Did MMFA Hire M.J. Rosenberg At The Request of the White House ??

September 9 2009-WASHINGTON, D.C. - Media Matters Action Network announced that M.J. Rosenberg will serve as a Senior Fellow. Focusing on foreign policy and Middle Eastern affairs, Rosenberg will give the organization an increased capacity to correct misinformation surrounding complex foreign policy issues.

I've often wondered why Media Matters for America hired the anti-Israel Jew-hating Jew M.J. Rosenberg to be their Senior Fellow on foreign policy. After all his roll has nothing to do with their "mission." Rosenberg writes about Middle East policy itself as opposed to the rest of the organization which details media coverage of policy.

After reading the Daily Caller series from two weeks back, I believe one can make a circumstantial case that MJ Rosenberg was hired at the White House request to be a "hit-man" targeting Jewish Americans and other supporters of Israel.

Allow me to lay out my hypothesis.

Foreign Policy Fellow? Why Not an Obamacare Fellow: Think back to the Summer/Fall of 2009 around the time Rosenberg was hired.

• Unemployment was approaching 10%, far above the 8% high promised by the administration if the stimulus bill was passed. Yet MMFA didn't hire a Senior Economic fellow to help sell Obama's economic plan to the US Voters.

• America's reaction to the proposed Obamacare bill was very negative. Protests were breaking out in Congressional Town Halls across the country, but MMFA didn't hire a Senior Healthcare fellow to help with the most important bill (for progressives)since FDR.

• The Senate was struggling to put together a Cap and Trade bill to match the one passed by the house. America objected and no bill was passed. Cap and Trade remains a  key component to the progressive agenda. It would fulfill their desire to redistribute income from rich to poor nations. Despite its importance, but MMFA didn't hire a global climate change Senior Fellow to help combat the fact that the global warming hoax was falling apart.

Those were all national headlines at the time MJ Rosenberg was hired, Obama and Israel were stories, but no where near as big as the ones above.  The difference is back then Obama was able to stay "above the fray" with regards to those stories. The stimulus, cap and trade, and health care were all popular with his progressive base.

Though a smaller issue in national terms,  Obama mis-read the reaction to his anti-Israel policies which were starting to damage his credibility with the "Jewish vote" and more more importantly Jewish Donors.

• Just before the summer, the President broke an existing agreement between the US and the Israeli Government. The agreement stated that Israel without protest from the America, could add apartment units to existing communities that were outside the 1949 armistice line. Additionally, though the position of the US that the final status of Jerusalem was to be negotiated, Israel would not face objection when they build new communities in its capital city.  Along with the breaking of the agreement Obama began to publicly berate Israel.

• On July 13th, 2009, Obama met with leaders of 13 Jewish Organizations  Missing from this meeting was an organization usually included by presidents when they meet with "Jewish Leaders," the Zionist Organization of America who had been most vocal about opposing Obama's Israel attacks. Instead the President invited two groups with little support in the Jewish Community, but much support in progressive circles, the anti-Israel lobbying groups J-Street (funded by George Soros) and Americans for Peace Now. The meeting's  purpose of calming the Jewish nerves regarding the President's one-sided criticism of the Jewish State.

• Polls began to show that his support amongst the Jews, an important Democratic party voter bloc and cash source was beginning to slip. A progressive leaning Jewish poll run by the JTA showed Obama's approval amongst Jews dropping by 20 percentage points (69 to 49%) from the election to the end of June 2009.

According to the Israeli Newspaper Ha'aretz: “ Obama told the leaders that he wants to help Israel overcome its demographic problem by reaching an agreement on a two-state solution, but that in order to do so, Israel would need "to engage in serious self-reflection."

The meeting didn't calm any nerves, throughout the summer of 2009 Jewish Objection to Obama was growing.  A small problem when compared the other news which was dominating the headlines, but it was almost fund-raising for reelection time. To Solve this problem it is my contention that the White House asked MMFA to hire a one-issue Senior Fellow, one that will write in support of Obama's anti-Israel policies. They may or may not have specified MJ Rosenberg specifically but he met all their specifications.

MMFA Regularly Coordinated With the White House: The Daily Caller ller presented proof that MMFA was regularly coordinating its activities with the White House, including weekly trips by White House Staffers to the MMFA offices.

According to visitor logs, on June 16, 2010, Brock and then-Media Matters president Eric Burns traveled to the White House for a meeting with Valerie Jarrett, arguably the president’s closest adviser. Recently departed Obama communications director Anita Dunn returned to the White House for the meeting as well.

It’s not clear what the four spoke about — no one in the meeting returned repeated calls for comment — but the apparent coordination continued. “Anita Dunn became a regular presence at the office,” says someone who worked there. Then-president of Media Matters, Eric Burns, “lunched with her, met with her and chatted with her frequently on any number of matters.”

Other Members of the MMFA Team? If you look at the MMFA Tax return (page 7) all of the Senior Staff of Media Matters are generalists, progressive activists, media experts and of course one blogger, my "buddy" Eric Boehlert:

• David Brock, chairman and CEO: $286,804
• Eric Burns, president: $240,579
• Tate Williams, chief of staff: $162,812
• Eric Boehlert, senior fellow: $115,000
• Ari Rabin-Havt, vice president of communications and strategy: $134,484

After getting over your astonishment that Eric Boehlert is getting $115 thousand smackeroos just to tweet nasty things about Andrew Breitbart and Dana Loesch all day  take a look a the tax return for Media Matters Active Network (page 7). We see that the supposed lobbyist arm of MMFA has only one staff member senior enough to make the Tax Return:

• Michael J Rosenberg senior fellow: $129,568

One would think that MJ, who from now on will be known as "little Mikey Rosenberg," would demand more money to promote Anti-Semitic slurs. Either way the question remains, why would MMFA spend almost $130,000 a year for a one-issue attack dog? Especially on an issue relatively unimportant in the scheme of things.

Little Mikey's Pedigree: Mikey J did not first  begin harassing Jews when he got to MMFA. From 1982 to 1986, Mikey was editor of Near East Report, the American Israel Public Affair Committee's (AIPAC's) biweekly publication on Middle East Policy. He was pushed out because of editorial differences (AIPAC is a PRO-Israel organization). Inflamed by the AIPAC rejection Mikey became the   Director of Policy Analysis for Israel Policy Forum (IPF) for 11 years where he honed his Antisemitism writing and speaking for the forum, Talking Points Memo and Huffington report.  By the time he was added to MMFA he was a well known "bully with internet access. " Here's a quote from his support of Chas Freeman, an appointee who  claimed the Muslims discovered America before Columbus.

But here's the problem. The lobby [another of his pet names for Jews] HATES Freeman. It considers Freeman anti-Israel because he has repeatedly indicated that he believes that successive Israeli governments deserve their share of blame for sinking the peace process. He does not toe the line.

Freeman's nomination was tossed, not because of his positions on Israel (although former SOS Baker, no friend of Israel felt he was in the pocket of the Saudis), but because Nancy Pelosi objected to Freeman's outspoken support of the Chinese government against democratic dissidents, including speaking approvingly of the violent repression and killing of peaceful oppositionists.

Conclusion: What is presented above  just a hypothesis built on a lot of very strange coincidences. I Am not a believer in coincidences.

We know that Media Matters was coordinating with the White House on many issues. They hired Rosenberg at a time when  important domestic issues were dominating the headlines. Obama's relationship with Israel was only intermittently in the headlines, and not anywhere near to the extent of those other issues, but his attacks on Israel were having an effect on the President's Jewish support. No single-issue Senior staff was hired to comment or publicly lobby for the President's positions on the other issues. While other MMFA hit-men attack the media's coverage of Obama and the progressives, only MJ Rosenberg writes primarily about the issue itself.

MJ Rosenberg was the perfect man for the job, he us a Jew so it gives him cover.  It took years for people, outside of a small group of bloggers, to complain about his Antisemitism. He worked for AIPAC so it provided a cloak of authority, and he believes Jews own congress, control the media, and have a dual loyalty to America, as my mom used to say "what's there not to like?"

If this series of coincidences does not indicate that the Obama White House was involved in Little Mikey's hiring, I would love to hear the facts from MMFA or anyone involved and I will publicly withdraw this theory. And if you have any evidence that I am correct, or incorrect please email me at mmfainfo@jeffdunetz.com, I will follow up on all leads, even if they disprove my  hypothesis.