Outlet profile

Media Matters for America

U.S. left / progressive

Owned byIndependent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C.; founded by David Brock and currently led by President and CEO Angelo Carusone

FundingDonor-funded nonprofit; major contributors have included progressive megadonors such as George Soros ($1 million in 2010), LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman ($1.3 million revealed in 2024 court filings), and pass-through vehicles including the Tides Foundation and New Venture Fund; launched in 2004 with approximately $2 million in donations and early support from the Center for American Progress

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Media Matters for America was founded in May 2004 by David Brock, a formerly conservative journalist who had previously written for outlets like The American Spectator before becoming a prominent critic of the right. The organization launched with roughly $2 million in donations and initial backing from the Center for American Progress, with an explicit mission to 'comprehensively monitor, analyze, and correct conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.' It quickly became a go-to resource for liberal activists and journalists tracking Fox News and right-wing talk radio, building a large archive of transcripts and clips. George Soros donated $1 million in 2010, and a range of progressive foundations and wealthy Democratic donors have funded it since. Angelo Carusone, who joined the organization in 2010 as a campaign strategist, became president in December 2016 after Brock stepped back, and later also took the board chairman role in 2022. The organization faced a major legal threat beginning in 2023 when Elon Musk's X Corp. (formerly Twitter) sued it, alleging that Media Matters had manipulated its platform to make advertisements appear next to extremist content; legal costs from that case and other fronts reached approximately $15 million by 2025. The Trump administration's FTC launched a separate investigation into the organization, which Media Matters sued in June 2025 as First Amendment retaliation; the FTC dropped that investigation in April 2026. These overlapping legal and financial pressures forced staff reductions and, by mid-2025, had the organization contemplating whether it could continue operating.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-01; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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