Media Matters is one of the most important cogs in the progressive movement today, one without which progressives and Democrats would not likely have had the successes they have had in recent years. The pushback against misinformation, whether from conservatives or from lazy or ill-informed reporters, has done a great deal to ensure that all sides are heard in the public discourse, not just the most shrill on the right. It's for that reason that it's so good to see the organization receiving some big institutional support.

Democratic strategist James Carville, using Secretary of State nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton's e-mail list, sent out an e-mail Friday trying to recruit supporters and donations for Media Matters for America, the liberal media watchdog group.

With the subject line "It's happening again," Carville compares the scandal of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and his relationship to President-elect Obama to the scandals that followed the Clintons into office and proved a distraction througout both of President Clinton's terms.

Carville wrote that the Clintons "hadn't even unpacked their boxes before the right-wing noise machine started hyping phony scandals and inventing gossip."

"Too many in the media played a key role in spreading these smears, forgetting their responsibility as journalists and repeating fiction as fact," Carville wrote. "Now it's happening again. The same far-right fanatics and those in the media who disseminate their attacks far and wide are trying to derail the new Democratic administration before it's even gotten off the ground. They spread gossip and suggest scandal where there is none, all in the interest of generating controversy instead of communicating the facts."

Hillary Clinton has been a supporter of Media Matters from some time, and went so far as to tout her support for the organization while trying to court the netroots at the 2007 Yearly Kos convention. Using her immense email list to raise money for Media Matters -- in a way, I might add, that she might not be able to in the future as Secretary of State -- is an important continuation of this support, and will help sustain the organization so that it can help protect both the incoming Obama administration as well as the Democratic Congress from the type of multimillion dollar disinformation effort we are likely to see in the coming months and years.