The Left’s efforts to preserve their censorship industrial complex just triggered a new low in judicial imperialism — one that imperils free expression everywhere.
The Left-wing activist organization known as Media Matters recently filed a suit against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to block it from investigating potential antitrust violations.
Media Matters has been around for decades, attempting (unsuccessfully) to boost the reputation of legacy media by launching spurious attacks against journalists it views as too conservative. Recently, Media Matters was accused of working with major advertising companies to form an economic cartel designed to foreclose market access to conservative media outlets. By targeting online publications like Breitbart, The Daily Wire, and The Federalist, the FTC is concerned that Media Matters is trying to eliminate competition to the benefit of legacy media and to the detriment of American consumers.
If true, such conduct would violate federal antitrust law, which prohibits such anti-competitive schemes. Given the gravity of the allegations, the FTC launched an investigation, as required by Congress. With the kind of lawfare tactics the Left has perfected, Media Matters immediately sued to block the FTC from even inquiring into whether the law had been broken.
It is hard to overstate how ludicrous this suit is. Imagine if drug dealers sued to stop the police from investigating their illicit operations, or if a company running a Ponzi scheme sued the SEC to prevent it from examining its fraudulent contracts.
No rational, law-abiding judge would ever countenance such a claim, especially in light of strong Supreme Court precedent to the contrary.
In Associated Press v. United States and again in Lorain Journal Co. v. United States, the Court ruled that the First Amendment does not constitutionally protect the unlawful actions by news media cartels. Justice Hugo Black famously wrote: “Freedom to publish is guaranteed by the Constitution, but freedom to combine to keep others from publishing is not.”
The Media Matters suit is based on a patently absurd argument that the Court has already rejected — twice.
Thus, any judge hearing this case would be obligated to follow Supreme Court precedent, no matter how much she may personally disagree. Unfortunately for the public, Media Matters has managed to land its case before one of the most partisan activists in the federal judiciary.
Despite being just eight months into a lifetime appointment, Judge Sparkle Sooknanan has already drawn criticism from across the political spectrum for her unethical conduct. At her Senate confirmation hearing last year, Sooknanan — a former Big Law attorney who spent a stint in the Biden administration — swore under oath that she was “not lead counsel” in a controversial lawsuit she brought on behalf of a vulture hedge fund against the territory of Puerto Rico.
It is a crime to provide knowingly false testimony to Congress. Sooknanan’s testimony was clearly untrue. It may also have been knowingly false. Her own firm, where she had been a partner, contradicted her testimony and provided evidence that she had indeed been the lead counsel on the case.
Judge Sooknanan is once again playing fast and loose with the law. In flagrant defiance of the Supreme Court, she has issued a preliminary injunction demanding that the FTC immediately cease its investigation into Media Matters.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial">End of Summer Sale &#8211; Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
The harm of such an order cannot be overstated. Media Matters is not the only leftist group alleged to have formed a cartel: other legacy media sycophants like Ad Fontes Media and the Center for Countering Digital Hate have been accused of the same misconduct. If the FTC is judicially prohibited from protecting new media from antitrust violations, then the existence of potentially hundreds of journalistic enterprises — especially those with conservative leanings — is instantly imperiled.
Fortunately, under the strong leadership of FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, the agency has already appealed the lawless actions by Judge Sooknanan.
But there are additional avenues to combat Sooknanan and other renegade judges who fancy themselves as judicial dictators. House Republicans could launch an impeachment inquiry. The Department of Justice could also investigate Sooknanan’s behavior to determine whether she committed perjury at her confirmation hearing. Higher courts could also begin their own inquiries into her refusal to apply the law evenly and fairly.
Media Matters and Judge Sooknanan are counting on not being held accountable for their actions. They are betting that they can nullify Supreme Court precedent and kill the FTC investigation in the cradle. For the sake of our republic and the freedom of the press, let us pray they are wrong.
* * *
Dan Schneider is the Vice President for Free Speech at the Media Research Center.
Tim Kilcullen is the Senior Fellow for Free Speech at the Media Research Center.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

E. Barrett Pettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington

A Rogue Judge Just Handed Media Matters Its Biggest Weapon Yet

Censorship

Conservative Media

Free Speech

Judges

Leftists

Legacy Media

Media Matters For America

Media Research Center

Washington D.C.

Leftist outlet Media Matters is facing financial struggles over lawsuits from X owner Elon Musk and legal fees related to investigations by the Trump administration.
The nonprofit &#8220;watchdog&#8221; group owes approximately $15 million, largely due to legal action by Musk and probes from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as Republican state attorneys general, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/us/politics/media-matters-musk-crisis.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZE8.uS77.aCoRbTwphEFY&amp;smid=url-share" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on Friday.
Musk&#8217;s lawsuit came after a Media Matters story in 2023 <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/musk-endorses-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-x-has-been-placing-ads-apple-bravo-ibm-oracle">claimed</a> that his X social media platform was placing ads for major corporations alongside Nazi-related content, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-to-file-thermonuclear-suit-against-media-matters-over-contrived-story-on-x">reported</a>. Companies such as Apple and IBM pulled advertisements from X because of the story.
A Musk press release said the outlet &#8220;completely misrepresented the real user experience on X, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers.&#8221;
The Times reported that Musk has continued pursuing the lawsuit, refusing settlements and appealing or filing elsewhere if Media Matters were to win in court. Musk even filed lawsuits in Ireland and Singapore.
The outlet is reducing its staff and trying to raise money from donors, the Times reported. Although publicly, Media Matters says &#8220;it has no plans to close,&#8221; sources told the Times it is considering shutting down as a last resort.
In May of this year, the FTC launched an investigation into the outlet over reports that it illegally coordinated advertiser boycotts against X, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-probe-media-matters-over-plot-to-defund-musks-x-silence-dissenting-voices">reported</a>.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, appointed by President Donald Trump, had signaled potential action in December, saying the agency “must prosecute any unlawful collusion between online platforms, and confront advertiser boycotts which threaten competition,” <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/ftc-probes-media-matters-over-musks-x-boycott-claims-document-shows-2025-05-22/">according</a> to Reuters.
Media Matters also faced investigations from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. A federal court blocked the Texas probe, and Missouri agreed to drop its inquiry; however, the outlet still incurred almost $2 million in legal fees, the Times reported.
Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, said the legal problems were &#8220;a revenge campaign against Media Matters intended to stymie or stop us entirely from exercising our constitutional rights,&#8221; the Times reported.
The financial struggles come as multiple organizations have settled with the Trump administration. CBS News <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/big-and-important-win-trump-crows-over-settlement-in-cbs-paramount-lawsuit">paid</a> $16 million to settle a lawsuit with President Donald Trump, who alleged that the outlet deceptively edited a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Columbia University <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-retreats-as-trump-scores-historic-220m-settlement">agreed</a> to pay a $200 million settlement over its handling of anti-Israel protests.
“Unlike some major media entities that have recently caved to pressure, we understand that this battle is larger than us,” Carusone told the Times in a statement. “That’s why we continue to carry out our mission and fight in court.”
However, the outlet is facing financial difficulties despite its extensive list of top Democratic donors, which includes billionaire George Soros.
A leaked list of donors revealed that the outlet has received millions in donations from Deborah Simon, the daughter of billionaire shopping mall developer Melvin Simon, and Bain Capital co-chairman Joshua Bekenstein and his wife, Anita. The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leaked-media-matters-donor-list-reveal-it-is-funded-by-democrat-mega-donors">reported</a> on this. Both Simon and Bekenstein were among <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2022/top-election-donors-2022/">the top 50 political donors</a> in the 2022 midterms.
Media Matters had raised $16.5 million in 2022, with Carusone collecting a salary of $406,000.
The outlet <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/about-us">describes</a> itself as combating misinformation and providing &#8220;resources to rebut false claims and to take direct action against offending media institutions.&#8221; However, the left-leaning N.Y. Times said its mission is &#8220;to help Democrats and undermine Republicans.&#8221;
Media Matters has repeatedly attacked Republicans and conservative groups, including The Daily Wire. In 2022, it attempted to cancel Daily Wire host Matt Walsh.
&#8220;I will never surrender even a single inch of ground to a pitchfork mob full of degenerate idiots,&#8221; Walsh <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/to-the-leftist-vultures-at-media-matters-kiss-my-ass">responded</a> at the time.
&nbsp;

US-POLITICS-MUSK-TRUMP

Elon Musk’s Lawsuits And A Federal Probe Threaten To Bring Down Media Matters

Elon Musk

Federal Trade Commission

Lawsuit

Media

Politics

Federal regulators on Thursday launched a probe into leftist “watchdog” Media Matters over reports that it illegally coordinated advertiser boycotts against Elon Musk&#8217;s X platform.
Media Matters for America, a non-profit <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leaked-media-matters-donor-list-reveal-it-is-funded-by-democrat-mega-donors?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Leaked+Media+Matters+Donor+List+Reveal+It+Is+Funded+By+Democrat+Mega+Donors">funded</a> by various leftist institutions and billionaires, <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/soros-donates-1-million-to-media-matters/">including</a> George Soros, has had the mission to deplatform and drive advertisers away from conservative voices since it was founded in 2004.
The Federal Trade Commission demanded documents regarding Media Matters&#8217; communications with similar “watchdogs” dedicated to labeling conservative content as hate speech and misinformation.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, appointed by President Donald Trump, signaled potential action in December, stating the agency &#8220;must prosecute any unlawful collusion between online platforms, and confront advertiser boycotts which threaten competition,&#8221; Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/ftc-probes-media-matters-over-musks-x-boycott-claims-document-shows-2025-05-22/">reported</a>.
Musk’s X sued Media Matters in 2023 after the liberal group published an article <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-to-file-thermonuclear-suit-against-media-matters-over-contrived-story-on-x?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Elon+Musk+To+File+%E2%80%98Thermonuclear%E2%80%99+Suit+Against+Media+Matters+Over+%E2%80%98Contrived%E2%80%99+Story+On+X">claiming</a> that X was placing ads for major corporations such as Apple, Disney, and Comcast alongside Nazi-related content.
A press release from Musk at the time said that the Media Matters story “completely misrepresented the real user experience on X, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers.”
Musk accused the group of creating a “contrived” experience by using an alternate account to curate what posts appeared on the timeline.
In fact, according to Musk, X logs indicated that of the 5.5 billion ad impressions the day Media Matters pulled its research from, less than 50 were served alongside the content highlighted by Media Matters.
“Despite our clear and consistent position, X has seen a number of attacks from activist groups like Media Matters and legacy media outlets who seek to undermine freedom of expression on our platform because they perceive it as a threat to their ideological narrative and those of their financial supporters,” Musk’s release said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company <a href="https://t.co/55vl7PspaQ">pic.twitter.com/55vl7PspaQ</a>
— Kekius Maximus (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1725771191644758037?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Attorneys representing X <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/ftc-launches-probe-far-left-group-media-matters-over-allegations-advertiser-collusion-against-musks-x">described</a> the report as &#8220;intentionally deceptive&#8221; as a means to cause the company financial harm.
Media Matters has denied these allegations and countersued X.
In a similar case, X sued the World Federation of Advertisers and several other brands for participating in an illegal conspiracy to curtail ad spending on X, the lawsuit states, per the New York Post.
The plaintiffs denied Musk’s accusations, arguing that each individual brand had concerns with X’s policies that led to their suspension of advertising.
The FTC&#8217;s demand represents a significant escalation in the case of Media Matters, shifting the dispute from civil litigation to potential government enforcement action.
Musk, a major contributor to Trump&#8217;s 2024 campaign and head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, has seen advertising on X decline since his 2022 acquisition, with Apple and IBM immediately pausing all ads on X following the 2023 Media Matters <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/musk-endorses-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-x-has-been-placing-ads-apple-bravo-ibm-oracle">article</a>.
However, research firm Emarketer projects spending will increase in 2025, per Reuters.
Since taking over Twitter in 2022, Musk has made sweeping changes to content moderation policies, reinstated previously banned accounts, and introduced a paid verification system. The billionaire has frequently criticized what he characterizes as a &#8220;woke mind virus&#8221; affecting media and technology companies.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-CABINET

Feds Probe Media Matters Over Plot To Defund Musk’s X, Silence Dissenting Voices

Big Tech

Trump Administration

Twitter

U.S.

I informed you a little bit earlier this week that I got a message from The New York Times in which they essentially were attempting to pressure YouTube into censoring all sorts of conservative podcast videos.
The claim was that I was engaged in election misinformation; the entire email was all about how I essentially needed to be shut down by YouTube. If you&#8217;re demonetized on YouTube, they also shut down your reach.
When I say that there is a Democratic Legacy Media Human Centipede, it&#8217;s because that’s the reality. The entire goal of that Centipede is to shut down anyone and everyone who disagrees with them. So Media Matters brought out a study — apparently behind closed doors — and fed it to The New York Times, which then attempted to get comments from people like me, Tucker Carlson, and a bunch of other people on the Right in which they were essentially attempting to elicit a response. They were suggesting that we are all election deniers and engaged in misinformation so YouTube could shut us down.
But just in case you thought that the email was not a part of a coordinated hit, within 48 hours I got an email from — you guessed it — The Washington Post. 
It stated: 
<blockquote>Hi, Ben. I&#8217;m a tech reporter at The Washington Post. My colleagues and I are working on a story that examines the role podcasts are playing in casting doubt on the integrity of the 2024 election. The piece includes interviews with researchers who say podcasts are an especially effective medium for such claims because of how technically challenging it is for companies to do content moderation. </blockquote>
So what does that mean? The suggestion here is that companies ought to be doing content moderation. Which companies? Presumably, social media companies ought to be shutting down, once again, shows like this one. YouTube ought to shut down the show, according to The Washington Post. Or perhaps he was talking about Spotify or perhaps iTunes or perhaps advertisers. 
Back to the email:
<blockquote>A Washington Post analysis found that The Ben Shapiro Show is one of many nationally prominent podcasts that have aired these claims. Our analysis, based on your October interview with former President Trump, where you referred to Democrats as professionals at ballot harvesting and Trump referred to them as cheaters. Could you please let me know if you have any comment? My deadline is 5 p.m. Eastern today. </blockquote>
Notice the claim. The claim is that I was engaged in election misinformation by referring to Democrats as professionals at ballot harvesting. That, apparently, is election misinformation.
But here is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/republicans-ballot-harvesting-fraud-claims-rcna151952" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News</a> in May 2024: 
<blockquote>Democrats, for their part, have long enjoyed successes in mail voting, fueled in part by ballot collection where it is legal. The Democratic National Committee said it plans to spend ‘tens of millions of dollars in support of voting programs like mail and early voting.</blockquote>
NBC News, you election deniers. You engage in election misinformation every day. 
Of course, they don&#8217;t believe that I&#8217;m engaged in election misinformation. The thing they&#8217;re mad about is that I had Donald Trump on my show. It&#8217;s not just me they want to censor. They also want to censor Trump. They believe that it is some sort of informational crime for me to have on the former and likely future president of the United States.
That&#8217;s insane. It&#8217;s totally crazy. They think we are supposed to censor President Trump and that I can&#8217;t say things that are perfectly true about ballot harvesting, which is one of the most corrupt practices in America. It&#8217;s legal but it’s also corrupt.
The Washington Post has become a joke, so much so that Jeff Bezos had to issue an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/28/jeff-bezos-washington-post-trust/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">editorial</a> just a couple of days ago titled “The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media,” in which according to Gallup, Americans think the news media stink.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2075-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Perhaps if Jeff Bezos actually wants to correct things at The Washington Post, it&#8217;s not enough to stop them from endorsing Kamala Harris on the editorial pages. Perhaps he ought to look to his reporting staff who are now doing the bidding of places like Media Matters as well as obviously coordinating with the Democratic apparatus to unleash two separate stories that came out almost simultaneously.
One of those stories came from The New York Times and one from The Washington Post on Wednesday. Both of these stories say the same thing: that conservative media ought to be destroyed.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/31/technology/youtube-election-conspiracy-theories-misinformation.html">piece</a> had a big graphic including people ranging from me to Tim Pool to Rudy Giuliani to Tucker Carlson to Michael Knowles. The title? “Election Falsehoods Take Off on YouTube as It Looks the Other Way.”
Obviously, YouTube is not censoring things the way The New York Times would like YouTube to censor things.
Think for a second how truly sick this is. You have members of the media, members of the press, people who are supposed to be about the free dissemination of speech, actively asking YouTube to shut down people they don&#8217;t like. And again, this is not about election misinformation because included in their litany of sins is me <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/31/technology/youtube-election-conspiracy-theories-misinformation.html">saying things</a> such as Democrats set the rules on ballot harvesting and mail-in voting, all of which is true, as reported by The New York Times. 
They quote me saying the Democrats rigged voting rules in 2020. What I actually said is that the Democratic Party rigged many of the voting rules in advance in order to advance mail-in voting and ballot harvesting. That&#8217;s also true. It was reported by both The New York Times and CBS News.
Nico Grant, the ridiculous reporter at the New York Times, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/31/technology/youtube-election-conspiracy-theories-misinformation.html">wrote:</a>
<blockquote> In June 2023, YouTube decided to stop fighting the most persistent strain of election misinformation in the United States: the falsehood that President Biden stole the 2020 election from Donald Trump. Within months, the largest video platform became a home for election conspiracy theories, half-truths and lies. They in turn became a source of revenue for YouTube, which announced growing quarterly ad sales on Tuesday.</blockquote>
So again, the theory here is that YouTube is making money off election denial.
Now, why would you quote me in that context? This is the dead giveaway. I&#8217;m the dead giveaway in the story.
Why?
Because I never said that Trump won the 2020 election. I&#8217;ve said repeatedly that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, at least by the counted ballots, by the state certification procedure. In fact, I challenged, between November and January, Trump&#8217;s claims that he had the legal capacity to overthrow the election or that Mike Pence did.
Yet they include me in the article anyway, because it&#8217;s not about election misinformation: it&#8217;s about destroying everyone on the Right. That&#8217;s what The New York Times wants to do.
The New York Times writes:
<blockquote>While Media Matters is a partisan organization that regularly criticizes conservatives, reporters and academics frequently cite it as a source on YouTube misinformation because it devotes significant resources to tracking the vast platform.
The New York Times independently verified the research, examining all of the videos identified by Media Matters and determining whether YouTube placed ads or Fact Check labels on them.</blockquote>
So the Times is attempting to justify precisely why they cribbed Media Matters’ work. My favorite part of the story from The New York Times is what follows: I put up a <a href="https://x.com/benshapiro/status/1851061597286060401" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thread on X </a>that received millions of views. Tucker Carlson also released a screenshot of his replies to The New York Times reporter, basically telling them to go f*** themselves, which, coincidentally, is what I told a New York Times reporter.
Here is the quote about our comments: 
<blockquote>Mr. Carlson and Mr. Shapiro did not directly respond to a series of questions, but attacked reporting from The New York Times.</blockquote>
I did notice that when I put up the thread and then I sent this reporter the thread — which was extensive — he could have quoted that thread.
But he can&#8217;t quote the thread. If he quotes the thread, it totally debunks his entire stupid story and shows the underlying motive.
If you thought that that was just a one-off, it was not.
Only hours later, The Washington Post put up <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/10/31/podcasts-election-fraud-misinformation/">their piece</a>, titled, “In the podcast election, top shows cast doubt on integrity of 2024 vote.” 
The Post added: 
<blockquote>Claims aired on the free-flowing and beloved medium could undercut trust in the results of a razor-tight election, experts say.</blockquote>
“Experts”? As always, they just go and find somebody who works at a leftist outlet such as the Brookings Institution, and get them to say the thing the reporter wants them to say. “Experts say” is just a guise for something the writer wants to say. I can find an expert to say anything in America. It&#8217;s so easy.
Take the lead picture in the Post piece. It&#8217;s a terrible old picture of me. (I always enjoy when I&#8217;m shown in legacy media because they find whatever is the worst picture of me and put it on there; it&#8217;s kind of amusing.) I’m Captain Election Misinformation, according to the Post.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH&#8217;S &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a></h3>
But the only reference to me in the story refers to the fact that Donald Trump appeared on my program. What was the big problem with anything that I said? 
They can&#8217;t identify the thing that I said: the problem doesn&#8217;t exist. Instead, they just say:
<blockquote>During October appearances on the Shapiro and Rogan shows, Trump said that Democrats were cheating and that the media was interfering with the election.</blockquote>
I have a question: Is it my job to not have Donald Trump on my show? Is that the implication by The Washington Post, which boasts “Democracy Dies in Darkness”?
The Post continued: 
<blockquote>Asked for comment, Shapiro in a post on X cast this story as part of  ‘the legacy media’s coordinated attempt to DESTROY conservative media.’</blockquote>
Yes. That&#8217;s exactly what it is when you come out with the story at the same exact time as The New York Times, and both of you are cribbing from the work of Media Matters, and both of you are lying about the purpose of your story. Of course it&#8217;s an attempt to destroy conservative media one week out from an election.
I&#8217;m sorry I thwarted your little stupid plans to get YouTube to shut down shows like this one five days before an election.
Your little October surprise has fallen flat.
YouTube, to its credit, has said this stuff isn&#8217;t election misinformation. It doesn&#8217;t violate their rules, and so they are not going to ban it. So good for YouTube.
But that doesn&#8217;t mean that the attempt didn&#8217;t happen. And again, this is all a broader part of the attempt by legacy media to strangle in the crib any sort of competitive media and any social media structure that refuses to abide by its rules.

New Washington Post Editor Won’t Take Job Following Ethics Furor

I Just Got Another Astounding Email — From The Washington Post

Ben Shapiro

New York Times

Opinion

Social Media

Washington Post

YouTube

A couple of weeks ago, I covered the large round of layoffs at the Left-wing activist group known as Media Matters. 
Many conservatives celebrated the news because of course, Media Matters exists for the sole purpose of smearing the opponents of the Democratic Party. They misrepresent people&#8217;s words, stalk them on social media, and so on. But Media Matters&#8217; dishonest attack on Elon Musk and Twitter appears to have been a bridge too far. Elon Musk fought back with a massive lawsuit, which Media Matters&#8217; management cited as one reason for the layoffs.
For my part, I wasn&#8217;t particularly thrilled with Media Matters&#8217; collapse because, as I said at the time, they essentially function as my PR agency. They keep clipping segments from my show and broadcasting them all over the place, apparently thinking they&#8217;ve found a &#8220;gotcha&#8221; moment. But really it&#8217;s always something that my own team was going to post online anyway. And they did all of this without taking or even requesting any compensation whatsoever from me. In fact, I never really even thanked them for the pro bono services they&#8217;ve provided dependably and frankly obsessively over the years. So Media Matters&#8217; downfall was something of a bittersweet moment for me.
Fast-forward just a couple of weeks, and yet another Left-wing smear factory appears to be on the decline. This time it&#8217;s the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). And this is a collapse I will openly celebrate because the SPLC is a substantially more effective organization than Media Matters could ever hope to be — more effective at actually advancing Left wing goals. Less effective as a defacto PR agency for us. So the worst of all worlds. If Media Matters is the B-team of Democratic Party hatchetmen, the SPLC is the A-team. And by that I mean, they&#8217;re still evil, but they have a lot more influence.
Thankfully, on Thursday, the SPLC announced it&#8217;s laying off 60 workers, or roughly a quarter of its staff. The union at the SPLC — because for some reason a nonprofit has a union — has said the cuts will have a &#8220;catastrophic impact&#8221; on SPLC&#8217;s day-to-day operations.They won&#8217;t be able to save democracy and fight white supremacy anymore, we&#8217;re told.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1387-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
This is an important story for two reasons. First of all, we&#8217;re just five months away from Election Day. Two of the Democrats&#8217; biggest propaganda outfits getting gutted at a pivotal time like this is a really bad sign for the party&#8217;s messaging efforts, and a great sign for the country. It also suggests that there might be a lot more internal discord within the party than we realized, which I&#8217;ll get into in a second. But the other reason this is an important story is that the SPLC has a direct line to federal law enforcement and Joe Biden&#8217;s DOJ.
We know that because the SPLC was one of the sources for the FBI&#8217;s memo last year proclaiming that, “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology&#8221; has attracted &#8220;racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.&#8221; The FBI warned that these &#8220;radical traditionalist&#8221; Catholics, or RTCs, can be identified by their, &#8220;frequent adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology.&#8221; The memo concluded by noting that these radical Catholic terrorists, &#8220;present opportunities for threat mitigation.&#8221;
The FBI&#8217;s memo, which was written by the Richmond field office, then went on to directly cite the SPLC: &#8220;Following are the nine RTC hate groups operating in the United States in 2021 as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center, followed by the location of their organizational headquarters.&#8221; The FBI then copy-pasted a webpage from the SPLC.
In other words, the SPLC functions a bit like the FBI&#8217;s cutout. They produce agenda-driven &#8220;threat assessments&#8221; or whatever, and then the FBI — pretending the SPLC is some sort of impartial arbiter — cites the SPLC to go after groups that the Democratic Party doesn&#8217;t like.
When he was asked about this under oath last year, the FBI Director, Christopher Wray, said he was &#8220;aghast&#8221; that the agency had cited the SPLC. He said he immediately had the memo removed from FBI systems. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="&#039;Is There Coordination?&#039;: Scott Asks FBI Director Point Blank About Southern Poverty Law Center" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lkgve2CHUb0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Christopher Wray says it was just one field office making an innocent little mistake, and that it won&#8217;t happen again. But no part of that statement appears to be true. The testimony you just saw was from March of last year. Seven months later, senators Chuck Grassley and James Lankford found that, &#8220;FBI Director Christopher Wray has yet to fully own up to the extent of the memo’s origins – even in congressional testimony. During a September FBI briefing to Senate staff, it was clear the FBI still relies on SPLC information.&#8221;
So the head of the FBI admits under oath that the SPLC is a garbage source. But the FBI is still apparently citing the SPLC in private briefings with the Senate. This is obviously a major problem — and it may constitute perjury by the FBI director — but it&#8217;s not really surprising. In an interview a couple of years ago, Wray admitted that the FBI also regularly works with another partisan and totally discredited Left-wing organization, the ADL. Here&#8217;s Wray speaking directly with the head of the ADL:
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FBI director Christopher Wray admitted on a call with Jonathan Greenblatt that the FBI works directly with the ADL for tips and targeting of those they have labeled “anti-semites.” This can be as straight forward as someone criticizing Israel. <a href="https://t.co/UiQBcPwwC6">pic.twitter.com/UiQBcPwwC6</a>
&mdash; Henrik Palmgren 🇸🇪 ᛟ (@Henrik_Palmgren) <a href="https://twitter.com/Henrik_Palmgren/status/1484401987789594626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;It&#8217;s the FBI that works directly with the ADL every day,&#8221; says the head of the ADL. And the FBI director agrees, saying that the ADL apparently participates in law enforcement investigations.
This is the same ADL that sent out a memo warning about &#8220;extremist&#8221; parents at school board meetings who dare to question &#8220;COVID-19 mandates&#8221; and &#8220;Critical Race Theory.&#8221; (You might remember that Merrick Garland&#8217;s DOJ then began investigating these school board meetings, coincidentally enough). This is the same ADL that published a definition on its website saying that it&#8217;s impossible to be racist against white people. According to a definition that was on the ADL&#8217;s website for several years, racism means, &#8220;the marginalization and/or oppression of people of color.&#8221;
I could give many more examples, including the ADL&#8217;s political targeting of Elon Musk on behalf of the Democratic Party, or their various calls to censor conservative commentators and their lies about the so-called &#8220;great replacement theory.&#8221; The point is that this is not an organization that a nonpartisan FBI would ever dream of working with. But we don&#8217;t have a nonpartisan FBI, so instead, the FBI director is openly bragging about working directly with Left-wing activists. He only apologizes when he&#8217;s caught. And then he goes right back to doing the same thing.
Decades ago, back in the 70s, you could make a plausible case that the FBI should be working with groups like the SPLC. They were founded initially, supposedly, to fight various forms of discrimination in court — with the goal of alleviating the root causes of Southern poverty, particularly in the black community. But about a decade in, the SPLC decided to give up the idea of solving southern poverty — which as you may have noticed, is still quite pervasive. And instead, the SPLC morphed into a smear factory. They&#8217;ve gone after pretty much everyone with a position on abortion or immigration or Islamic extremism that they disagree with.
Some of the allegedly radical and hateful groups identified by the SPLC include such well-known domestic terror organizations as The Federalist Society, PragerU, the Heritage Foundation, the Center for Immigration Studies, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, and the Family Research Council (which an SPLC follower targeted in an attempted mass murder back in 2012). These are all mainstream conservative organizations, as you probably know. But that didn&#8217;t faze the SPLC. They&#8217;ve also targeted people like Ben Carson, Dennis Prager, and Franklin Graham. Ben Carson, for example, appeared on the SPLC&#8217;s hate list because he holds the radical, unthinkable view that marriage is between one man and one woman — you know, that tenet of Christianity that&#8217;s also been a universal view for pretty much all of human history. (They later halfheartedly apologized for the hit on Carson, saying their smear job labeling him as an &#8220;extremist&#8221; didn&#8217;t meet their nonexistent “standards&#8221;). Not surprisingly, the SPLC also has a page on their website dedicated to exposing and cataloging the crimes of the dangerous extremist whose show you’re watching right now.
But all those attacks pale in comparison to SPLC&#8217;s efforts to defame Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Maajid Nawaz. They appeared in the SPLC&#8217;s &#8220;Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists&#8221; for the crime of denouncing violent Islamic extremism. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of the leading human rights activists alive, and she suffered female genital mutilation at the hands of actual extremists, but according to the SPLC, she has no right to criticize Islamic extremism. These claims were so absurd that the SPLC pulled its &#8220;field guide&#8221; on extremism entirely. They also publicly apologized for calling Nawaz an extremist and paid several million dollars in a settlement.
Again, this is the group that the FBI apparently still relies on for investigative information. That&#8217;s why we should all celebrate the fact that the SPLC has been gutted. It may mean fewer coordinated Left-wing assaults on pro-life organizations and pro-life activists, for one thing.
Unfortunately, like Media Matters, or any other form of highly invasive and malignant cancer, the SPLC probably will not go away entirely. It&#8217;s not shutting down, at least not right now. And they don&#8217;t appear to be having financial issues either, since they&#8217;re historically very well-funded — and they reportedly still receive donations from liberals who think defaming innocent people is some kind of public service. That&#8217;s according to the SPLC&#8217;s union, which tweeted yesterday:
<blockquote>Today, [SPLC] &#8211; an organization with nearly a billion dollars in reserves, given an F rating by CharityWatch for &#8216;hoarding&#8217; donations &#8211; gutted its staff by a quarter. SPLC’s decision has a catastrophic impact on the organization’s work in support of immigrants seeking justice and its mission to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance human rights through support of educators.</blockquote>
So there&#8217;s a bit of infighting going on at the SPLC. And that post does raise an interesting question: If it&#8217;s true that the SPLC is financially sound, why are they firing a bunch of employees? Over at Hot Air, <a href="https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/06/13/lots-of-layoffs-at-the-splc-n3790189" target="_blank" rel="noopener">David Storm theorizes</a> that SPLC is laying off the far-Left fringe of its workforce because they&#8217;ve become unruly. That would explain why the SPLC&#8217;s union is lashing out at the SPLC right now on Twitter: 
<blockquote>As the Democrats rely more on radical activists,&#8221; Storm writes, &#8220;they can lose control of the messaging and direction. Younger folks who are now getting hired genuinely believe the world is on fire, that White Supremacy is on the rise, that settler colonialists are oppressing the natives, and that the borders must be open. The people at the top generally use the issues to collect money to help Democrats and slander Republicans. Suddenly they are facing revolts. I suspect that is part of what is at work here. The SPLC isn&#8217;t going broke, so it&#8217;s likely that they are dumping the most troublesome employees under the guise of a restructuring.</blockquote>
If that&#8217;s the case, then unfortunately, SPLC will probably stick around. But at least, like Media Matters, they&#8217;ll have to orchestrate their smears from now on with a lot less manpower. That means I&#8217;ll have fewer unpaid PR representatives going forward, spreading clips of my best moments all over the Internet. And yes, that&#8217;s a bummer, for me at least. But it also means that, without the SPLC running at full capacity, Joe Biden&#8217;s DOJ will have a harder time cooking up fake justifications to harass their political enemies. And with just a few months to go until the election, that&#8217;s unquestionably a big win for the &#8220;democracy&#8221; that Media Matters and the SPLC pretend to care so much about.
* * *
Correction: This article has been edited to correct the name of the SPLC in one instance from Southern Policy Law Center to Southern Poverty Law Center.

Businessman carrying box with personal belongings on sunny day

The Nation Rejoices As Another Left-Wing Smear Factory Suffers Mass Layoffs

Democrats

Matt Walsh

Readers Pass

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

For years, the reporters at <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/media-matters-receives-1-million-from-george-soros#:~:text=In%20a%20statement%2C%20Soros%20said,challenge%20Fox%20News%20poses%20to">Soros-backed</a> outlet Media Matters for America (MMfA) have made it their mission to report on conservative outlets and pundits with the express goal of getting them fired or canceled — and now that mass layoffs have impacted them, conservatives are weighing in.
The abrupt termination of multiple staffers — some of whom have been employed with the outlet for years — followed federal probes spearheaded by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton into allegations that MMfA had perpetrated fraud by creating and sharing manipulated data on X.
Several of the outlet’s now-ex employees took to X to complain about their abrupt termination, and to a man, each claimed that they had been fired because they were “too effective” at holding conservatives to account.
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Bad News: I’ve been laid off from <a href="https://twitter.com/mmfa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mmfa</a>, along with a dozen colleagues.
There’s a reason far-right billionaires attack Media Matters with armies of lawyers: They know how effective our work is, and it terrifies them (him).
&mdash; Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) <a href="https://twitter.com/abughazalehkat/status/1793691841113805312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
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But conservatives, many of whom have been personally targeted by MMfA over the years, took a different view of the situation.
Radio host Dana Loesch explained, “MMFA is a garbage activist unit bankrolled by communists. They tried and failed to take me off air so many times — they even assigned a reporter [to] follow me to my events — they did this to EVERY conservative, not just me. They messed with @elonmusk and found out. Hallelujah.”
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MMFA is a garbage activist unit bankrolled by communists. They tried and failed to take me off air so many times — they even assigned a reporter follow me to my events — they did this to EVERY conservative, not just me. They messed with <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elonmusk</a> and found out. Hallelujah. <a href="https://t.co/4vTNn8rYS8">https://t.co/4vTNn8rYS8</a>
&mdash; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1793763937172979974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles weighed in as well, saying, “.@MMFA has tried on at least 228 occasions to get me fired and ostracized. They have so far been unsuccessful. But today, many of them were fired themselves. One hopes that they will come out of it all right and turn their lives and labor to more edifying pursuits.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/mmfa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MMFA</a> has tried on at least 228 occasions to get me fired and ostracized. They have so far been unsuccessful. But today, many of them were fired themselves. One hopes that they will come out of it all right and turn their lives and labor to more edifying pursuits. <a href="https://t.co/dSDkAf1Z6C">pic.twitter.com/dSDkAf1Z6C</a>
&mdash; Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1793844109603635533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 24, 2024</a></blockquote>
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“Media Matters spread a hoax report where they deceitfully manipulated X&#8217;s algorithm to place ads next to posts they deemed controversial. This pressured advertisers to leave X causing X to suffer massive financial losses. The Missouri AG filed a lawsuit and now MM is doing massive layoffs,” LibsofTikTok posted. “No sympathy from me for this trash organization!”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Media Matters spread a hoax report where they deceitfully manipulated X&#39;s algorithm to place ads next to posts they deemed controversial. This pressured advertisers to leave X causing X to suffer massive financial losses.
The Missouri AG filed a lawsuit and now MM is doing… <a href="https://t.co/f6yO60SMdV">pic.twitter.com/f6yO60SMdV</a>
&mdash; Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1793708217278599379?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1793852838474318044">replied</a> to her post, saying, “That is exactly what happened.”

Media Matters Fox Studios Mobile Billboard Activation

Professional Tattletales At Soros-Backed Outlet MMfA Just Got Axed, And Conservatives Have Thoughts

Dana Loesch

Fox News

Media Bias

A leaked list of donors to Media Matters reveals that the self-proclaimed &#8220;media watchdog&#8221; is funded by some of America’s largest Democratic donors.
Media Matters, which is not required to disclose its donors due to its designation as a charity, appears to have accidentally identified five of its largest donors in a filing with the New Mexico Attorney General, the Washington Free Beacon first <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/democratic-megadonors-bankroll-media-matters-leaked-donor-list-shows/">reported</a>.
Deborah Simon, the daughter of the founder of one of America’s largest shopping mall companies, donated $4 million to Media Matters. Simon <a href="https://www.ibj.com/articles/deb-simon-willing-to-do-anything-to-oust-trump-in-2020">pledged</a> to “do anything” to beat Trump in 2020 and has given <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=deborah+simon&amp;contributor_zip=46032">tens of millions</a> of dollars to Democrat candidates and causes, winning her a spot in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2022/top-election-donors-2022/">top 50 political donors</a> of the 2022 midterm cycle.
The Gill Foundation, the private foundation of LGBT activist Tim Gill, furnished Media Matters with just under $3 million. Gill is a <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democracy-alliance/tim-gill-dark-money-master/">pioneer</a> of the use of “dark money” in politics, helping to flip the Colorado state legislature in 2004 with his <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/organization/colorado-democracy-alliance/">Colorado Democracy Alliance</a>, which he co founded with fellow Democrat donor Patricia Stryker.
Another $1.75 million came from Bain Capital co-chairman Joshua Bekenstein and his wife, Anita. The couple has given <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/donor_detail?cycle=2020&amp;id=U0000003074&amp;type=I&amp;super=s&amp;name=Bekenstein%2C+Joshua+%26+Anita">millions of dollars</a> to Democratic causes and were also in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2022/top-election-donors-2022/">top 50 political donors</a> in the 2022 midterms.
Media Matters received another $1.9 million from the Stephen Silberstein Foundation, a leftwing organization that has <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/stephen-m-silberstein-foundation/">funded</a> other progressive organizations, including the Center for American Progress, Amnesty International, and People for the American Way, among others.
Media Matters raised a total of $16.5 million in 2022, and organization executives enjoyed huge salaries, with president Angelo Carusone collecting a whopping $406,000 and founder David Brock receiving $270,000 as well as a $189,000 payment from a deferred compensation plan.
But while Media Matters is funded by Democrat mega donors and organizes advertiser boycotts against conservatives, it is portrayed as an objective media watchdog by some <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/democratic-megadonors-bankroll-media-matters-leaked-donor-list-shows/">news outlets</a> have <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/18/musk-threatens-thermonuclear-lawsuit-against-media-watchdog-calls-advertisers-oppressors.html">referred</a> to the organization as a &#8220;media watchdog,&#8221; neglecting to mention its partisan ties.
Media Matters is currently facing investigations from Texas Attorney General <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-opens-investigation-media-matters-potential-fraudulent-activity">Ken Paxton</a> and Missouri Attorney General <a href="https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023.12.11-Notice-of-Investigation-MMFA-Final.pdf">Andrew Bailey</a>. The organization was also hit with a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.383454/gov.uscourts.txnd.383454.1.0_1.pdf">lawsuit</a> from X, formerly known as Twitter, alleging that Media Matters sought to “portray X’s social networking platform as being dominated by “white nationalist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” in order to “drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”

Money

Leaked Media Matters Donor List Reveal It Is Funded By Democrat Mega Donors

Donors

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced this week an investigation into <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/media-matters-for-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Media Matters for America</a> over accusations that the outlet intentionally misled readers about X to pressure advertisers to pull support from the social media platform. 
Last month, Bailey <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/republican-attorney-general-says-hes-looking-into-media-matters-after-musk-threatens-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indicated</a> that he would be looking at Media Matters after it published an article claiming X was placing ads for major corporations alongside Nazi-related content. Musk responded to the article by filing a lawsuit and saying it was “contrived” and a “fraudulent attack.” After the report, several major corporations like Apple and IBM announced they would pull advertising from X.
“We have reason to believe Media Matters used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to trick advertisers into pulling out of X, the last platform dedicated to free speech in America. Radicals are attempting to kill Twitter because they cannot control it, and we are not going to let Missourians get ripped off in the process,” Bailey <a href="https://ago.mo.gov/attorney-general-bailey-notifies-media-matters-of-pending-investigation/#:~:text=JEFFERSON%20CITY%2C%20Mo.,X%2C%20formerly%20known%20as%20Twitter." target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement. “I’m fighting to ensure progressive tyrants masquerading as news outlets cannot manipulate the marketplace in order to wipe out free speech.”
In a <a href="https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023.12.11-Notice-of-Investigation-MMFA-Final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> on Monday to Media Matters President Angelo Carusone, Bailey said that he believed the outlet might have violated Missouri consumer protection laws, “including laws that prohibit nonprofit entities from soliciting funds under false pretenses.” 
Bailey told Carusone to preserve any communication regarding the outlet&#8217;s story on X and any communications on their “efforts to manipulate those advertisers into pulling their ads from the platform.” 
Missouri’s investigation follows an <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-opens-investigation-media-matters-potential-fraudulent-activity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a> from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that he would be probing the outlet. 
“We are examining the issue closely to ensure that the public has not been deceived by the schemes of radical left-wing organizations who would like nothing more than to limit freedom by reducing participation in the public square,” Paxton said last month. 
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Media Matters has <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/media-matters-elon-musk-texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-rcna129402" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> to Paxton’s investigation by filing a lawsuit, arguing that he had violated the First Amendment. 
“[The] chill imposed by his retaliatory scheme injures Plaintiffs’ ability to investigate and publish news stories and further chills their ability to participate in a robust public discussion around political extremism on the X platform,” Media Matters lawyers claimed.
Musk has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-to-file-thermonuclear-suit-against-media-matters-over-contrived-story-on-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> Media Matters was trying to undermine free speech on X because “they perceive it as a threat to their ideological narrative and those of their financial supporters.”

US-NEWS-MO-BAILEY-FREESPEECH-KC

‘Progressive Tyrants’: Missouri AG Launches Investigation Into Media Matters

Ken Paxton

Missouri

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk And UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Discuss AI Risks

They’re Coming After Elon Because He Committed The Sin Of Allowing Us To Speak

They're Coming After Elon Because He Committed The Sin Of Allowing Us To Speak

Anti-Semitism

Biden Administration

Leftist

Missouri Republican Attorney General <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/missouri-attorney-general-launches-investigation-into-trans-center-for-harming-hundreds-of-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Andrew Bailey</a> said Sunday that he was looking into accusations that leftist outlet Media Matters for America intentionally misled readers about X to pressure advertisers to pull support from the social media platform. 
Bailey’s statement came after X owner Elon Musk said on Saturday that he would file a lawsuit against <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/media-matters-for-america">Media Matters</a> over a report it ran last week that claimed X was placing ads for major corporations alongside Nazi-related content. As a result of the report, major corporations like Apple and IBM announced they would be pulling advertising from X. Musk said the report was misleading and intended to undermine X’s commitment to free speech.
Musk said that Media Matters had created a “contrived” experience by using an alternate account to curate what posts appeared on the timeline. “Once they curated their feed, they repeatedly refreshed their timelines to find a rare instance of ads serving next to the content they chose to follow,” Musk said. 
Bailey said his team was &#8220;looking into this matter&#8221; in response to a post from Musk commenting on former Trump advisor Stephen Miller’s allegation that what Media Matters did was a civil and criminal violation.
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My team is looking into this matter.
&mdash; Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) <a href="https://twitter.com/AGAndrewBailey/status/1726356260088426894?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2023</a></blockquote>
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“Great!,&#8221; Musk responded to Bailey. 
The Daily Wire reached out to Bailey’s office for further clarification on his comments. 
According to Musk, the Media Matters report misrepresented X&#8217;s advertising practices. He said X logs indicated that of the 5.5 billion ad impressions on the day Media Matters pulled its research, less than 50 were served alongside the content highlighted by the leftist organization.
For one “brand showcased in the article, two of its ads served adjacent to 2 posts, 3 times, and that ad was only seen in that setting by one user, the author of the Media Matters article,” Musk said. 
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Corporations quickly responded to the Media Matters report. Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Lionsgate, and Paramount Global announced they were pausing ads on the social media platform. Musk has faced accusations of anti-Semitism and allowing Nazi-themed posts on X. 
On Sunday, Musk responded to the allegations. 
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“This past week, there were hundreds of bogus media stories claiming that I am antisemitic. Nothing could be further from the truth. I wish only the best for humanity and a prosperous and exciting future for all,” Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1726350631181717668" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on Sunday.

US Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Student Debt Cancellation Program

Republican Attorney General Says He’s Looking Into Media Matters After Musk Threatens Lawsuit

Technology

X owner <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> said on Saturday that he would be filing a lawsuit against leftist outlet <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/media-matters-for-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Media Matters</a> for America over a story it ran this week that he said was misleading and intended to undermine free speech.
Musk announced the suit early Saturday morning, promising to file the suit as soon as the courts opened on Monday. The Media Matters <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/musk-endorses-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-x-has-been-placing-ads-apple-bravo-ibm-oracle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">story</a> at the center of the suit was published on Thursday and claimed that X was placing ads for major corporations alongside Nazi-related content. 
In the aftermath of the story, multiple corporations said that they would be pulling advertising from X, including Apple and IBM. 
“The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company,” Musk said, indicating that the suit would target the board and their “network of dark money.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company <a href="https://t.co/55vl7PspaQ">pic.twitter.com/55vl7PspaQ</a>
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1725771191644758037?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
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A press release from Musk said that the Media Matters story “completely misrepresented the real user experience on X, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers.”
Musk said that X was committed to free speech on the platform, even objectionable speech, and that people had the right to decide what to read or watch.
“Despite our clear and consistent position, X has seen a number of attacks from activist groups like Media Matters and legacy media outlets who seek to undermine freedom of expression on our platform because they perceive it as a threat to their ideological narrative and those of their financial supporters,” the release said. 
Musk said that Media Matters created a “contrived” experience by using an alternate account to curate what posts appeared on the timeline. “Once they curated their feed, they repeatedly refreshed their timelines to find a rare instance of ads serving next the content they chose to follow,” Musk said. 
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He said that X logs indicated that of the 5.5 billion ad impressions the day Media Matters pulled its research from, that less than 50 were served alongside the content highlighted by Media Matters.
For one “brand showcased in the article, two of its ads served adjacent to 2 posts, 3 times, and that ad was only seen in that setting by one user, the author of the Media Matters article,” Musk said. 
In addition to Apple and IBM, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Lionsgate and Paramount Global all <a href="https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/elon-musk-suing-media-matters-advertising-x-twitter-ads-nazi-white-pride-1235798786/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> they were pausing ads on the social media platform.

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Elon Musk To File ‘Thermonuclear’ Suit Against Media Matters Over ‘Contrived’ Story On X

Former NCAA champion swimmer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/riley-gaines-blows-up-democrat-witness-testimony-during-trans-rights-hearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Riley Gaines</a> responded on Thursday to a hit piece accusing her of using her 5th-place tie with trans-identifying swimmer Lia Thomas to launch a career in right-wing media.
The piece was written by Alyssa Tirrell at left-wing outlet Media Matters for America, and argued that Gaines had traded a fifth place finish in the 200-meter freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships — where she tied with Thomas — for a platform in conservative media.
MMfA&#8217;s Ari Drennen shared the article along with the comment, &#8220;Riley Gaines has turned a fifth-place tie with Lia Thomas into a lucrative career in the right wing media.&#8221; The headline echoed the same claim: &#8220;Over a year after her last race against Lia Thomas, Riley Gaines has built a media career on the trans swimmer’s name.&#8221;
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Riley Gaines has turned a fifth-place tie with Lia Thomas into a lucrative career in the right wing media<a href="https://t.co/5oSAXmHGua">https://t.co/5oSAXmHGua</a>
&mdash; Ari Drennen 🍏🌴 (@AriDrennen) <a href="https://twitter.com/AriDrennen/status/1671608932320649227?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
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In the article that followed, however, Tirrell appeared to be suggesting that 29 appearances — totaling two hours and 38 minutes of air time — amounted to a &#8220;media career.&#8221;
The piece went on to complain that instead of talking solely about her race against Thomas, Gaines was being asked to comment on broader issues — such as the athletic advantages biological males have over females when it comes to sports and the trauma that could result from allowing men into locker rooms with biological females and, particularly, young girls.
But as Gaines told The Daily Wire on Thursday, despite the fact that she does not intend to make media a career, critics like MMfA are just going to have to get used to seeing her around.
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&#8220;I finished fifth in the entire country. Is the fifth best NBA player considered elite? Of course. The critics to this have never been an elite athlete or placed fifth in the country in any of their endeavors, so I don&#8217;t expect them to know what that actually means,&#8221; Gaines began. &#8220;But that doesn&#8217;t matter. It wouldn&#8217;t matter if I won an Olympic gold medal or was the slowest swimmer in the country. How competitive you are doesn&#8217;t change your worthiness of equal opportunity, safety, and privacy. Every single young girl and woman is entitled to their rights to those things regardless of how &#8216;good&#8217; or &#8216;fast&#8217; they are.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m not fighting this for personal reasons. This is never a battle I wanted or felt equipped for,&#8221; Gaines continued. &#8220;And I&#8217;m done competing. I&#8217;m not doing this for myself. I&#8217;m fighting this for the past female athletes who fought relentlessly for Title IX so I could benefit in the way I did. I&#8217;m fighting this for the present female athletes who have their voices effectively silenced by their universities and the media. I&#8217;m fighting this for the next generation of female athletes who don&#8217;t yet have a voice and don&#8217;t yet understand the implications of what this means for their opportunities.&#8221;
Gaines went on to say that she&#8217;d be only too happy to return to her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-was-ready-to-go-to-dental-school-riley-gaines-became-an-activist-by-accident-but-shes-not-backing-down" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original plan</a> for her life — to go to dental school and eventually become an endodontist.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t see that happening anytime soon. So I&#8217;m sorry, but my critics are going to be stuck seeing my face and hearing my voice,&#8221; she said. &#8220;This is a battle I won&#8217;t give up on because I see what&#8217;s at stake if we do. Make no mistake, this is bigger than just fairness in women&#8217;s sports. They want to control how you feel, what you think, and what you say. Not on my watch.&#8221;

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