Former CBS investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson revealed that the far-left watchdog "Media Matters for America" turned against her once she reported on stories unflattering to the Obama administration like the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal and green energy cronyism for CBS.
Attkisson made the remarks during a Sunday interview on the CNN media show Reliable Sources.
Media Matters has made a special case of attacking Attkisson, who ruffled many left-wing feathers when she resigned and said that her work for CBS had been stifled by liberals within the network. That is not an old charge, as former CBS correspondent Bernard Goldberg wrote in the best-selling book Bias, explaining how the truth was often distorted at the network because of political bias.
"Media Matters, by my understanding, is a far-left blog group that I think holds itself out to be sort of an independent media watchdog group," Attkisson said. "And, yes, they clearly targeted me at some point. They used to work with me on stories, try to help me, you know, produce my stories and at some point--"
"That's interesting," said host Brian Stelter.
"Well, don't they call you? They call journalists and they try to provide material and information," she replied.
"Right, they are always emailing things, making us try to act outraged about something," Stelter said.
"And I was certainly friendly with them as anybody," Attkisson said. "Good information can come from any source. But when I persisted with Fast & Furious and some of the green energy stories that I was doing, I clearly at some point became a target. I don’t know if someone paid them to do it or they just took it on their own."
BRIAN STELTER: On the flip side you've been treated harshly by some on the left who say you are presenting a conservative bias. You have these dueling impressions of you. Is there truth to that? How do you feel when you heard that?
SHARYL ATTKISSON: I do think, again, that's a campaign by those who really want to controversialize the reporting I do so that you won't listen to it, because if anybody took a few minutes really to do a Google search, you would see the dozens and dozens of stories I've done that were, in many cases, complemented by liberal press and other liberals as being a really good story, and I have been criticized by the conservative side in the past. So, I think it wouldn't take much for someone --
STELTER: So you think that's what Media Matters is doing? Media Matters has been campaigning against you and saying you've been inaccurate in your reporting. Is that what they are doing? They are just trying to controversialize the issue?
ATTKISSON: Media Matters, by my understanding, is a far-left blog group that I think holds itself out to be sort of an independent media watchdog group. And, yes, they clearly targeted me at some point. They used to work with me on stories, try to help me, you know, produce my stories. And at some point when I --
STELTER: That's interesting.
ATTKISSON: Well, don't they call you? They call journalists and they try to --
STELTER: Right, they are always emailing things, making us try to act outraged about something.
ATTKISSON: And I was certainly friendly with them as anybody. Good information can come from any source. But when I persisted with Fast & Furious and some of the green energy stories that I was doing, I clearly at some point became a target. I don’t know if someone paid them to do it or they just took it on their own, but they were very much --
STELTER: Do you think that's possible that someone paid them?
ATTKISSON: Well they get contributions from -- yes, they get contributions.
STELTER: But specifically to target you?
ATTKISSON: Perhaps, sure. I think that's what some of these groups do, absolutely.