David Brock (born July 23, 1962) is an American
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
political consultant, author, and commentator who founded the media watchdog group
Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a politically left-leaning 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization and media watchdog group. MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media Res ...
.
He has been described by ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' as "one of the most influential operatives in the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
".
Brock began his career as a
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
investigative reporter during the 1990s.
He wrote the book ''
The Real Anita Hill'' and the
Troopergate story, which led to
Paula Jones
Paula Corbin Jones (born Paula Rosalee Corbin; September 17, 1966) is an American civil servant. A former Arkansas state employee, Jones sued United States President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment in 1994. In the initial lawsuit, Jones cite ...
filing a lawsuit against
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
. In the late-1990s, he switched sides, aligning himself with the Democratic Party and in particular with Bill and Hillary Clinton.
In 2004, he founded
Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a politically left-leaning 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization and media watchdog group. MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media Res ...
, a non-profit organization which describes itself as a "progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media".
He has since also founded super PACs called
American Bridge 21st Century
American Bridge 21st Century or AB PAC is a liberal American Super PAC that supports Democratic candidates and opposes Republican candidates. It was founded by David Brock in 2010 and is associated with Media Matters for America. It is an opp ...
and
Correct the Record
Correct the Record was a hybrid PAC/super PAC founded by David Brock. It supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. The PAC aimed to respond to negative online narratives about Clinton.
History
The organization was created in May 20 ...
, has become a board member of the super PAC
Priorities USA Action
Priorities USA Action is a progressive political action committee and is the largest Democratic Party super PAC. Founded in 2011, it supported Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. It was the primary super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton' ...
and has been elected chairman of
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
Brock left Media Matters in November 2022.
Early life and education
David Brock was born in
and was adopted by Dorothea and Raymond Brock.
[Stated in Brock's '']Blinded by the Right
''Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative'' is a 2002 book written by former conservative journalist David Brock detailing his departure from the conservative movement. It is also the story of his coming out as a gay man.
In ...
'' He has a younger sister, Regina, who was also adopted. Brock was raised Catholic. His father, whom Brock has described as "a
Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph Buchanan (; born November 2, 1938) is an American paleoconservative political commentator, columnist, politician, and broadcaster. Buchanan was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, an ...
conservative", was a marketing executive.
Brock grew up in
Wood-Ridge, New Jersey
Wood-Ridge is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough's population was 10,137, reflecting an increase of 2,511 (32.9%) from the 7,626 counted in the 2010 Census
Wood-Ridge was in ...
, where he went to Our Lady of the Assumption School, and later attended
Paramus Catholic High School
Paramus Catholic High School is a co-educational Roman Catholic high school located in Paramus in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The school, founded in 1965, under Archbishop Thomas A. Boland, and Superintendent of Schools, Mon ...
in
Paramus, New Jersey
Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...
. During his sophomore year of high school, Brock's family moved to the
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
, area where Brock attended
Newman Smith High School
Newman Smith High School is a public high school in Carrollton, Texas, United States in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District. The school opened in 1975, and is named after the former CFBISD superintendent Newman Smith. Smith H ...
. Brock became editor of his high school newspaper, which he says he "fashioned into a crusading liberal weekly in the middle of the Reaganite Sunbelt".
Brock attended the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, where he worked as a reporter and editor for ''
The Daily Californian
''The Daily Californian'' (''Daily Cal'') is an independent, student-run newspaper that serves the University of California, Berkeley, campus and its surrounding community. It formerly published a print edition four days a week on Monday, Tuesd ...
'', the campus newspaper. Brock arrived at college as a liberal Democrat, but at Berkeley he was "repelled by the culture of doctrinaire leftism" and turned to the political right.
[ The turning point came with a column supporting the US invasion of Grenada that he wrote for ''The Daily Californian'' and that led to demands he resign from the newspaper staff. "I thought it was McCarthyism of the left", Brock later said. "I thought it was extremely intolerant."] He then founded a neoconservative weekly, the ''Berkeley Journal''.[
He graduated from Berkeley with a B.A. in history in 1985.
]
Journalism career
Conservative journalism
While he was at Berkeley, Brock contributed an op-ed to ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' entitled "Combating Those Campus Marxists". It drew the attention of John Podhoretz
John Mordecai Podhoretz (; born April 18, 1961) is an American writer. He is the editor of ''Commentary'' magazine, a columnist for the ''New York Post'', the author of several books on politics, and a former speechwriter for Presidents Ronald ...
, who at the time was the editor of ''Insight'', a weekly newsmagazine published by ''The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...
''. Podhoretz flew Brock to Washington, D.C., for an interview and hired him as a writer of the weekly conservative news magazine ''Insight on the News
''Insight on the News'' (also called ''Insight'') was an American conservative print and online news magazine. It was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate founded by Unification movement founder Sun Myung Moon, ...
'', a sister publication of ''The Washington Times'', a job Brock took up in 1986.[
After working at ''Insight'', Brock spent some time as a fellow at ]the Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presiden ...
.[
]
''The Real Anita Hill''
In March 1992, in a 17,000-word article for ''The American Spectator
''The American Spectator'' is a conservative American magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. It was founded in 1967 by Tyrrell, who remains its editor- ...
'', Brock challenged the claims of Anita Hill
Anita Faye Hill (born July 30, 1956) is an American lawyer, educator and author. She is a professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of the university's Heller School for Social Policy and ...
, who had accused Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall and has served since 199 ...
of sexual harassment. Shortly thereafter Brock became a full-time staff member at that publication. In 1993, Brock expanded his article into a book, ''The Real Anita Hill''. Brock's description of Hill in the book as "a bit nutty and a bit slutty" was widely quoted.[
The book became a best-seller. It was later attacked in a book review in '']The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' by Jane Mayer
Jane Meredith Mayer (born 1955) is an American investigative journalist who has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1995. She has written for the publication about money in politics; government prosecution of whistleblowers; the Uni ...
, a reporter for ''The New Yorker'', and Jill Abramson
Jill Ellen Abramson (born March 19, 1954) is an American author, journalist, and academic. She is best known as the former executive editor of ''The New York Times''; Abramson held that position from September 2011 to May 2014. She was the first ...
, who was at that time a reporter for ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
''. The two later expanded their article into the book ''Strange Justice'', which cast Anita Hill in a much more sympathetic light. It, too, was a best-seller. Brock replied to their book with a book review of his own in ''The American Spectator''. In that review, he asserted that Mayer and Abramson had no evidence to claim that Clarence Thomas was a habitual user of pornography. Later, in his book ''Blinded by the Right
''Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative'' is a 2002 book written by former conservative journalist David Brock detailing his departure from the conservative movement. It is also the story of his coming out as a gay man.
In ...
'', he wrote, "When I wrote those words, I knew they were false. I put a lie in print."
Troopergate
In a January 1994 ''The American Spectator'' story about Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
's time as governor of Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
, Brock, by then on staff at the magazine, made accusations that bred Troopergate. Among other things, the story contained the first printed reference to Paula Jones
Paula Corbin Jones (born Paula Rosalee Corbin; September 17, 1966) is an American civil servant. A former Arkansas state employee, Jones sued United States President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment in 1994. In the initial lawsuit, Jones cite ...
, referring to a woman named "Paula" who state troopers said offered to be Clinton's partner. Jones called Brock's account of her encounter with Clinton "totally wrong", and she later sued Clinton for sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
, a case that became entangled in the independent counsel
The Office of Special Counsel was an office of the United States Department of Justice established by provisions in the Ethics in Government Act that expired in 1999. The provisions were replaced by Department of Justice regulation 28 CFR Part ...
's investigation of the Whitewater controversy
The Whitewater controversy, Whitewater scandal, Whitewatergate, or simply Whitewater, was an American political controversy during the 1990s. It began with an investigation into the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their as ...
, and set in motion a series of developments that led to the exposure of Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky
Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American activist and writer. President Bill Clinton admitted to having an affair with Lewinsky while she worked at the White House as an intern in 1995 and 1996. The affair, and its repercus ...
and, ultimately, to Clinton's impeachment trial.[ The story received an award later that year from ]Joseph Farah
Joseph Francis Farah (born July 6, 1954) is an American author, journalist and editor-in-chief of the conservative website ''WorldNetDaily'' ''(WND)''.
Early years
Farah was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on July 6, 1954, to parents of Syrian ...
's Western Journalism Center The Western Journalism Center (also called the Western Center for Journalism) was founded in 1991 by Joseph Farah and James H. Smith. Based in Sacramento, California. The center produces a conservative newsletter.
Projects
The Center helped fund ...
, and was partially responsible for a rise in the magazine's circulation. Brock later recanted much of what he had written about Clinton and Jones.
''The Seduction of Hillary Rodham''
After the success of ''The Real Anita Hill'', Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
's then-conservative-focused Free Press subsidiary paid Brock a large advance to write a book about Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
. The expectation was that it would be a takedown in the style of his writings on Anita Hill and Bill Clinton. The project, however, took a different turn, and the resulting book, ''The Seduction of Hillary Rodham'', proved to be largely sympathetic to Mrs. Clinton. Given the large advance and tight one-year deadline by Free Press, Brock was under tremendous pressure to produce another bestseller. However, the book contained no major scoops. In ''Blinded by the Right'' (2002), Brock said that he had reached a turning point: he had thoroughly examined charges against the Clintons, could not find any evidence of wrongdoing and did not want to make any more misleading claims. Brock further said that his former friends in right-wing politics
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, author ...
shunned him because ''Seduction'' did not adequately attack the Clintons. ''National Review'' proposed another theory: since "no liberal source in the world would talk to Brock", he could not collect the kind of information he was after. ''National Review'' also suggested that while writing the book, Brock had been "seduced" by Sidney Blumenthal
Sidney Stone Blumenthal (born November 6, 1948) is an American journalist and political operative. A former aide to President Bill Clinton, he is a long-time confidant of Hillary Clinton and was formerly employed by the Clinton Foundation. As a ...
, a champion and friend of the Clinton circle.
When the book came out, it was widely criticized for not breaking any new ground. John Balzar, reviewing the book in the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', called it " haustive to the point of exhaustion" and "predictably critical but unexpectedly measured, at least in comparison to what Beltway gossips anticipated". James B. Stewart
James Bennett Stewart (born c. 1952) is an American lawyer, journalist, and author.
Early life and education
Stewart was born in Quincy, Illinois. He graduated from DePauw University and Harvard Law School.
Career
He is a member of the Bar o ...
, reviewing the book in ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', said that Brock had "tried to do his subject justice in the broadest sense" but added that " times he goes too far", often "echo ngher apologists" and "dismiss ngor rationaliz ngthe sometimes powerful evidence that Hillary Rodham Clinton has lied ... by invoking a relativism rooted in Republican precedents."
Changing sides
''The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'' has described Brock as a "conservative journalistic assassin turned progressive empire-builder" while ''National Review
''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief i ...
'' has called him a "right-wing assassin turned left-wing assassin" and ''Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'' has profiled him as a "former right-wing journalist-turned-pro-Clinton crusader".
In July 1997, ''Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'' magazine published a confessional piece by Brock entitled "Confessions of a Right-Wing Hit Man" in which he recanted much of what he said in his two best-known ''American Spectator'' articles and criticized his own reporting methods. Discouraged at the reaction his Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
biography received, he said, "I ... want out. David Brock the Road Warrior of the Right is dead." Four months later, ''The American Spectator'' declined to renew his employment contract, under which he was being paid over $300,000 per year.
Writing again for ''Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'' in April 1998, Brock apologized to Clinton for his yellow journalism about Troopergate.
In 2001, Brock accused one of his former sources, Terry Wooten, of leaking FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
files for use in his book about Anita Hill. Brock defended his betrayal of a confidential source by saying, "I've concluded that what I was involved in wasn't journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
, it was a political operation, and I was part of it. ... So I don't think the normal rules of journalism would apply to what I was doing". Wooten denies the accusation.
''Blinded by the Right''
Brock's book ''Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative'' was published in 2002. In this book, an "outgrowth" of ''Confessions of a Right-Wing Hit Man'', Brock charted what the ''Daily Beast'' called his "remarkable metamorphosis to ardent acolyte from sworn enemy of Bill and Hillary Clinton." Brock apologized for his attacks on the Clintons and Anita Hill and claimed that he had now risen above character assassination. He wrote that he had been "a mad dog, an emotional monster", "a whore for the cash", "a Jew in Hitler's army", and "a witting cog in the Republican sleaze machine", and asserted that he hadn't known "what good reporting was".
Many critics responded with skepticism to Brock's claim to have reformed himself. The reviewer for ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' wrote that Brock "quotes the worst things critics said about him, and agrees with every word". Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...
, in ''The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'', called Brock's book "an exercise in self-love, disguised as an exercise in self-abnegation", and declared that Brock was failing to state the truth. These and other critics noted that Brock, while claiming to feel remorse for his attacks on the Clintons and professing to have put personal assaults behind him, now seemed as eager to go after targets on the right as he had once gone after targets on the left. Hitchens responded with disgust, for example, to Brock's "coarse attack" in the book on Juanita Broaddrick
Juanita Broaddrick is an American former nursing home administrator. She alleged that she was raped by U.S. President Bill Clinton on April 25, 1978, when he (aged 32) was the Attorney General of Arkansas. Clinton's attorney, David E. Kendall, ...
, who had accused Bill Clinton of rape, but denied the rape under oath. Hitchens was particularly harsh, stating that Brock "inserts a completely gratuitous slander against a decent woman, all of whose independent assertions have survived meticulous fact-checking".
Many readers on the left, however, greeted the book with enthusiasm, and eagerly welcomed Brock. This was especially true of the Clintons. Shortly after the book's publication, Bill Clinton phoned Brock at home and praised it lavishly. Later, according to ''Politico'', "Brock was invited to the former president's Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...
office where he was shocked to discover Clinton had purchased dozens of copies — and stuffed them into a big cabinet". Clinton, it turned out, was mailing them to friends across the country. Clinton "insisted" that Brock contact his speaking agent and give talks around the country attacking conservatives. According to ''The Nation'', Democratic donors "loved Brock's conversion story, particularly since he'd been inside the machine they hoped to replicate."[ Brock's book is seen as having propelled him into a favorable position among the Democratic Party establishment.]
''The Republican Noise Machine''
Brock directly addressed the right-wing "machine" in his 2004 book, ''The Republican Noise Machine'', in which he detailed an alleged interconnected, concerted effort to raise the profile of conservative opinions in the press through false accusations of liberal media bias
Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of many events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening of ...
, dishonest and highly partisan columnists, partisan news organizations and academic studies, and other methods.
''Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' (''PW'') described it as a "blistering j'accuse" that, compared to ''Blinded by the Right'', was "a less gossipy and more systematic assault on the right-wing media juggernaut." Brock, according to ''PW'', depicted the mainstream media as being "cowed by spurious charges of 'liberal bias'" and as therefore having "abandoned their role as objective arbiters of truth in favor of an uncritical airing of partisan ideology in the name of 'balance.'" ''PW'' stated that Brock could not "be accused of nonpartisanship".
Also in 2004, he featured briefly in the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
engaged in political terrorism.
(MMA) which describes itself as being "dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."
Brock said that he founded the organization to combat the conservative journalism sector that he had once been a part of. He founded the group with help from the
. Initial donors included
.
Media Matters is known for its aggressive criticism of conservative journalists and media outlets, including its "War on Fox News". ''The New York Times'', in a 2008 profile, called MMA "a highly partisan research organization" and quoted Democratic operative
as saying that MMA was "more effective than any single entity" on the left. Pollster
called MMA "one of the most destructive organizations associated with American politics today." In a 2011 interview with ''
" against Fox News.
When Brock proposed the idea of Media Matters, Hillary Clinton invited him to the Clintons' Chappaqua home to pitch the idea to potential donors.
MMA, according to a 2015 article in ''The Daily Beast'', "operates from a posh Washington office space with a multi-million-dollar budget and nearly 100 employees."
In 2014, ''The Nation'' stated that "Brock, in partnership with fundraiser Mary Pat Bonner—often described as his secret weapon—has turned out to be unparalleled at maintaining rich liberals' loyalty and support." An insider told ''The Nation'' that Brock and Bonner "are probably the most effective major-individual-donor fundraising team ever assembled in the independent-expenditure progressive world."