America's Future Foundation

I’m glad to have only had one run-in with Media Matters myself. It happened a few years ago: I wrote a very long (3,000 words or so) piece about a documentary by Frank Gaffney that he claimed was being censored by PBS because it was too inflammatory toward Muslims. I spent the bulk of the piece defending PBS from conservative attacks, pointing out that Gaffney’s documentary was flawed and that the network had actually made a good faith effort to portray multiple viewpoints in their “America at a Crossroads series.” So what did they seize on? A few dozen words about how Ken Tomlinson was forced out of the organization. Talk about missing the forests for the trees.

Now they’re going after conservative blogger Sean Medlock, a/k/a Jim Treacher, the Daily Caller writer who was run down by a State Department employee driving a SUV who made an illegal left turn. Sean’s knee was shattered, requiring surgery, which in turn led to pulmonary embolisms. Blogging shortly after the accident — dude’s a trooper! — Sean mentioned that the paramedics told him that the Secret Service had been behind the wheel. When he learned later that it was the State Department, he pointed that out.

So what did Media Matters do? They attacked Sean for, um, whipping up a conspiracy theory about Obama or something. It was honestly bizarre. Fortunately Patterico is on the case, taking Media Matters honcho Eric Boehlert down a notch for being a.) incompetent, and b.) a dick. You should read the whole thing, but here’s a taste:

Boehlert is one to complain about accuracy. He is the guy who:

• Distorted a quote from blogger See Dubya, taking See Dubya’s quote about one of two possible scenarios and turning it into a positive claim by See Dubya.

• Falsely claimed that Jamil Hussein was “under arrest” — and then refused to correct the error . . . in a column about warbloggers’ failures to correct errors. (See? Today’s irony is not without precedent.)

Fibbed about claims made by opponents of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — and then got caught with his pants down by Tom Maguire.

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