Mark Levin’s Grand Left-Wing Conspiracy Theory Falls Apart In First Sentence

Yesterday, the Center for American Progress and Free Press jointly released a statistical analysis showing that talk radio in the United States is dominated almost exclusively by conservatives.

Matt Drudge picked up the report, and it’s now being pilloried on the right. First out of the gate was National Review writer and radio host Mark Levin, who conjured a conspiracy theory linking the report on radio regulation to Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY):

The Center for American Progress and Free Press (yeh, right) is a sleazy operation. It was set-up by Bill Clinton’s impeachment chief of staff, John Podesta, and is run by him today. It is no coincidence that Podesta would issue this report now, as its purpose is to help Hillary Clinton by unleashing yet another assault on talk radio. [...]

The Center for American Progress and Free Press is an IRS designated tax-exempt 501 (C)(3) organization, based on its representation to the IRS that it is a non-partisan group operating in the public interest. My guess is that Podesta is in regular communication with the Clinton campaign and he or others may well be coordinating some of their activities on her behalf and on behalf of the Democrat Party.

Levin’s attack falls apart in his first sentence. The “sleazy” Clintonista “Center for American Progress and Free Press” doesn’t exist. There is no such organization.

The Center for American Progress, headed by former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, is one group. Free Press is its own, distinct group. The report was a collaboration between these two progressive nonprofit organizations. Perhaps Levin can make clear whether he thinks Free Press is part of the Clinton conspiracy, or was duped into collaborating on the report.

Additionally, CAP does not coordinate with any campaign, and Levin offers no evidence — other than his “guess” — that the report’s “purpose” was to “help Hillary Clinton.” The real purpose of the report was to highlight the imbalance in talk radio and propose remedies.

ThinkProgress also spoke with Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, who issued this response to Levin:

As executive director of Free Press, I was surprised to learn on the National Review Web site that my organization was part of the Center for American Progress. While we did work with CAP on this study of talk radio programming, as well as issues like Community Internet, a simple Google search would have showed that Free Press is an independent, nonpartisan organization. We don’t take money from any political party or corporation, and we have teamed up on different media policy issues with everyone from MoveOn.org and the Christian Coalition to the ACLU, the Parents Television Council and the American Library Association.

Last I checked, we were even working with The National Review itself on a campaign to stop unfair postal rate hikes that threaten smaller publications and opinion journals. If we can get those rate hikes reversed, hopefully NRO.com will be able to hire more fact-checkers.