Media Matters Analyst Out After Controversial Criticisms About Israel

Media Matters for America's controversial analyst MJ Rosenberg is leaving the liberal media watchdog site and starting his own blog, saying he doesn't want to see the organization face "possible harm" because of his "critical writings about Israel."

"My presence here is being used in an effort to shut Media Matters up," Rosenberg wrote in a farewell post Friday.

Rosenberg has been extremely critical of Israeli policies and referred to Jews who support Israel as "Israel firsters," a term that has been used by anti-Semites who accuse Jews of having "dual loyalties," according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Rosenberg said of Media Matters: "This is an incredibly successful organization. (Just ask Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh — or Rupert Murdoch, for that matter — about its impact). But the last thing I want to do is allow the right to use my support for a reinvigorated Middle East peace process to distract Media Matters from its primary mission: fighting for truth in the media."

As Big Journalism pointed out, Rosenberg has called out Jewish members of Congress for their support for Israel, and recently tweeted of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.): "I wonder if any candidate in either party other than Joe L would slobber over Israel if it wasn’t for the $. Actually I don’t wonder.”

Rosenberg made news last month after he accused the Drudge Report of "incitement" for posting what he thought was a phony photo of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in February.

“Racist demagogue Drudge continues to run photo of some kid, not Trayvon for incitement purposes,” he tweeted.

The photo was in fact Martin, dressed in a white tank top and noticeably older than the initial photos circulated.

“Mixed up Drudge photo of Trayvon w Michelle Malkin’s. Malkin’s is an admitted fake. Drudge? Don’t know. Sorry,” Rosenberg tweeted several hours later. He followed it up with another post that said: “Malkin apologized for fake #Trayvon photo. I apologize for mixing up her photo with one Drudge used.”