We’ve grown so accustomed to hearing conservative radio talking Michael Savage call Media Matters a “bunch of liberal gay fascists” that it took us by surprise to see praise for the left wing media watchdog organization. In fact, Jeff Bercovici, of Portfolio, goes so far as to say the group is “good for everyone.” Even Rush Limbaugh!

Its brilliance lies in its canny grasp of the information economy. Journalists like me would like to know everything interesting or potentially scandalous that O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc. says, but don’t have time to listen to all their shows or read all the transcripts. So Media Matters hires an army of interns to do it, then offers us the choicest tidbits, packaged in left-wing cant, which we’re free to keep or discard as we like. (I don’t have to think Bill O’Reilly is an evil racist to find it funny and newsworthy that he was amazed to see black people behaving themselves at a restaurant.)

There’s nothing unique about this, by the way. Newsbusters has been doing the same thing for the other side since 2005, and there are also groups like FAIR and ThinkProgress. Media Matters just happens to have been getting the big scores lately.

Right-wingers can accuse Media Matters of Stalinist tactics and fraud all they want. But information’s a market. And when conservatives bitch about the success a group like Media Matters is having in that market, they sound an awful lot like their own caricatured versions of the liberals who can’t stand to see anyone profit from the free enterprise system.