BYRON YORK: Romney braces for ‘vast left-wing conspiracy.’

By those words, many observers thought Romney, speaking to Breitbart News, meant the press. After all, the Republican nominee is likely to face some pretty tough coverage from left-leaning outlets in the months ahead.

But Romney meant much more than the press. In fact, “vast left-wing conspiracy” refers to a set of institutions whose work helps shape the coverage that ultimately appears in the press.

That’s what Breitbart questioner Larry O’Connor was trying to get at in the Romney interview. Mentioning Think Progress, a pro-Democratic war room that is part of the lefty think tank Center for American Progress, and the left-leaning media watchdog organization Media Matters, O’Connor said to Romney, “You really are going to battle with the media and these nonprofit groups who are all working together. Are you guys ready for that fight?”

“I think you’re absolutely right,” Romney said, noting that he’s fully aware that a vast left-wing conspiracy will be arrayed against him.

In the past few months Romney aides have watched closely as Think Progress, Media Matters and others have hit the former Massachusetts governor both on important issues like jobs, taxes, the deficit, and foreign policy, and also on flap-of-the-day stories like the “war on women” and Romney’s dog. Accusations that originate with those organizations sometimes make their way into lefty publications like Talking Points Memo and the Huffington Post, and then into the bigger organs of the establishment press.

“There is a network that seems to coordinate and push the liberal agenda, which then gets picked up by the mainstream press,” says a Romney aide. “We’re working to combat that.”

Son of JournoList.