Beck Departs, Media Matters Plots New Targets

The left-leaning watchdog group, which has pressured advertisers to yank support of conservative media personalities, ranks Andrew Breitbart, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and others in separate "tiers" of influence, beliefs and reach.

According to a story by Paul Bond at The Hollywood Reporter, now that Media Matters has declared victory over Glenn Beck, what's next on its agenda? Getting Donald Trump to stop questioning where President Obama was born, perhaps, or maybe convincing advertisers to yank their support of another show on Fox News Channel. Maybe the left-leaning watchdog group will step up its campaign against online entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart.

It's all on the table, but the only thing that's for sure is whoever takes Beck's time slot when he ends his Fox News Channel show this year will be an instant target of the group.

"We monitor Beck's 5 p.m. show on Fox. Whoever is in at 5 p.m., we're still going to monitor," said executive vp Ari Rabin-Havt, the No. 2 executive at Media Matters. "The likelihood is whoever is on at 5 p.m. is going to be a source of conservative misinformation."

Beyond that, though, Media Matters isn't spilling its exact agenda, acknowledging only that there are "discussions" concerning Trump, Breitbart and others on an ongoing basis. But the advertising gambit -- which worked so well against Beck by discouraging most big brands to avoid his TV show -- is a tactic the group likes to use sparingly.

Besides the campaign against Beck, Media Matters has only targeted advertisers on two other occasions in the past two years, and was successful both times: when Dr. Laura Schlessinger used the N-word in a rant against political correctness on her former radio show and against Lou Dobbs while on CNN because of his stance on illegal immigration and his status as a "birther."

Media Matters -- which operates on a $14 million budget, up from $9 million two years ago (financial backers have included billionaire George Soros, film producer Steve Bing and TV producer Marcy Carsey) -- employs 86 people, many of whom make up teams of a half-dozen people who monitor 24 TV shows daily and dozens of radio shows.

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