21 | February | 2012

This post by Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator is long, but needs to be read in its entirety: Is Media Matters Obama’s Watergate?

I’ve been yawning at the Daily Caller stories chronicling the collusion between Media Matters and the White House because nothing about this administration surprises me, anymore, especially something like this. Oh really? Media Matters is the media arm of the Obama White House feeding all it’s propaganda to MSNBC? Uh….duh?

But when you see how the story lines up so perfectly with what brought down the Nixon administration, you tend to perk up, a little:

What are the striking similarities between Nixon’s Watergate and what might be called, inevitably, Obama’s Media Mattersgate?

• The use of private investigators to investigate the private lives of opponents: In the Nixon era, hiring a private investigator (Tony Ulasewicz) to investigate the private lives of opponents was the brainchild of John Ehrlichman. In the Obama era, hiring private investigators appears as a Media Matters recommendation in a memo by Karl Frisch.

• The involvement of White House aides: This is what the House Judiciary Committee’s liberal Democrat Congressman Sarbanes was referring to when he said Ehrlichman and Caulfield’s involvement meant “that activity [the hiring of private investigators] has the cloak of authority.” In the Obama Administration this “cloak of authority” appears, based on the Daily Caller stories, to attach itself to at minimum two separate episodes. One, the June 16, 2010 meeting between Valerie Jarrett and Media Matters, attended by the recently departed White House Communications Director Anita Dunn. And two, what the Daily Caller describes as “a weekly strategy call” between the White House and Media Matters, the latter the group recommending the employment of private investigators to investigate political opponents of President Obama. Note: The question arises as to whether there were other meetings or discussions between Ms. Jarrett or other White House staffers and Media Matters or a third party go-between that were either on the phone, in e-mail, or — most importantly — did not occur at the White House. Was, for example, Ms. Dunn a go-between for the White House and Media Matters? Both during and after her White House tenure. Again, White House Counsel John Ehrlichman flew to New York for his secret meeting with Tony Ulasewicz in a VIP lounge at LaGuardia Airport. It did not occur in the White House.

• The Nixon tapes and David Brock’s book: What finally ended the Nixon presidency was a unanimous Supreme Court decision forcing the Nixon White House to yield the secretly made tape recordings, whose existence was discovered in the middle of the Senate Watergate Hearings. Those tapes, specifically a tape of June 23, 1972, produced what became known as the “smoking gun”: there, in spite of repeated denials, was the voice of Richard Nixon, in Theodore White’s words, “directing the CIA to halt an FBI investigation which would be politically embarrassing to his re-election — an obstruction of justice.”

If Richard Nixon’s tapes did him in, so well may David Brock’s book do in not only Media Matters but, incredibly, the Obama White House itself. A congressional investigation would doubtless focus on any information in the book obtained through the use of private investigators. Investigators acting under Sarbanes’ rule of a White House “cloak of authority.” Investigators paid for by wealthy Obama contributors.

• Follow the money: For the Nixon White House, the man to see was Nixon lawyer Herbert Kalmbach. It was he who, receiving authorization from John Ehrlichman, (that “cloak of authority”) paid Tony Ulasewicz. Who is the Media Matters equivalent of Herb Kalmbach? Mr. Kalmbach, by the way, went to jail and lost his law license temporarily, it being restored three years after Nixon’s resignation.

Here are the differences, though – and they are monumental differences –

1. As Lord notes, in 1973, the Nixon White House stonewalled – “they made false statements to investigators, withheld evidence, counseled witnesses to lie, interfered with a Justice Department investigation”. I think it goes without saying that there will be no Justice Department investigation of Media Mattersgate in 2012.

2. In 1973, the liberal media was all over Watergate. Every reporter wanted to have a piece of the story. In Obamerica 2012, the MSM are partners in crime with this corrupt White House, and have every reason – including protecting their own reputations – to ignore the story.

As The Daily Caller has exposed here and here, there have been direct ties between Media Matters and various mainstream media outlets. The Caller lists, among others, MSNBC, the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Huffington Post.

Again, I think it goes without saying that there will be no MSM firestorm over MediaMatters Gate, and there will be no Pulitzers in the offing for the bloggers who pursue this story.

And pursue it they should – remember this “great idea” from from Media Matters’ Karl Frisch, which supposedly wasn’t acted upon?

“We should hire private investigators to look into the personal lives of Fox News anchors, hosts, reporters, prominent contributors, senior network and corporate staff.”

The question becomes, how did the reportedly mentally unstable Brock find dirt to “savage” Fox News employees with for his new book:

The “great idea” over at Media Matters surfaced in this line in the Frisch memo that recommended hiring, in effect, a bunch of left-wing Tony Ulasewicz’s. Said the memo:

“[W]e should write a book under David’s name that savages Fox News and Fox News employees. The market for this is likely huge.”

Just this book is bursting onto the scene this week under David Brock’s name: The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine.

Lord concludes that a full congressional investigation is in order

Will Harry Reid do this? Of course not. So the ball bounces to the House. And what will they be looking for? As with Nixon in Watergate, these congressional investigators will be looking for one, very simple thing — a simple thing expressed in multiples of ways by multiples of people. That would be?

Abuse of power.

Well, just one more example of abuse of power out of many for this White House. Whether or not our jellyfish-spined Republicans will act on it, remains to be seen.

SEE ALSO:

Breitbart TV: Brock Breaks Silence:

From the Washington Times: “Media Matters for America founder David Brock finally responded to someone about The Daily Caller series regarding allegations that Washington D.C. based non-profit has a plan of attack against the Fox News Channel that would include investigations into the personal lives of employees who work for the cable news channel.”

Brock blamed Fox News saying that because the allegations made by the Caller have been reported on Fox, the coverage was in response to his book, “The Fox Effect,” that hit shelves today.

Linked by Michelle Malkin, and Doug Ross, thanks!