Describing itself as "the largest media buying organization supporting a progressive message," The Media Fund (TMF) conceptualizes, produces, and places political ads on television, radio, print, and the Internet. It was very active prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election; since then, it has been much less active.

TMF was founded by Harold Ickes, a Democrat lobbyist and strategist who is widely recognized as the chief organizer of the Shadow Party. After passage of the McCain-Feingold Act of March 27, 2002, Ickes helped put George Soros together with such activists as Andrew Stern, Ellen R. Malcolm, Steve Rosenthal, Gina Glantz, Cecile Richards and others who were seeking ways to circumvent McCain-Feingold's soft-money ban. While Malcolm, Glantz and Rosenthal were cobbling together the coalition of labor unions, pro-abortion activists and environmentalists that would later emerge as America Coming Together (ACT), Ickes sought to organize what he informally called a "media  fund" -- or sometimes "the president's media fund" -- a Section 527 stealth PAC that would raise money for campaign advertising. Ickes finally decided to simply call it The Media Fund, launching it in early 2003.

The Media Fund subsequently received more than $28.1 million in donations, much of it from leftist government labor unions such as SEIU and AFSCME. TMF also received many millions of dollars whose ultimate source is untraceable, since the money was first laundered through Joint Victory Campaign 2004 (JVC 2004). George Soros gave millions of dollars to JVC 2004, as did close Soros associates Peter B. Lewis and Stephen Bing.

In April 2004 Erik Smith, a former spokesman for U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt's failed presidential campaign, took over as TMF President.

"The goal of the Media Fund is to create, test, and then air ads that raise issues that we think are important in this election," founder Harold Ickes explained to New York magazine in a June 28, 2004 interview. "[However,] we are not in the business of electing or defeating candidates." Ickes was compelled to add the disclaimer for legal purposes, so as to technically avoid federal prosecution under the McCain-Feingold Act. Ickes' denial notwithstanding, however, electing and defeating candidates was TMF's sole purpose.

During the 2004 campaign, TMF focused its advertising efforts on the 17 recognized battleground states. Its objective was to paint a relentlessly negative image of contemporary America, and to pin the blame for the nation's woes on President Bush.

Drawing on top talent from Madison Avenue advertising firms, TMF sought to convince Americans that President Bush was pursuing a "radical agenda" which had "given us a country less secure, a foreign policy in disarray, record job losses, deficits that mortgage our children's future, environmental policies that abandon common sense and attacks on civil liberties that undermine the very premise of our democracy."

In addition, TMF endeavored through its ads to persuade Americans that the country was turning Left, and that a compliant Big Media was helping Republicans hide this fact under a fog of war fever and patriotism. On its website, TMF promised that it would "make certain the public hears about their [the Republicans'] disastrous failures at the local, state and national level."