corsi wrote a highly critical book about the Democratic candidate, titled “The Obama Nation.” The Obama campaign responded immediately with a detailed memo. The title of that memo, “Unfit For Publication” (a play on Corsi’s 2004 book, “Unfit for Command,” about then-presidential candidate Senator John Kerry), was the same title used by Media Matters just weeks before in a similar memo about the same book.

[David Brock's alleged erratic behavior]

...Last spring, some at Media Matters headquarters and in other parts of the progressive world were caught off guard by an interview Brock gave to Ben Smith at Politico, in which he promised to wage “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” against Fox News. “It was insane,” says a coworker. “David was totally manic at the time. We were all shocked.”

...At times, Brock would become crazed with intensity, “obsessively” involving himself in research: “There was a point at which he would pore over every single piece of research we put out, 10 or 15 dense items a day. He would line-item all of it.”

This is a good example of reporting you won't see in the mainstream media, even if they weren't able to get anyone to speak out against MMFA publicly. No doubt MMFA and their little helpers will use that to cast doubt on the report.

However, what the Daily Caller, other rightwing blogs, and most conservatives in general have trouble with is showing how Media Matters is wrong. Snarking in echo chambers about MMFA doesn't count: I mean showing how they lie, mislead, or promote bad policies. That's what would have an impact on MMFA, but most of their opponents aren't willing or able to do it.

About the only person who's willing and able to show how MMFA gets things wrong is me: see the Media Matters for America page. Note also that over the past several years I've left dozens of comments on their site attempting to show their supporters how MMFA is wrong. Only very rarely do you find anyone else doing the same, either on their own sites or in MMFA's comments (if anyone has counter-examples, leave them in comments).

While years ago several of my comments were deleted, over the past few years MMFA has been leaving them in place. I've used the same username since 2003 or so: while MMFA did used to delete comments, they never banned me.

Meanwhile, Daily Caller recently banned me from commenting on their site and when I left (non-abusive but anti-Tea Parties) comments on their site I was repeatedly smeared. And, the chances of any rightwing opponents of MMFA linking to my entries showing how MMFA gets things wrong is slim indeed, despite how it would help them. Leading opponents of MMFA aren't capable of showing how they're wrong, and aren't capable of helping those who can. And, that's pretty stupid.

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[1] dailycaller . com/2012/02/12/
inside-media-matters-sources-memos-reveal-erratic-behavior-
close-coordination-with-white-house-and-news-organizations