Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro accused The New York Times of working with far-left advocacy group Media Matters for America in order to get anyone who opposed Vice President Kamala Harris silenced on YouTube, supplying screenshots of a reporter who noted he was working with the progressive organization.
Media Matters, founded in 2004 by longtime Clinton ally David Brock, is often cited by legacy news organizations as a media watchdog. It has built a reputation for organizing pressure campaigns against conservative voices it opposes, including boycott movements. Shapiro took to social media to reveal that he might be the group’s next target.
"If you were wondering what the legacy media would plan for its October surprise, wonder no longer: it's here. Today, I received the following text from a reporter at @NYTimes," Shapiro wrote to caption a text message he received on Monday from New York Times reporter Nico Grant.
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"I wanted to give you an opportunity to comment for an upcoming article that takes a look at how political commentators have discussed the upcoming election on YouTube. We rely on analysis conducted by researchers at Media Matters for America," the Times reporter wrote.
Grant asked Shapiro to provide a comment by the end of the day on Tuesday before noting "points we plan to include."
Media Matters identified "286 YouTube videos between May and August that contained election misinformation, including narratives that have been debunked or are not supported with credible evidence," Grant wrote, according to images of the text message posted by Shapiro.
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"Researchers identified videos posted by you in those four months that contain election misinformation. We feature a clip of you saying: ‘… Your party rigged many of the voting rules in advance of the election in order to ensure an extraordinary number of mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting,’" Grant continued. "I have a few questions."
Grant then asked Shapiro if he is "a member of the YouTube Partner Programs," if so, "how frequently does YouTube monetize" his videos, and whether YouTube sent messages, emails or notices in the last year regarding "misinformation" in his content.
Shapiro said the Times is using "research from Media Matters, a radical Left-wing organization whose sole purpose is destroying conservative media (see below), in order to pressure YouTube to demonetize and penalize any and all conservatives" one week before the presidential election.
"That's the entire game here. Run an article in America's ‘most trusted newspaper’ that declares pretty much every major conservative a purveyor of ‘misinformation’ on YouTube, thus strong-arming YouTube into taking action against conservatives," Shaprio wrote.
"This isn't about ‘election misinformation.’ Obviously. As pretty much everyone knows, I have always acknowledged that Joe Biden won the 2020 election," he continued to accompany images of headlines from FiveThirtyEight and CBS News. "And if it is ‘election misinformation’ to point out the ‘rigging’ of the voting rules for election 2020, resulting in massive mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, then the NYT might want to talk to... the NYT and CBS News, for starters."
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Shapiro added, "And, by the way, even if someone *does* think Joe Biden didn’t win the election, that is still protected speech under the First Amendment… But that's the point: you don't have to purvey ‘misinformation’ to be the target. You just have to support Trump."
"This is totally scandalous. In 2020, the legacy media shut down dissemination of the Hunter Biden laptop story and laundered the claim that it was all Russian disinformation, all to get Joe Biden elected," Shaprio wrote.
Shapiro said the Times "can’t get away with it" and called the paper "part of the Democrat-Media Human Centipede" before offering a comment to the reporter.
"Here's my comment: kindly, go f--- yourself," Shapiro wrote.
Other conservative media personalities have posted similar messages, indicating that the same Times reporter also approached them with data compiled by Media Matters.
Media Matters is bankrolled by some of the biggest Democratic megadonors in the country. Critics have slammed Media Matters earning a tax-exempted status despite being an overtly political organization. It was the subject of mockery in 2020 when it received a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan between "$1-2 million" from the Trump administration despite its constant criticism of Trump's response to the COVID pandemic, including the PPP.
Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
