Controversies Media Matters for America

1 controversies

1.1 don imus
1.2 rush limbaugh phony soldiers
1.3 bill o reilly harlem restaurant
1.4 laura schlessinger racial slur
1.5 war on fox
1.6 tax-exempt status challenge

controversies
don imus

on april 4, 2007, media matters posted video clip of don imus calling rutgers university women s basketball team members nappy-headed hoes , made discovery known in media matters daily e-mailing hundreds of journalists. next day, according wall street journal, top news outlets didn t mention incident. objections made cbs radio national association of black journalists led on-the-air apology imus. msnbc, calling imus s comments racist , abhorrent, suspended imus show, , within minutes, cbs suspended imus s radio show. wall street journal said imus s apology seemed make matters worse, critics latching on mr. imus s use of phrase people. included among dissatisfied imus s apology , suspension coach of rutgers team , group of msnbc african-american employees. after procter & gamble pulled advertising of msnbc s daytime schedule, , other advertisers, including general motors , american express requested cbs cancel upcoming advertising had bought imus in morning , msnbc , cbs dropped imus s show.

rush limbaugh phony soldiers

in 2007, media matters reported radio talk show host rush limbaugh saying iraq war veterans opposed war phony soldiers. limbaugh later said speaking of 1 soldier, jesse macbeth, had falsely claimed have been decorated valor had never seen combat. limbaugh said victim of smear media matters, had taken out of context , selectively edited comments. after limbaugh published said entire transcript of phony soldiers discussion, media matters noted on minute , 30 seconds omitted without notation or ellipsis indicate there is, in fact, break in transcript. limbaugh told national review gap between referring phony soldiers , macbeth delay because staff printed out abc news story reported on called phony soldiers , transcript , audio edits space , relevance reasons, not hide anything.

the associated press, cnn, , abc reported on controversy, political satirist , fictional pundit stephen colbert lampooned limbaugh , defenders saying: hey, media matters, want end offensive speech? stop recording people offended.

bill o reilly harlem restaurant

in october 2007 television , radio host , commentator bill o reilly said media matters headline declaring o reilly surprised there no difference between harlem restaurant , other new york restaurants took out of context comments made regarding pleasant dinner shared al sharpton @ harlem restaurant. o reilly said media matters misleadingly took comments spoken 5 minutes apart , presented them one. in appearance on nbc s today matt lauer, media matters senior fellow paul waldman said media matters had included full audio, full transcript, nothing taken out of context .

laura schlessinger racial slur

on august 12, 2010, media matters reported radio host laura schlessinger said nigger eleven times during discussion african-american woman, continuing after caller took offense @ word. schlessinger told woman sensitive , double standard determined word. schlessinger said hypersensitive color should not marry outside of race. caller had earlier in discussion said husband white. schlessinger apologized epithet day after broadcast. joint statement of media matters , other organizations noted although schlessinger attempted apologize using epithet, racist diatribe on tuesday s show extends far beyond use of single word , urged advertisers boycott show. after general motors, onstar, , motel 6 pulled advertising, schlessinger said not renew syndication contract set expire december 2010. in january 2011 show resumed on satellite radio.

schlessinger held media matters responsible boycott, called typical tactic of group fulfill sole purpose of silencing people. said boycotts threat of attack on advertisers , stations had violated first amendment free speech rights. media matters said that, boycott not government-sanctioned censorship , first amendment rights had not been violated.

war on fox

in 2010, mmfa declared war on fox. brock said mmfa focus efforts on fox , select conservative websites in brock called all-out campaign of guerrilla warfare , sabotage. mmfa said greater attention given fox part of campaign educate public distortions of conservative media, , greater attention given fox in line prominence. mmfa said drop fox campaign advertisers boycott fox part of educational mission. mmfa said changing fox, not shutting down, goal.

in december 2013, war on fox officially concluded, mmfa executive vp angelo carusone claiming war on fox over. , s not s over, successful. large extent, won, claiming have discredited network s desire seen fair , balanced. around time, glenn beck had departed network , sean hannity s time slot moved 9 p.m. 10 p.m.

tax-exempt status challenge

c. boyden gray, former white house counsel george h. w. bush , fox consultant, sent letter irs in 2011 alleging mmfa s activities including war on fox not educational, instead unlawful conduct , asking mmfa s tax-exempt status revoked. prior gray s irs petition, politico reported fox news had run more 30 segments calling nonprofit group stripped of tax-exempt status. in report, politico said fox news , fox business campaigns held, non-profit status educator violated partisan attacks. sentiment first laid out piece written gray washington times in june. in interview fox news, gray said s not unlawful. s not charitable.

mmfa vice-president ari rabin-havt said c. boyden gray [a] koch-affiliated, former fox news contributor flights of fancy have been discredited actual experts in tax law. gray denied having been on fox s payroll while fox consultant in 2005, @ time, fox had said gray contributor, adding: pay contributors strong opinions.

marcus owens, former director of irs s exempt organizations division, told politico in 2011 believed law on media matters s side. owens told fox business irs probe reveal if partisan activity takes substantial enough part of mmfa s operations disallow tax-free status; irs allows limited political activity @ nonprofits if not take substantial amount of operations.