Media Matters | Be a Seed for Change

Benghazi. IRS targeting of the Tea Party. Benghazi. Government ammo stockpiling. Taxpayer-funded abortions. Even more Benghazi. The War on Christmas.
What do this year’s most resilient right-wing myths have in common?
They’re all phony scandals — sensational narratives cooked up from twisted facts or outright lies, designed to manufacture outrage for partisan gain.
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Because of their emotional nature, phony scandals are a special challenge to discredit or contain. They play on frustrations and assumptions. They drive ratings; they go viral. Each one has been declared “the worst since Watergate.”
To fight back against this year’s lies, Media Matters had to know more about the “scandals” than the people and organizations spreading them. When the misinformers tweaked a detail or changed their story, we were there to catch them in the act. And when those same hoaxes crept into the mainstream media, we were prepared to immediately and methodically take them down, again and again.
No matter the issue, the media’s coverage of it drives key policy debates and decisions. That’s why the truth-telling work that Media Matters does matters so much.
Today, we’re kicking off our year-end fundraiser so that we can continue to fight back against phony scandals and cheap outrage.
Click here to help us reach our $50,000 fundraising goal by the end of the year.
Phony scandals use their staying power to distract us from genuine issues that are worth our attention. Don’t let the conservative echo chamber manipulate our debate with lies and smears.
Your support makes a difference. Keep us watching in 2014: http://action.mediamatters.org/donate_2013
Sincerely,
Bradley Beychok President Media Matters for America