BLOGGERGATE: Hillary Leads Army of Paid Bloggers

NewsMax ran a slightly edited version of my October 11, 2007 Bloggergate story on October 18, 2007. The NewsMax version appeared here. BLOGGERGATE: A 7-Part Series Hillary, Soros and the Blog-for-Pay Scandal that Never Made the News Bloggers Take Democrat Bribes, October 10, 2003 BLOGGERGATE: Unfolding Scandal or False Alarm?, October 12, 2003 BLOGGERGATE: Media Matters Implicated in Blogger Payoffs, October 10, 2006 The Hillary-Soros Axis, October 5, 2007 BLOGGERGATE: Hillary Leads Army of Paid Bloggers, October 11, 2007 Hillary’s Paid Bloggers, October 22, 2007 Hillary Planned Bloggergate in 1995, October 29, 2007

This document — an application for a “New Journalist” fellowship from the Center for Independent Media (CIM) — shows that the Center offers “stipends” to bloggers of up to $18,000 per year. CIM formerly worked from an office owned by Media Matters for America, a Democrat front group which Hillary Clinton admits she helped “start” and “support”. To download a copy of the full CIM application form, go here.

Most Hillary watchers have had a chance by now to view the controversial YouTube video in which the junior senator from New York brags that she has personally helped flood the Internet with a “network” of leftwing blogs. Her boast raises troubling questions. On a practical level, just how exactly does a U.S. Senator go about exerting her power to stack the blogosphere in her favor?

One obvious method is to buy favorable coverage. Hillary’s boast carries a strong implication that she has subsidized bloggers. Regular readers of RichardPoe.com will be reminded of Bloggergate — a little-known, but ever-burgeoning, scandal which we have followed on this blog since 2003. (1)

The Bloggergate scandal erupted when the two most prominent leftwing bloggers on the Internet — Jerome Armstrong of MyDD and DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuñiga — both admitted to getting cash from Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. (2)

The scandal heated up when Republican blogger Michael B. Brodkorb of Minnesota — assailed by piranha-like swarms of leftist bloggers — revealed that his tormentors were on the take, that is, that they had been getting generous cash “fellowships” from an outfit called the Center for Independent Media (CIM). At that time — October 2006 — CIM was working from an office in Washington, DC owned by the Democrat front group Media Matters for America, Brodkorb discovered. (3)

Curiously, it turns out that the co-founders of CIM, David S. Bennahum and Alexandra Savino, are both Media Matters alumni. Mr. Bennahum helped found Media Matters, serving as one of its original senior fellows. (4) Miss Savino worked for Media Matters as a blogosphere analyst. (5)

Now Bloggergate has spun into overdrive with Hillary Clinton’s revelation, from her own lips, that she helped “start” and “support” Media Matters. After all these years, can it be that we have finally identified the source of the Bloggergate money stream? Can it be that leftwing bloggers get their cash directly from Hillary Clinton and George Soros, through their infamous “Shadow Party” fundraising network?

Here is what Hillary said on the now-infamous YouTube video:

Hillary Clinton: “We are… putting together a network in the blogosphere”

Hillary Clinton boasted in an August 4 speech that she was personally involved in turning the Internet from a predominantly right-leaning to a predominantly left-leaning medium, through such organizations as Media Matters and the Center for American Progress, which she “helped to start.”

Hillary: I would wish that we had this active and fighting a blogosphere about fifteen years ago, because we have certainly suffered over the last years from a real imbalance in the political world in our country, but we are righting that balance — or lefting that balance — I’m not sure which, and certainly are better prepared and more focused on taking our arguments and making them effective and disseminating them widely and really putting together a network in the blogosphere. In a lot of the new progressive infrastructure, institutions that I helped to start and support like Media Matters and Center for American Progress, we’re beginning to match what I had said for years was the advantage of the other side. (6) Read more »

Hillary Clinton
YearlyKos Convention, Chicago
August 4, 2007

Readers are urged to take special note of the above.

In the above-cited quote, Hillary claims to have “helped start and support” certain institutions tasked with correcting an alleged “imbalance” between rightwing and leftwing media. These institutions form a part of what Hillary calls “a new progressive infrastructure”. According to Hillary, the “infrastructure” she “helped” build has given rise to a leftwing “network in the blogosphere” capable of “matching” the “advantage of the other side”. In this regard, she names two institutions specifically; Media Matters for America and the Center for American Progress.

My esteemed coauthor David Horowitz and I described the peculiar relationship between these two groups in our book The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Siezed Control of the Democratic Party. Of the Center for American Progress, we wrote:

Excerpted from The Shadow Party

Robert Dreyfuss reported in the 1 March 2004 edition of the Nation, “The idea for the Center began with discussions in 2002 between [Morton] Halperin and George Soros, the billionaire investor… Halperin, who heads the office of Soros’ Open Society Institute, brought [John] Podesta into the discussion…” (7)

Soros and Halperin then recruited Harold Ickes — chief fundraiser and former deputy chief of staff for the Clinton White House — to help organize the Center. It was launched on 7 July 2003…

Hillary subsequently told the Nation‘s Dreyfuss, “We’ve had the challenge of filling a void on our side of the ledger for a long time, while the other side created an infrastructure that has come to dominate political discourse. The Center is a welcome effort fill that void.”…

Persistent press leaks confirm that Hillary calls the shots at the Center — not its director, John Podesta. “It’s the official Hillary Clinton think tank”, an inside source confirmed. (8) …

Dreyfuss notes the abundance of Clintonites on the Center’s staff… “In looking at Podesta’s center,” Dreyfuss muses, “there’s no escaping the imprint of the Clintons. It’s not completely wrong to see it as a shadow government, a kind of Clinton White-House-in-exile — or a White House staff in readiness for President Hillary Clinton.” (9) (10)

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Excerpted from: The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Siezed Control of the Democratic Party by David Horowitz and Richard Poe pages 187-189

In 2004, the Center for American Progress gave birth to a new organization called Media Matters for America. David Horowitz and I wrote the following in The Shadow Party:

Excerpted from The Shadow Party

Another of the Center’s missions is to carry out “rapid response” to what it calls conservative “attacks” in the media. …

The Center for American Progress immediately helped launch a fraternal project, Media Matters for America, better known for its website MediaMatters.org. … [President and CEO David] Brock is a former conservative journalist who defected to the left amidst an outpouring of dramatic public confessions that he had built his career on lies, writing political hit pieces filled with flimsy evidence. Whatever Brock lacks in credibility, he more than makes up for in currying influence. Brock told the New York Times that he conferred with Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Tom Daschle and former Vice President Al Gore before launching the website.

The New York Times generously provided a 1,041-word feature article to announce Brock’s grand opening in May 2004: “Mr. Brock’s project was developed with help from the newly formed Center for American Progress… Podesta has loaned office space in the past to Mr. Brock and introduced him to potential donors”. Brock received $2 million for the start-up. His donors include friend-of-Hillary Susie Tompkins Buell, co-founder of the fashion company Esprit; Leo Hindery Jr., former CEO of the scandal-ridden Global Crossing; and San Francisco philanthropist James C. Hormel… (11)

One of Brock’s first projects was to exert pressure on Congress and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to ban Rush Limbaugh from American Forces Radio and Television Service — thus depriving the troops in Iraq of one of the few radio programs they are allowed to hear which wholeheartedly supports them and the cause for which they fight. (12)

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Excerpted from: The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Siezed Control of the Democratic Party by David Horowitz and Richard Poe pages 189-191

Much like a yeast colony, in which each bud of yeast sprouts new buds, which in turn sprout buds of their own, the Center for American Progress spawned Media Matters, which has now begun spawning offshoots of its own. One of these offshoots is the Center for Independent Media (CIM). Launched in April 2006, it initially worked from an office owned by Media Matters at 1625 Massachusetts Avenue NW, 3rd Floor, Washington DC.

Through a system of media “fellowships“, CIM recruits, trains, directs and finances a veritable army of leftwing bloggers, all subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer, thanks to the Center’s 501(c)(3) tax-free status.

According to the Center’s fellowship application, CIM offers bloggers a three-month, renewable fellowship which includes such perks as “a stipend of $4500 to be paid over 3 months”, “editorial mentorship from experts in the field of blogging and/or journalism”, access to expensive databases such as LexisNexis, as well as free legal advice, training and technical support. (14)

Because CIM fellowships expire after three months, CIM “fellows” are always on the hot seat. If CIM is satisfied with the blogger’s performance, it will renew his fellowship. Otherwise, it will not. Plainly, CIM bloggers have much to gain if they toe the party line — and much to lose if they fail to satisfy their benefactors.

CIM does not publish a full list of its bloggers. We can only speculate on their number. However, the CIM website does provide a “select” list of some of its more prominent “fellows”. These are shown in the chart below. (15)

by Richard Poe
October 11, 2007 05:08 PM ET
Last updated October 15, 2007

FreeRepublic.com 10/15/2007 10:37:36 AM PDT

NOTES

1. Richard Poe, “Bloggers Take Democrat Bribes“, Richardpoe.com, 10 October 2003, 11:55 AM ET

Richard Poe, “BLOGGERGATE: Unfolding Scandal or False Alarm?“, RichardPoe.com, 12 October 2003, 01:58 PM ET

Richard Poe, “BLOGGERGATE: Pro-Dean Bloggers Get Cash“, RichardPoe.com, 14 January 2005, 10:56 AM ET

Richard Poe, “The Kossacks: Growing Force on the Left“, MoonbatCentral.com, 2 March 2005, 10:35 AM ET

Richard Poe, “Red Blogs Rising“, MoonbatCentral.com, 2 March 2005

Richard Poe, “Bloggergate: Media ‘Watchdog’ Group Implicated in Blogger Payoffs“, Poe.com, 10 October 2006, 06:44 AM ET

2. Zephyr Teachout, “Financially Interested Blogging“, Zonkette.blogspot.com, 10 October 2006

William M. Bulkeley and James Bandler, “Dean Campaign Made Payments To Two Bloggers“, The Wall Street Journal, 14 January 2005

3. Michael B. Brodkorb, “MDE Exclusive: Minnesota Monitor & Center For Independent Media Exposed“, Minnesota Democrats Exposed, 2 October 2006

4. David S. Bennahum, “About Me“, bennahum.com, 30 October 2004, retrieved 14 October 2007

5. “Alexandra Savino“, YearlyKosConvention.org, retrieved 14 October 2007

6. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Speech to YearlyKos Convention 2007, Chicago, IL, 4 August 2007

7. Robert Dreyfuss, “An Idea Factory for the Democrats,” The Nation, 1 March 2004, 18

8. Christian Bourge, “Liberal Think Tank Debuts,” United Press International, July 7, 2003

9. Dreyfuss, The Nation, 1 March 2004, 18

10. David Horowitz and Richard Poe, The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Siezed Control of the Democratic Party (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2006), 187-189

11. Jim Rutenberg, “New Internet Site Turns Critical Eyes and Ears to the Right“, New York Times, 3 May 2004

12. Horowitz and Poe, The Shadow Party, 189-191

13. “Our Sites”, NewJournalist.org, Center for Independent Media, retrieved 11 October 2007

14. “New Journalist Fellowship Application“, New Journalist Pilot Program, The Center for Independent Media, application deadline: 30 July 2006

15. “Fellows“, NewJournalist.org, Center for Independent Media, retrieved 11 October 2007

NewsMax ran a slightly edited version of my October 11, 2007 Bloggergate story on October 18, 2007. The NewsMax version appeared here. BLOGGERGATE: A 7-Part Series Hillary, Soros and the Blog-for-Pay Scandal that Never Made the News Bloggers Take Democrat Bribes, October 10, 2003 BLOGGERGATE: Unfolding Scandal or False Alarm?, October 12, 2003 BLOGGERGATE: Media Matters Implicated in Blogger Payoffs, October 10, 2006 The Hillary-Soros Axis, October 5, 2007 BLOGGERGATE: Hillary Leads Army of Paid Bloggers, October 11, 2007 Hillary’s Paid Bloggers, October 22, 2007 Hillary Planned Bloggergate in 1995, October 29, 2007