Due to frivolous lawsuits driven by right-wing bad actors as a result of their truthful coverage of Elon Musk and the Trump Regime, Media Matters for America is spiraling into crisis as a result of shelling out legal fees
Kenneth P. Vogel, Kate Conger and Ryan Mac at NYT:
Media Matters, a nonprofit group that has played a key role in liberal politics, is struggling to withstand months of legal assaults by President Trump’s allies, offering a glimpse of what might be in store for even well-funded targets of his retribution campaigns. The organization, which is funded by some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, has racked up about $15 million in legal fees over the past 20 months to defend itself against lawsuits by Elon Musk, in addition to investigations by Mr. Trump’s Federal Trade Commission and Republican state attorneys general. The group has slashed the size of its staff and scrambled to raise more cash from skittish donors, according to documents and interviews with 11 people familiar with the organization’s fight to survive.
That might not be enough. Media Matters tried to settle with Mr. Musk by offering concessions, but the sides were far apart and talks fizzled. Even when the group has triumphed in court, Mr. Musk has appealed or filed new cases elsewhere. As a last resort, it has considered shuttering, according to interviews and an internal document. Publicly, the group has said that it has no plans to close, and that it is committed to defending itself as a matter of principle. “Unlike some major media entities that have recently caved to pressure, we understand that this battle is larger than us,” Angelo Carusone, the president of Media Matters, said in a statement. “That’s why we continue to carry out our mission and fight in court.” Even as the battle continues, Media Matters stands as an example of how legal warfare waged by powerful ideological opponents can squelch influential voices and stifle political dissent. The group says it has dialed back its criticism of Mr. Musk and the Trump F.T.C. Media Matters has also been frozen out by some allies. And it has faced plummeting staff morale, rising infighting and security concerns.
All that has proved quite a change in fortune for the influential group. Media Matters raised nearly $250 million in the two decades between its creation in 2003 and the end of 2023, establishing itself as a force in Democratic politics by effectively undermining major right-wing media figures and politicians.
The bleak outlook now facing the group underscores the serious harms that can be inflicted when the Trump administration and its allies train the vast resources of government or billionaire bank accounts on perceived enemies. It leaves targets facing a tricky choice: whether to spend heavily and fight back, or negotiate settlements that risk backlash for abandoning their convictions. Case in point: The parent companies of ABC News and CBS News were criticized for caving to Mr. Trump when they agreed to donate millions of dollars to his presidential library foundation to settle lawsuits that experts believe the media outlets could have won in court. Elite law firms diverged in strategy when they were targeted by the Trump administration with executive orders and inquiries after their lawyers worked against him or his administration. Those that fought back worried about losing clients and revenue, but have prevailed in court. Those that struck deals have lost several top partners discomfited by what some saw as a capitulation. [...]
Media Matters has been defending itself on more legal fronts and for longer than most targets of Trump allies, and its identity is more fundamentally linked to fighting Republicans and their allies. It is also particularly susceptible because of its dependence on maintaining the confidence — and confidentiality — of rich Democratic benefactors. Founded in 2003 by David Brock, a self-described “right-wing hit man” who switched sides and became an enforcer for Democrats, Media Matters set out to neutralize what Mr. Brock saw as a powerful Republican information ecosystem. The group became the flagship in a constellation of nonprofits formed or acquired by Mr. Brock to help Democrats and undermine Republicans. Media Matters is made up of two separate nonprofits registered under sections of the tax code — one for charities and the other for social welfare groups — that allow them to accept contributions without publicly disclosing donors’ identities, or so-called dark money.
Some major donors have been revealed through news reports or voluntary disclosures, including the investor George Soros, the clothing entrepreneur Susie Tompkins Buell and the hedge fund manager Stephen F. Mandel Jr. Initially, Media Matters targeted conservative talk radio and Fox News through fact-checking, advertiser boycotts and what Mr. Brock described as “guerrilla warfare and sabotage.” Mr. Carusone took over as president in late 2016 and began trying to recast the group as more of a journalistic outlet covering the rise of the so-called alt-right, and of misinformation and hateful content online, including social media. Mr. Brock stayed on as chairman, but ceded day-to-day control, and eventually left the group in 2022.
Mr. Musk had purchased Twitter earlier that year, and had begun removing content moderation rules. Media Matters homed in on the platform, which Mr. Musk later renamed X. In November 2023, Media Matters published research showing that ads appeared on X next to antisemitic and pro-Nazi content. The report — along with a post in which Mr. Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory — contributed to an advertiser exodus from X that cost the company more than $75 million in revenue through the end of that year. Later that month, X sued in federal court, claiming that Media Matters had “manipulated” the site to bypass safeguards and display advertisements next to incendiary posts in an effort to damage X’s relationships with advertisers. In a December 2023 livestream on X, Mr. Musk took aim at Media Matters, telling listeners, “We will pursue not just the organization, but anyone funding that organization.” Mr. Musk and X did not respond to requests for comment.
The suit was quickly followed by investigations from the offices of Republican attorneys general Ken Paxton of Texas and Andrew Bailey of Missouri, probing Mr. Musk’s claims that the group had manipulated data in its research about X and suggesting donors in their states may have been misled. Media Matters sued, and a federal court blocked the Texas investigation, ruling that the state attorneys general were likely infringing on the organization’s First Amendment rights. Missouri agreed to drop its investigation. Still, the legal fights cost Media Matters nearly $2 million. [...] In May, the F.T.C. launched an investigation into whether Media Matters and roughly a dozen other watchdog and advertising groups illegally colluded to dissuade companies from buying ads on X and other platforms. The commission’s investigation echoed Mr. Musk’s claims and sought similar internal information about Media Matters, including communications with other watchdog groups that monitor social media and news outlets.
The F.T.C. declined to comment. Inside Media Matters, the F.T.C. investigation was seen as an example of the Trump administration doing the bidding of Mr. Musk. Andrew Ferguson, the F.T.C.’s chairman, suggested before he was chosen to lead the agency that advertiser boycotts might violate antitrust laws. He praised Mr. Musk’s purchase of Twitter as helping to preserve “the free exchange of ideas that’s so indispensable to the American way of life.” While Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have feuded of late, the Trump administration has continued its investigation, underscoring an alignment based on shared enemies that may outlast the personal alliance between the two men.
In June, Media Matters sued to halt the investigation, arguing that the F.T.C. was using “sweeping governmental powers to attempt to silence and harass an organization for daring to speak the truth.” In the lawsuit, Media Matters’ lawyers wrote that the F.T.C. investigation “caused many Media Matters reporters, writers and researchers to pare back their investigative journalism, especially on any topics that could be perceived as relating to the F.T.C. or its investigation.” The legal situation also impaired the group’s ability to recruit and retain employees, according to the lawsuit. [...] But Mr. Carusone in his statement suggested that was not being considered, casting the legal assaults as “a revenge campaign against Media Matters intended to stymie or stop us entirely from exercising our constitutional rights.”
The New York Times wrote an article detailing how Media Matters for America is under crisis, and due to frivolous lawsuits driven by right-wing bad actors as a result of their truthful coverage of Elon Musk and the Trump Regime, could possibly be on the verge of being shut down.
MMFA has lasted 21 years, and let’s hope it keeps running so that quality journalism and debunking of right-wing talk radio and media outlets continues to keep Americans informed of right-wing propaganda.
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