Help Stop Conservative Misinformation

You can join Media Matters for America in the fight against conservative misinformation in the media. We regularly provide action items based on our real-time monitoring of the media and conduct action campaigns to prevent the spread of conservative misinformation.

Thousands of activists like you take advantage of these tools to hold the media accountable for spreading conservative misinformation.

Current Actions

Call your Savage Station

On July 16, the No. 3 syndicated radio talk show host in the country, Michael Savage, made the following statement on autism: "Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism? ... A fraud, a racket." Savage went on to say: What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, "Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot."

During the same broadcast, Savage also attacked those in "the minority community" who suffer from asthma. He stated: "[W]hy was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], 'When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], "I don't know, the dust got me." ' See, everyone had asthma from the minority community."

Find your local Savage Station, log into our calling tool and tell your Savage station manager what you think of Savage's tirade.

O'Reilly's Homophobia

I think everybody's got to relax on all this gay stuff."
-- Bill O'Reilly, The O'Reilly Factor, August 15, 2007
From his suggestion that the "secular progressive movement" would like to have "poly-amorphous" marriage ("you can marry 18 people, you can marry a duck") to his statement that it would be "insane" and "inappropriate" to "cluster" gays near children, Bill O' Reilly has never been one to "relax on all this gay stuff." When O'Reilly isn't dishing the homophobia himself, he's giving others a platform on his show to bash the LGBT community -- featuring guests like Marc Rudov, who recently advanced the bogus notion that "promoting a homosexual lifestyle" of gays and lesbians would cause "long-term consequences for children," that like a brain tumor, may take years to diagnose. Tell Bill O'Reilly and Fox News to stop the homophobic fear-mongering!

Speak out about the mess at MSNBC!

During the past year, three MSNBC commentators have been suspended, reprimanded, fired, or forced to apologize for their sexist and/or racist comments. Rather than address these problems by proactively moving to make certain they do not happen in the first place, MSNBC has instead decided to use these controversies as part of an advertising campaign to promote its political coverage. It's clear the management at NBC News and MSNBC has consistently failed to address what appears to be the core problem. Please take a moment to sign our petition and send a message to NBC News President Capus that the time for apologies has passed. The time for a real commitment to change is long since overdue. With your help, we can urge MSNBC to change the demeaning tone that its coverage all too often takes and truly address this disturbing pattern once and for all. Sign our petition - Send a message!

Please contact MSNBC and Chris Matthews today!

Using overtly sexist language, he has referred to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) as a "she devil" and compared her to a "strip-teaser." He has called her "witchy" and likened her voice to "fingernails on a blackboard." He has referred to men who support her as "castratos in the eunuch chorus." His sexism is hardly limited to comments about Clinton. In November 2006, shortly after the Democrats took the majority in Congress, Matthews asked a guest if then-presumptive speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was "going to castrate Steny Hoyer" if Hoyer (D-MD) were elected House majority leader. During coverage of a presidential debate last spring, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell was compelled to remind Matthews that Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) wife, Michelle, is a Harvard-educated lawyer after he focused obsessively on her physical appearance. Click Here to Take Action!

Contact Your Local Limbaugh Radio Station Today

Apparently, it wasn't enough for Rush Limbaugh to call American service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers." Two days later, on September 28, while defending his remarks during the portion of his program broadcast on American Forces Network to our men and women in uniform around the world, Limbaugh went a step further and named decorated Marine Vietnam veteran and Congressman John P. Murtha (D-PA) one of the "phony soldiers." Then, on October 2, Limbaugh went beyond the pale and assailed VoteVets.org for running an ad featuring Brian McGough, an Afghanistan and Iraq war veteran who received the Purple Heart and was severely injured by an IED in Iraq. Limbaugh called the ad "a blatant use of a valiant combat veteran, lying to him about what I said, then strapping those lies to his belt, sending him out via the media in a TV ad to walk into as many people as he can walk into" -- actually comparing McGough to a suicide bomber! Take Action!

Learn More

What you can do
As a news consumer, you can have a powerful voice in the fight against conservative misinformation.

Communicating with journalists
Many media personalities and outlets make their email addresses available online and encourage audience members to provide feedback.

How to write a great letter to the editor
A letter to the editor is a highly effective way of making a positive impact on the public discourse in your community.

How to call in to a talk radio show
Call in to a show as early as you can. If the line is busy, wait a few seconds and try again. Most radio shows have far more callers than can be accommodated on air.

Get a Media Matters for America news box for your website or blog
It's very easy to add headlines from Media Matters for America to your site/blog.