A leaked list of donors to Media Matters reveals that the self-proclaimed “media watchdog” is funded by some of America’s largest Democratic donors.
Media Matters, which is not required to disclose its donors due to its designation as a charity, appears to have accidentally identified five of its largest donors in a filing with the New Mexico Attorney General, the Washington Free Beacon first reported.
Deborah Simon, the daughter of the founder of one of America’s largest shopping mall companies, donated $4 million to Media Matters. Simon pledged to “do anything” to beat Trump in 2020 and has given tens of millions of dollars to Democrat candidates and causes, winning her a spot in the top 50 political donors of the 2022 midterm cycle.
The Gill Foundation, the private foundation of LGBT activist Tim Gill, furnished Media Matters with just under $3 million. Gill is a pioneer of the use of “dark money” in politics, helping to flip the Colorado state legislature in 2004 with his Colorado Democracy Alliance, which he co founded with fellow Democrat donor Patricia Stryker.
Another $1.75 million came from Bain Capital co-chairman Joshua Bekenstein and his wife, Anita. The couple has given millions of dollars to Democratic causes and were also in the top 50 political donors in the 2022 midterms.
Media Matters received another $1.9 million from the Stephen Silberstein Foundation, a leftwing organization that has funded other progressive organizations, including the Center for American Progress, Amnesty International, and People for the American Way, among others.
Media Matters raised a total of $16.5 million in 2022, and organization executives enjoyed huge salaries, with president Angelo Carusone collecting a whopping $406,000 and founder David Brock receiving $270,000 as well as a $189,000 payment from a deferred compensation plan.
But while Media Matters is funded by Democrat mega donors and organizes advertiser boycotts against conservatives, it is portrayed as an objective media watchdog by some news outlets have referred to the organization as a “media watchdog,” neglecting to mention its partisan ties.
Media Matters is currently facing investigations from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. The organization was also hit with a lawsuit from X, formerly known as Twitter, alleging that Media Matters sought to “portray X’s social networking platform as being dominated by “white nationalist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” in order to “drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”