David Brock, founder of the liberal organization Media Matters for America, is spearheading an effort to launch a $40 million campaign to attack Republican John McCain in the months leading up to the November presidential election.
Brock in March assumed the chairmanship “of what’s expected to be the main vehicle for independent Democratic attacks on McCain, now called Progressive Media USA,” politico.com reported.
The new group was formed after two earlier organizations, Fund for America and the Campaign to Defend America, failed to raise enough money to launch a full-scale attack on McCain.
As Newsmax reported earlier, billionaire financier George Soros contributed $2.5 million to Fund for America, and the donation was matched by the Service Employees International Union.
Soros is now allied with Progressive Media USA, and hosted a dinner for organizers at his Manhattan apartment on Tuesday. After the dinner Brock told politico.com that the group had commitments worth $7.5 million, and would begin running anti-McCain ads before it meets its $40 million goal.
The aim of the campaign is to “fill a void” in McCain coverage by the press, which “is in love with John McCain,” Brock said, adding:
“It’s what McCain is allowed to say without being challenged by facts that will show him to have said something different in the past.”
Brock, a former conservative who had attacked Bill Clinton, founded Media Matters in 2004 to monitor conservative media figures.