[3] Brock argued that existing conservative monitoring groups had been doing this and pushing mainstream journalists, the media, and American politics, to the right as a result.

[10][11][12] In 2010, George Soros donated $1 million to MMfA citing concerns that the "incendiary rhetoric of Fox News hosts may incite violence.

[17] Hillary Clinton advised Media Matters in its early stages out of a belief that progressives should follow conservatives in forming think tanks and advocacy groups to support their political goals.

[25][26] In May 2024, a dozen staffers at Media Matters were laid off amid a series of lawsuits and legal investigations by Elon Musk and Republican state attorneys general.

Its techniques include content analysis, fact checking, monitoring, and comparison of quotes or presentations from media figures to primary documents such as Pentagon or Government Accountability Office reports.

[citation needed] Beginning in 2006, Media Matters for America has released a number of studies which documented that Democrats and progressives were outnumbered by Republicans and conservatives in terms of guest appearances on television news programs.

[29][better source needed] On September 12, 2007, Media Matters released a comprehensive study of 1,377 U.S. newspapers and the 201 syndicated political columnists the papers carry on a regular basis.

Past recipients include Rupert Murdoch,[32] Sean Hannity,[32] Glenn Beck,[32] Mark Zuckerberg,[32] and Steve Bannon.

[37] Media Matters Action Network established the Political Correction project with the goal of holding conservative politicians and advocacy groups accountable.

According to The Wall Street Journal, top news outlets didn't mention the incident until objections made to CBS Radio by the National Association of Black Journalists led to an on-the-air apology from Imus.

"[46] The Associated Press, CNN, and ABC reported on the controversy,[47] as political satirist and fictional pundit Stephen Colbert lampooned Limbaugh and his defenders saying: "Hey, Media Matters, you want to end offensive speech?

After General Motors, OnStar, and Motel 6 pulled their advertising, Schlessinger said she would not renew her syndication contract set to expire December 2010.

[57] Schlessinger held Media Matters responsible for the boycott, which she called a typical tactic of the group to fulfill its "sole purpose of silencing people".

[62] The following day, MMfA released a second set of audio recordings in which Carlson referred to Iraqis as "semiliterate primitive monkeys" and said they "don't use toilet paper or forks."

[63] The Daily Caller, which Carlson co-founded, responded by resurfacing blog posts made by MMfA's president Angelo Carusone.

Carusone responded by saying that the posts were supposed to be a "caricature of what a right wing blowhard would sound like if he was living my life" and apologized for the "gross" remarks.

[70][71][72] On November 20, 2023, X Corp. owner Elon Musk filed a suit in a Texas court alleging Media Matters defamed the platform with the intention of hurting its advertising revenues.

[78] On the same day that the X lawsuit was filed, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into Media Matters for "potentially fraudulent activity", stating that his goal was "to ensure that the public has not been deceived by the schemes of radical left-wing organizations".

[84][85] In August 2024, a federal judge granted an injunction to halt the Missouri investigation, saying the suit was "using law enforcement machinery for political ends" against Media Matters, running contrary to the organization's First Amendment rights.

[86] Columnists and writers such as Paul Krugman and the late Molly Ivins cited Media Matters or identified it as a helpful source.

[87][88] In 2008, columnist Jacques Steinberg of The New York Times quoted David Folkenflik of National Public Radio as telling him that although Media Matters has a partisan slant they were still a useful source for leads, partly due to their broad research.

Steinberg said the right already had similar outlets looking for stories and feeding them to reporters, and that Media Matters has effectively filled a void on the left.