Media Matters is a 501C3 non-profit educational foundation run by Angelo Carusone. Their official mission statement for the IRS is “DEDICATED TO COMPREHENSIVELY MONITORING, ANALYZING, AND CORRECTING CONSERVATIVE MISINFORMATION IN THE U.S. MEDIA.”
In 2021, they received $19,735,543 in contributions and grants and $59,386 in other revenue.
Of this $18,794,929, they spent $620,000 on grants, $1,800,000 on fundraising, and $8,942,114 on salaries and employee compensation. Another $4,533,079 went to other expenses.
The largest of these expenses are listed as:
Political Lobbying: $944,760
Occupancy: $1,034,841
Information Technology: $551,691
Travel: $245,212
Advertising: $227,812
Dues/Subscriptions: $228,807
Office: $223,966
Research: $215,479
Depreciation: $171,914
They had $2,899,736 left over for net remaining funds of $11,006,652. Carusone received $470,553 in total employee compensation.
Media Matters is most famous for waging a daily war against FOX News and Donald Trump. Carusone himself got his start in politics launching the “Dump Donald Trump Campaign” in 2012. He became the head of Media Matters in 2016.
As far as anyone can tell, the vast majority of the money spent by Media Matters is to run their website, which posts 2-4 articles daily. For years, the vast majority of articles have been centered around Donald Trump and FOX News. Now, they have added Elon Musk and Twitter to the mix.
Media Matters, total expenses:
2022: $15,895,193
2021: $14,064,585
2019: $13,594,863
2018: $13,151,307
SimilarWeb estimates that Media Matters received an average of 944k monthly visits from August to October of 2023. By comparison, SimilarWeb estimates that American Renaissance received an average of 585k visits per month during the same period. Consider that America Renaissance operates on a budget that is a minuscule fraction of Media Matters, receives no support from major media, and is being blocked by Facebook and Twitter!
The influence of Media Matters is wildly amplified by MSNBC and others, primarily media outlets that are competitors of FOX News.
Media Matter was originally launched in 2004. It received millions from New Democracy Alliance and MoveOn. John Podesta, a former White House staffer for Bill Clinton and Barak Obama, gave them office space to use. George Soros is also known to have given them money.
