Now we know: Earlier this year, the left-wing activist group Media Matters began an all-out effort to destroy conservatives. The founder laid out the details in the 49-page “Democracy Matters: Plan for Strategic Action.” He didn’t expect it to be leaked to the public.
In a document labeled “Private & Confidential,” Media Matters founder David Brock explains how the group intends to take down some of the most well-known leaders on the right and squelch conservative speech and policies. Left-wing billionaire George Soros is one of the financial backers.
Beyond Traditional Free Speech
The group will work with several partners. American Bridge 21st Century will provide research. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, is an ethics watchdog group similar to Judicial Watch. Shareblue is a social media firm. The plan describes Shareblue as “the antidote to Breitbart.”
Conservative campaigns will be “squashed,” “punished and halted.”
Media Matters intends to discredit right wingers in every area, from social media to the highest levels of government. They will identify and target a list of the “individuals and outlets” who are the most effective, which they refer to as “destructive.” The document promises: “Key right-wing targets will see their influence diminish.”
Media Matters and its partners will pressure Google and Facebook into banning right-leaning sites, which they refer to as “fake news sites and propagandists.” Conservative social media activism campaigns will be “punished and halted.” The group will develop new technologies to spot the early stages of articles they call “fake news,” which seems to mean articles they disagree with, and “quash” them.
The group is amassing a huge army of hundreds of thousands of grassroots activists to achieve this. Shareblue increased viewers of its content by 50 percent since the first half of 2016.
The group is training their supporters on Facebook to be more aggressive against the right. They will convince Google and Facebook to censor right-leaning websites and authors. Conservative campaigns will be “squashed,” “punished and halted.”
Their Digital Space
They’re will ramp up their digital outreach. The plan admits that Trump won in part because “Democrats got clobbered in the digital space.”
They will reach voters directly online. Shareblue “will free ourselves from solely relying on the press.” The plan intends to make Shareblue the number one news outlet for the left. American Bridge is setting up a research portal on every topic for the media.
The group is creating technology to “automatically mine white nationalist message boards and alt-right communities.” Media Matters uses the term “alt-right” to include both white nationalists and mainstream conservatives, even though they hold two separate philosophies.
Major Target: President Trump
A big part of the plan focuses on destroying President Donald Trump. They “will delegitimize Donald Trump’s presidency.” If the American people reelect him in the 2020 election, they will work to have Congress impeach him.
“Trump will be afflicted by a steady flow of damaging information, new revelations, and an inability to avoid conflicts issues.” American Bridge will seek out people who know Trump but have turned on him. It will film their stories. CREW will look into Trump and his family’s personal sides. They will try and find conflicts of interest. They will barrage him with public records requests.
Shareblue will pressure Democrats to come after Trump more aggressively. It intends to target journalists who engage in “even the slightest bit of normalization of Trump.” Shareblue will build a “proprietary algorithm that is specifically designed to amplify negative content for Trump.” For example, the group will provide “nonstop coverage of the influence of Vladimir Putin and Russia on Trump and his administration.”
The group will also spotlight “the Trump administration’s vast ties to white nationalists and the ways in which they explicitly empower white supremacy.” Shareblue claims credit for being the first to call out “Trump’s explicit strategy: To foment a white nationalist uprising.” Shareblue added a new team that will focus on tracking news from Trump and calling it out as disinformation or fake news.
Latest Target: Sean Hannity
A couple of months ago, Media Matters started a campaign to stop businesses from advertising on talk show host Sean Hannity’s TV and radio shows. It was mainly in retaliation for his coverage of the unsolved murder of former DNC staffer Seth Rich. The group was able to get a few advertisers to drop his show.
After they started peeling away, Hannity stopped discussing the murder. But that wasn’t enough for Media Matters. The group wants Fox News to fire Hannity. They are keeping up the barrage against him.
Other Targets
Others identified as targets include Vice President Mike Pence, the NRA, the Center for Medical Progress, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Cal.), the Koch brothers and ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council).
Shareblue, for example, will expose “the insidious role of Mike Pence.” They are also targeting many GOP governors, including Wisconsin’s Scott Walker. They name some lower level officials, including state legislators, county supervisors and lieutenant governors. Shareblue boasts, “Trump allies will be forced to step down or change course.”
The plan identifies its competitors on the right as Breitbart, the Media Research Center, Trump’s Twitter account and his new Trump TV. “Media Matters is ready to stop them.”
Push Back
The group is starting to have success. Hannity has not resumed talking about the Seth Rich murder. They claim credit for many other takedowns.
They report success targeting the NRA, the Center for Medical Progress, and getting talk show host Glenn Beck kicked off his Fox News show and cable news. Shareblue drove cries of sexism during last year’s election in order to help Hillary Clinton.
But now that their plan has gone public, the right is aware of the threat. This gives them a better idea of how to push back. A new site, Media Equalizer, recently launched to combat Media Matters and defend Hannity. A similar Facebook group, Stop the Scalpings, has over 100,000 members.
The website Stand With Sean went live a couple of weeks ago. The site opposes “these professional liars. We will PROVE that they have a nefarious plot to take down everyone with whom they disagree.” It asks supporters to “Use the hashtag #standwithsean and contact Hannity’s advertisers to let them know you support Sean.”
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