Executive Summary

If there was any question before, now there can be no doubt: The liberal media today represents a clear and present danger to Constitutional government, freedom and the future of America. We are at a crossroads. The elections in November will decide our future. Freedom or slavery? Liberty or tyranny?

The liberal news media have given up all notion of objectivity. They've chosen the future they want. They want Barack Obama unleashed for a second term. They want the Progressive agenda he will bring. And they are doing everything they can to re-elect the most left-wing President in American history and every politician who supports his agenda.

The choice for conservatives is clear. We fight or we perish. We must win, so we must fight. The most powerful weapons at our disposal are the Media Research Center and its "Tell the Truth!" 2012 campaign.

For 25 years, the MRC has served as the conservative movement's only answer to the Left’s ultimate weapon: liberal media bias. On a daily basis the MRC documents, exposes and neutralizes the liberal media on a variety of fronts. Through its News Analysis Division monitoring the media 24 hours a day, through MRC's five Web sites, through its highly influential NewsBusters, through MRC TV, through e-mail alerts, through MRC Action's 520,000 strong and growing grassroots army, through Special Reports and through MRC’s on news service CNSNews.com.

With its $4 million-plus "Tell the Truth!" 2012 campaign each of these core MRC assets will be working overtime to monitor liberal media bias. Additionally, the MRC will aggressively advertise these efforts, putting the liberal media elites on notice:

We're on the march in 2012 and we need your most generous possible support today. Thank you.

The Liberal Media: Willing Accomplices to the Obama Regime

This time around, the Obama machine cannot run on the fairy dust of Hope and Change. The president's record is a losing one. Their path to victory is to vilify their opponents and hide their policy failures. Make no mistake, Mr. Obama's opponent in this election will face one of the most scorching personal assaults the country has ever witnessed.

We're already seeing the liberal media's campaign for Obama's reelection through their narrative of the "Republican War on Women." We see it in their thinly veiled bigotry toward Mitt Romney's Mormon religion and their constant harping about his wealth and supposed "disconnect" from the poor — even about his dog from almost 30 years ago. And they're just getting warmed up.

But nothing better epitomizes the Left's blatant hypocrisy and the disgraceful extent they will go to support Obama and the liberal agenda than the media's war on Rush Limbaugh and their handling of the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman shooting case in Florida. At the same time, these sorry episodes also demonstrate the power of the Media Research Center to turn the tables on the leftist media.

NBC Oversteps in Effort to Inflame Racial Tension. Exposed by the MRC!

A court in Florida will determine whether George Zimmerman lawfully shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense. But NBC took not a minute to publicly render its verdict: guilty! Worse, NBC deliberately lied to its viewers and other media outlets and committed gross journalistic malpractice in its decision to follow the race-baiting lead of Al Sharpton (the despicable hired hand of NBC's sister channel on cable, MSNBC) and Jesse Jackson. The result has been a number of grotesque beatings of innocent white civilians in recent weeks and the potential for Rodney King-style riots once a verdict in a court of law is actually rendered.

The shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, a Hispanic, occurred on Feb. 26. Three weeks later, the police released the audio of Zimmerman's 911 call from that night, which said in part:

Zimmerman: "This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about."

Dispatcher: "Okay, and this guy, is he black, white or Hispanic?"

Zimmerman: "He looks black."

That was the real call. But when NBC News got a hold of it, they edited out the dispatcher's question and made the sequence like this:

Zimmerman: "This guy looks like he's up to no good.... He looks black."

MRC's NewsBusters blog was the first to expose NBC's deceit, followed by an appearance by Brent Bozell on Hannity on Fox News. The good news is that MRC’s reporting helped spark sparked national outrage and caused an internal investigation at NBC and the subsequent firing of at least one of the producers responsible for the lie.

The Media's War on Rush

In late February, Rush used some unfortunate language to describe Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke—who had appeared before Congress demanding welfare payments to cover contraception. He was wrong to use this language and he apologized—on the air—several times.

But the liberal media don't care about what Rush said. They just want to get him.

In response, the MRC created a petition Web site, IStandWithRush.org, calling on folks to express their support for Rush's vital contribution to the conservative movement. That action generated more than 41,000 petitions and 62,000 calls and e-mails, which were sent to the sponsors who were leaving Rush's show at the time. (Since then, his audience and sponsors have grown more numerous than ever!)

MRC's Secret Weapon —

Rapidly Growing Grassroots Action Team

In state after state, starting in New Hampshire and South Carolina and spreading across America, the 520,000 activist members of MRC Action have consistently confronted liberal reporters for attacking conservatives in the primary races. Our grassroots army hit literally hundreds of events throughout the primaries, distributing thousands of signs and stickers. In every case, we were cheerfully surrounded by thousands of conservatives who wanted our "Tell the Truth!" materials. They took everything we could supply them with and they confronted the left-wing media at every single event.

The MRC's "Tell the Truth!" message was everywhere. As a result, the leftist news media, on TV and in print, could not keep us out of the picture, with our signs showing in the background throughout the length of several live reports. Wherever they were, we were there too, and millions of Americans saw us and our grassroots supporters through CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News, The Washington Post and the many local TV affiliates, newspapers and online media.

In addition, we have also been spreading the "Tell the Truth!" banner through social media Facebook and Twitter, as well as e-mail. This is the largest social media effort ever undertaken by conservatives through these platforms. By our calculations, more than 1 million Americans will participate over the course of this campaign. (We have also made and will continue to make much use billboard signs and mobile billboard trucks broadcasting our message in targeted cities, including a massive 1,684—square-foot billboard in Times Square, New York City.)

In state after state, at scores of events, our grassroots army and targeting marketing efforts continued to show up — and will continue to show up. Our main message, "Don't Believe the Liberal Media!" is now part of the 2012 election campaign and the liberal media are being forced to acknowledge it. We are fighting back.

Campaign Plan

Goals:

1. Make liberal media bias a national issue in the eyes of voters, within the conservative movement and in the conservative media. Simply put, the public must come to understand that they are not hearing the news from an impartial and objective media, but from a media corrupted by rampant liberal bias. The liberal media will be neutralized if we can expose it in a such a way that the public no longer listens to them, but seeks news from other sources.
2. Neutralize the liberal media's anti-conservative coverage as it pertains to conservative ideas and candidates, the tea party, and the media's support of the failed public policies of the Obama administration.
3. Generate at least 1,000,000 citizen actions as a result of this campaign.

Six Key Strategies to Win

STRATEGY ONE — Employing targeted message featuring MRC activities to build coalitions, develop grassroots support, and neutralize media bias

Media bias is EVERYONE's problem, impacting the ability of every free market and conservative organization to get its ideas across and debunk the Left. We will continue to reach out to conservative organizations and grassroots groups with targeted MRC communications in order to form coalitions and make media bias a national issue for the whole conservative movement.

We will approach fellow conservative organizations to offer customized communication concerning media bias relevant to their specific missions. For example, if Americans for Prosperity wants to find out the worst media bias on issues of taxes and other fiscal matters — but not have to sift through bias on social issues like faith, gay marriage, etc. — the MRC will send a custom email with the "worst of " bias on the exact issues they are interested in.

In addition, this effort will include outreach to leaders from both parties on Capitol Hill, presenting the most egregious examples of liberal bias in the campaign. And we will create and distribute to every media producer a "rolodex" of conservative issue representatives so they know exactly who to call to get our side of the story.

A stand alone website for "Tell the Truth!" 2012 will be the focal point for this effort and will expand the already strong brand of the Media Research Center.

STRATEGY TWO — Highlight and analyze media bias as soon as it occurs

The MRC News Analysis Division will:

• Produce a top of the line documentary on media bias:
  To be released after Labor Day, this documentary will utilize our extensive print, video and audio archives to show an overall pattern of media bias meant to influence elections.
• Create a weekly "television show"/podcast:
  To document media bias impacting the campaign each week.
• Establish "local"/regional bias monitors:
  Regional focus for key swing states.
• Institute specialized monitoring efforts of...
  ... Univision and other Spanish speaking outlets
  ... PBS, NPR, CPB and other taxpayer-funded media outlets
  ... the media's coverage of political polls, ads and direct mail

STRATEGY THREE — Zero in on media bias pertaining to business and culture with rifle-shot like reports and special studies

The MRC Business and Media Institute

BMI's strength is analyzing economic claims, pointing out flaws in coverage and showing how the media tends to take government's side against businesses on regulatory and tax issues. Throughout the campaign, BMI will publish fact-checks on the numbers reporters use, contact industry/academics for differing perspectives and present free market arguments that reporters rarely make.

The MRC Culture and Media Institute

The Obama machine and its allies in the media have already begun to paint the GOP nominee as "weird," as well as religiously and socially "extreme." That plays to CMI's strength. Also, as any of the following issues come up on the campaign trail, CMI can quickly react: abortion (Planned Parenthood), gay marriage, attacks on women, gun control, patriotism, Hollywood's influence, ethics, religion, morality, etc.

STRATEGY FOUR — Provide an alternative news source for how the media should report the campaign

CNSNews.com will launch three initiatives to combat liberal media bias for "Tell the Truth!" 2012:

1. Candidate Fact Checking — A project to constantly track the campaigns and fact check any
2. Tell the Truth about Economics — Few conservative entities provide pertinent, widely-read articles as they ought to about the economy and matters such as the debt situation. With Tell the Truth about Economics, CNSNews.com will refute and correct the media’s selective reporting of economic data.
3. Tele-Journalism Program — Recording a politician in their own words has an impact beyond words on paper. To this end, we will increase the capacity of CNSNews.com’s tele-journalism program to constantly track all candidates and their statements during the 2012 election cycle.

STRATEGY FIVE — Undertake an ambitious grassroots advertising and marketing campaign

• Web banner ads — Highlight the "Worst of the Week" with a banner ad on DrudgeReport.com one day a week from now until Election Day
• Facebook ads — Build our activist army and mobilize petition drives and other grassroots actions
• Tea Party Kits — Provide grassroots with signs, buttons, etc. and coordinate with tea parties to distribute them at rallies
• Radio ads — Launch sustained radio ad campaign with Sean Hannity and/or Mark Levin (will deploy in most effective manner based on their availability and pricing)
• Billboards — Place five billboards each in Tampa and Charlotte (from airports to convention centers) for at least two weeks leading up to and through the two major party conventions. Also, in New York City's Time Square for one month and additional billboards in 3-4 key markets
• Bumper stickers + fulfillment — Produce and mail bumper stickers to everyone who signs our "Tell the Truth!" petition
• Regional grassroots teams — Deploy teams of grassroots coordinators (five 2-person teams) to key swing states from now until November to make sure our message is visible at rallies and press events.
• Web video ads — Produce a series of viral video ads supporting our message to spread via social media grassroots and post on our websites
• TV ads—production and distribution — Videotape a series of conservative celebrities stating our message and editing it into one or more ads that are distributed to Dish Network via Google
• Mobile billboards — Deploy one mobile billboard each in Charlotte and Tampa for week of conventions (Sun-Thurs); plus one mobile billboard in DC for four weeks leading up to election
• Guerilla marketing — Deploy a variety of tactics at the conventions or other gatherings to get our message out (examples: sidewalk stencils, projected messaging on buildings, replace toilet paper at convention center)
• Letter to Editor Grassroots program — Empower MRC's grassroots activists to easily blast their messages to their local, regional or national newspaper editors

STRATEGY SIX — Execute an effective public relations campaign

Rankings — The MRC will rank, on a weekly or monthly basis, the worst national media outlet or media personality for the most overtly, liberally biased coverage of the preceding week and work to skewer them for an entire week. It will have a qualitative component to it in addition to being backed by quantitative data that cites their bias. We will publically "dishonor" each winner and Brent Bozell will issue a statement and challenge to not let the media wreak havoc and influence in the election of 2012.

Advertising — These rankings will be used to implement a smart advertising campaign, especially using online banner ads at major political outlets like the Washington Post, Politico, USA Today, etc. With each new ranking and unveiling of the Worst Election Coverage DisHonor, the MRC would host online banner ads that invite people to click and find out who worked the hardest to sabotage the 2012 election that past week.

Rapid Response — MRC will monitor the news daily to use in pitching specific examples and/or reaction to the news outlets, continuously challenging the liberal media for trying to influence the election.

Budget

All of the campaign elements mentioned below are dependent on raising the funds required.

Administration
Fundraising ("Tell the Truth Tour" & Regional Meetings)	$120,000
Equipment, Supplies & Support	$55,000
Website	$20,000
Measure Public Perception of Media/Impact	$100,000
News Analysis Division
Outreach and Coalition Building	$90,000
Documentary on Media Bias	$150,000
Weekly Show/Podcast	$50,000
Local/Regional Bias Monitors	$200,000
Increased/Specialized Monitoring Efforts	$150,000
Business and Media Institute / Culture Media Institute
Two Special Reports each (4 total)	$20,000
Four smaller reports each (8 total)	$20,000
Five reports on George Soros political donations	$25,000
Editorial Cartoons (at least 2 per month)	$6,000
Additional staff to accomplish above	$100,000
CNSNews.com
Candidate Fact Checking	$185,000
Tell the Truth about Economics	$91,000
Video Journalism (2 person video team to track candidates plus equipment)	$200,000
Marketing and Advertising
Web banner ads	$354,405
Web video ads	$28,000
Facebook ads	$209,000
Tea Party Kits	$128,255
Radio ads	$600,000
Billboards, aerial banners and taxi cabs ads	$396,570
Mobile billboards	$72,595
Bumper stickers	$111,415
Field team	$439,161
Guerilla marketing	$115,020
Misc/Admin	$85,579