Media Matters for America, a liberal non-profit organization which has virulently criticized Fox News and the Murdoch media empire, has become a target of right-wing legal action. In a recent complaint filed with the IRS, C. Boyden Gray, former President George H.W. Bush's White House counsel, requested the agency revoke Media Matters' tax-exempt status. His reasoning, according to an article by award-winning Fox Business News reporter Elizabeth MacDonald, was that Media Matters "'has executed a partisan strategy,' in violation of U.S. tax law as it exists 'no longer to educate the public but, rather, to declare 'war on FOX (sic),' Gray says, quoting from an interview its founder David Brock (photo), gave to the website Politico."The story also reveals evidence Gray cited as proof of Media Matters' intent. His IRS complaint, MacDonald's piece noted, asserted that the nonprofit attempted "to disrupt News Corp.'s purchase of BSkyB, a British satellite broadcaster, and its efforts "to turn regulators in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere against the network."
Gray's concern to mighty Media Matters kicking sand in the Murdoch empire's collective face didn't stop with BSkyB. "Gray writes that aside from Media Matters' 'unsupportable attempt to tie FOX News to the Republican Party, the fact that Media Matters equates FOX News' with the GOP shows the nonprofit's 'own partisan intent.'"
Gray's story, part of a much longer three-part article by MacDonald, appeared on Fox News' website this morning.
The former White House counsel's "evidence" certainly made the rationale for attack clear enough. Big, bad Media Matters tried to block the BSkyB deal. The Murdoch clan is clearly upset their carefully staged plan to seize total control of the UK's single most valuable media asset was thwarted. Their revenge and counterattack, which is probably in its earliest stages, has taken this primitive form. Meanwhile, the notion of associating Fox and the Murdoch media behemoth with the GOP and conservative causes is just plain common sense. When I initially read the piece, I thought Gray was pursuing this line of reasoning to get a bar room laugh. Alas, George Herbert Walker Bush's former legal eagle was quite serious about it.
One irritant Gray wants to rub out is Brock's venture. The Bush-41 coterie has deeply disliked Brock, a Republican and Bush-era political apostate who has since become a vocal critic of right-wing tactics and objectives. Brock was mixed up with the Anita Hill hearings and performed some dirty work on behalf of Bush and then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in that episode.
Gray has vehemently denied any link to Fox, Murdoch, or anything or anyone but himself. He just had time on his hands, and a bone to pick with Media Matters. Maybe Gray just doesn't see the nonprofit as "fair and balanced."
Perhaps there's another reason. Since the UK phone jacking scandal exploded, it has seemed inevitable that the Murdoch empire would strike back against its accusers. August gave News Corp. and the Murdoch family time to catch its collective breath, formulate a counterattacking strategy, call in favors, and use its "leverage." (Some suspect that News Corp.'s attempts at "persuasion" are really nothing more than thinly disguised blackmail threats.) The dreadful debt debacle and shameful downgrade of the United States' credit rating provide further cover for News Corp. The firm, and the Murdoch family, are not the current headline, at least in the United States. The UK, where everyday people felt violated by News Corp.'s reporters' routine phone tapping, is another matter. The disposition of Gray's legal complaint remains to be seen. However, one can assume the Murdochs and News Corp. will soon be on the march, defending Fox News against "scurrilous" attacks from liberal think tanks virtually no one knows or pays attention to.
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