Here’s a perfect example of how Media Matters operates. As you read earlier today — and if you haven’t, go read the whole thing — back in Sept. ’09 a Media Matters “senior fellow” named Karl Frisch wrote the following in an internal memo to his bosses:

“Simply put,” Frisch wrote, “the progressive movement is in need of an enemy. George W. Bush is gone. We really don’t have John McCain to kick around any more. Filling the lack of leadership on the right, Fox News has emerged as the central enemy and antagonist of the Obama administration, our Congressional majorities and the progressive movement as a whole.”

We must take Fox News head-on in a well funded, presidential-style campaign to discredit and embarrass the network, making it illegitimate in the eyes of news consumers.”

And then there was some stuff about how to implement this campaign, such as hiring private investigators to dig into the private lives of Fox News employees and other highly ethical ideas.