David Brock (Washington, D.C.)
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| David Brock | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Organization: | Media Matters for America |
| Role: | Founder |
| Location: | Washington, D.C. |
| Affiliation: | Democratic |
| Education: | University of California Berkeley |
David Brock is a progressive journalist and activist who started Media Matters for America and American Bridge 21st Century. Brock—formerly a conservative journalist and critic of Bill and Hillary Clinton—also headed Correct the Record, a super PAC that supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Brock is the author of many books, including The Real Anita Hill (1993), Blinded by the Right (2002) and Killing the Messenger (2015).
Career[edit]
Conservative journalism[edit]
David Brock began his career in journalism with the American Spectator, writing a series of articles on Anita Hill and the Clintons throughout the 1990s. Brock was the first reporter to investigate the personal life of Bill Clinton; his reports, according to New York Magazine, "eventually led to Paula Jones’s sexual-harassment lawsuit, which almost ended Clinton’s presidency."[1] In 1997, however, Brock switched his political leaning. His 1996 biography of Hillary Clinton—The Seduction of Hillary Rodham—was intended to be a final journalistic blow to the Clintons. However, according to The Daily Beast, the book was "a measured and largely fair assessment of the first lady that bitterly disappointed Brock’s comrades-in-arms, who—in his telling over the years—cut and shunned him."[2]
In a 1997 piece for Esquire, "Confessions of a Right-Wing Hitman," Brock stepped away from the conservative movement, saying,
| “ | [C]onservatives appear to have concurred all along with the liberal smear that I wasn't a 'real' journalist--I was bought and paid for, an asset of the conservative movement. Because they had partied at my house, I was expected to parrot their prejudices and cover up their secrets. Now I do want out. David Brock the Road Warrior of the Right is dead. I'm not comfortable in either partisan camp, and both camps seem uncomfortable with me. My side turned out to be as dirty as theirs.[3][4] | ” |
Media Matters for America and American Bridge[edit]
- See also: Media Matters for America
- See also: American Bridge 21st Century
In 2002, Brock published Blinded by the Right, a memoir about his work as a conservative journalist. According to Slate's Timothy Noah, the book aimed to show that "the conservative movement made Brock a distorter and a liar, and that the distortions and lies were all in the service of that movement."[5] Shortly thereafter, in 2004, Brock founded Media Matters for America, a media watchdog that focuses on exposing what it calls "conservative misinformation" in U.S. media sources.[6] Media Matters has focused on Fox News specifically. In 2011, Brock told New York Magazine, "What happened after the Obama election, I think, is that Fox morphed into something that isn’t even recognizable as a form of media. It looks more like a political committee than what it looked like pre-Obama, which was essentially talk radio on television. It’s more dangerous now; it’s more lethal."[1] In 2010, Brock founded a similar organization, American Bridge 21st Century. This group is a Super PAC focused on comparing Republicans' campaign promises to their performance in office. The organization does this primarily through videos and news releases.[7] American Bridge and Media Matters share a fundraising firm and many donors.[8]
Correct the Record[edit]
- See also: Correct the Record
For the 2016 election cycle, Brock formed the Super PAC Correct the Record which supported the candidacy of Hillary Clinton (D). The group defined itself as "a strategic research and rapid response team designed to defend Hillary Clinton from baseless attacks."[9] Initially, Correct the Record was strictly an opposition research group associated with American Bridge; in May 2015, the group became a standalone Super PAC.[10] By definition, super PACs are independent expenditure-only committees, meaning that they cannot coordinate with a candidate's campaign. However, as a strictly Internet-based publishing outlet, Correct the Record had attempted to get around this provision. According to The Washington Post,
| “ | Correct the Record believes it can avoid the coordination ban by relying on a 2006 Federal Election Commission regulation that declared that content posted online for free, such as blogs, is off limits from regulation. The “Internet exemption” said that such free postings do not constitute campaign expenditures, allowing independent groups to consult with candidates about the content they post on their sites. By adopting the measure, the FEC limited its online jurisdiction to regulating paid political ads.[11][4] | ” |
According to The Daily Beast, "The idea for CTR [Correct the Record] came to Brock during the Benghazi hearings on Capitol Hill. With Clinton not there to defend herself, having left her post as secretary of state, the right wing was having a field day, Brock says."[12]
Opposition to the Trump administration[edit]
- See also: Opposition to the Trump administration
Intent to build litigation organization[edit]
In a December 2016 interview with Politico, Brock said he intended to build a litigation organization to bring legal pressure on Trump throughout his presidency. Comparing this effort to Judicial Watch, a conservative litigation group, Brock said, "I would like to get Trump into discovery. I would like to subpoena him. I would like to put him under oath. ... I think we need a strategy around how to use the power we have and a lot of that will be about litigation."[13]
Donor retreat, January 2017[edit]
Brock led a donor retreat in January 2017 to discuss paths forward for Democratic donors and strategists. During the retreat, he said that his organizations aimed to raise $40 million, with half going to 501(c)(3) organizations and half going to 501(c)(4) organizations and super PACs. He said the 501(c)(4) groups would focus on opposition research and had decided to work on all competitive 2018 races for U.S. Senate as well as the 2017 races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey, according to Politico.[14]
In prepared remarks at the donor retreat, Brock laid out details on American Bridge's anti-Trump efforts. On January 20, 2017, Brock said:[15]
| “ | American Bridge has already set up a world-class vetting operation, the largest in the Democratic Party, to investigate the records of some 1,200 potential Trump nominees to federal office. We will do this with eyes wide open. Even if most of the nominees are eventually confirmed, by making the confirmation process as painful as possible, for every moment the Administration spends on defense, we're educating Americans on what this administration is about. ... We're also researching Trump's policy agenda to illustrate its impacts, especially on working families, women, immigrants and people of color. American Bridge will communicate its findings to Congress, the news media, progressive allies and to the public directly, including, critically, a targeted campaign to reach Trump's own supporters on social media and through paid advertising.[4] | ” |
Clinton relationship[edit]
Throughout David Brock's career, his work has intersected with both Bill and Hillary Clinton. Although Brock was an outspoken critic of the former president during Clinton's tenure in the White House, he formed a Super PAC—Correct the Record—in support of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Clicking on the arrows in the following timeline will direct you between selected moments of the relationship between the Clintons and Brock, from the former president's first term in office to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
Recent news[edit]
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms David Brock. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 New York Magazine, "If I Take Down Fox, Is All Forgiven?" May 22, 2011
- ↑ The Daily Beast, "Can Anyone Ever Truly Trust David Brock?" September 18, 2015
- ↑ Esquire, "Confessions of a right-wing hit man," July 1997
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Slate, "David Brock, Liar," March 27, 2002
- ↑ Media Matters for America, "About," accessed May 26, 2015
- ↑ American Bridge, "Who We Are," accessed July 6, 2012
- ↑ Roll Call, "American Bridge 21st Century Super PAC Is Hub of Left," February 13, 2012
- ↑ Correct the Record, "About," accessed November 10, 2015
- ↑ The New York Times, "Hillary Clinton-Aligned Group Gets Closer to Her Campaign," May 12, 2015
- ↑ The Washington Post, "How a super PAC plans to coordinate directly with Hillary Clinton’s campaign," May 12, 2015
- ↑ The Daily Beast, "Hillary’s Outside Enforcers Are Led by a Former Foe," July 10, 2014
- ↑ Politico, "Liberals cribbing from conservatives’ playbook to attack Trump," December 16, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "Brock groups set $40 million budget to fight Trump," January 21, 2017
- ↑ The Washington Free Beacon, "Read David Brock’s Speech to His Left-Wing Donor Retreat," January 20, 2017
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