Judge blocks FTC probe into Media Matters, calls it government "retaliation"

[midian182]

What just happened? The long-running spat between Media Matters and Elon Musk could soon be over. A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction blocking the FTC's investigation into the non-profit advocacy group, calling it government "retaliation" that should alarm all Americans.

The saga began in November 2023, when Media Matters published a report revealing that advertisements from major companies – including IBM, Apple, Oracle, and Comcast – were displayed next to pro-Nazi and antisemitic content on X's platform. It sparked an advertiser exodus that cost X $75 million and saw Musk tell the departing companies to "go f**k yourself."

X later filed a lawsuit in Texas against Media Matters, accusing it of intentionally manipulating images to portray the platform as extremist-friendly, thereby disparaging X, interfering with its contracts, and harming its economic prospects. X also sued advertisers and an advertising group over what it claimed was a systematic "boycott."

The dispute escalated when Media Matters challenged venue changes imposed by X in its Terms of Service and sued back – alleging a retaliatory, multi-jurisdictional litigation campaign that violates its First Amendment rights.

We tried being nice for 2 years and got nothing but empty words.

Now, it is war. https://t.co/MEzH0vqz0p

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2024

In May, a few months after Donald Trump returned to office – when he was still friends with Musk – the FTC launched an investigation into whether Media Matters had illegally colluded with advertisers.

On Friday, Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan with the US District Court for DC wrote that the case represented "quintessential First Amendment activity" and the FTC's "investigative demands appeared to be "a retaliatory act."

"It should alarm all Americans when the Government retaliates against individuals or organizations for engaging in constitutionally protected public debate," Sooknanan wrote. "And that alarm should ring even louder when the government retaliates against those engaged in newsgathering and reporting."

Sooknanan added that the civil investigative demand (CID) issued by FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson "should have come as no surprise."

The judge noted that before Trump appointed him head of the FTC, Ferguson had appeared on Steve Bannon's podcast, where he called for the FTC to investigate progressive groups who fight online disinformation. He also brought on several senior staffers at the FTC who had previously made public comments about Media Matters.

Sooknanan also said that the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Texas issued their own CIDs to Media Matters before the FTC opened its investigation, "seemingly at the behest of Steven Miller, the current White House Deputy Chief of Staff."

Those were "preliminarily enjoined in this Court as likely being retaliatory in violation of the First Amendment."

Sooknanan also said the FTC investigation had the intended effect of discouraging Media Matters from pursuing certain stories about the FTC, Ferguson, and Musk.

Musk has always been the litigious type. He recently threatened to take legal action against Apple over claims that it is manipulating App Store rankings by favoring OpenAI's ChatGPT over xAI's Grok app.

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Judge blocks FTC probe into Media Matters, calls it government "retaliation"

 

[opckieran]

Umm, this all started in June of 2024... The TDS/EDS crowd just can't help themselves!

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Umm, this all started in June of 2024... The TDS/EDS crowd just can't help themselves!

-The lawsuit between Musk and MM, two private parties, started in 2024.

The FTC investigation of MM, you know the actual free speech violation where the government tries to silence speech all the conservatives pretended to care about until January 20th, that started under Trump.

 

[opckieran]

-The lawsuit between Musk and MM, two private parties, started in 2024.

The FTC investigation of MM, you know the actual free speech violation where the government tries to silence speech all the conservatives pretended to care about until January 20th, that started under Trump.

Absolutely nobody who actually cares about free speech should be simping for MM. They've doxxed journalists, threatened advertising agencies into cancelling contracts over bogus claims, effectuated more widespread and more aggressive demonetization of creators, harassed local businesses; literally everything you hate in Trump, MM has been doing for far longer. Elon is clearly in the right here.

 

[yRaz]

Absolutely nobody who actually cares about free speech should be simping for MM. They've doxxed journalists, threatened advertising agencies into cancelling contracts over bogus claims, effectuated more widespread and more aggressive demonetization of creators, harassed local businesses; literally everything you hate in Trump, MM has been doing for far longer. Elon is clearly in the right here.

It's funny how people instinctively retaliate just because Trump got elected. Media Matters and it's associates have been terrorizing free speech for well over a decade.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Absolutely nobody who actually cares about free speech should be simping for MM. They've doxxed journalists, threatened advertising agencies into cancelling contracts over bogus claims, effectuated more widespread and more aggressive demonetization of creators, harassed local businesses; literally everything you hate in Trump, MM has been doing for far longer. Elon is clearly in the right here.

- Yes, Media Matters, Collective Shout, etc are all bullies that strong arm other private companies into self censorship, but that's a different issue than "free speech" which is specifically legal consequences for spoken/written/associative expression.

We all need to deal with private entities that bully the public into compliance or silence, but thanks to the roll of toilet paper known as the Constitution, the Government is the wrong tool to use.

This is what free speech absolutism looks like, for those that might be confused by the idea.

 

[opckieran]

- Yes, Media Matters, Collective Shout, etc are all bullies that strong arm other private companies into self censorship, but that's a different issue than "free speech" which is specifically legal consequences for spoken/written/associative expression.

We all need to deal with private entities that bully the public into compliance or silence, but thanks to the roll of toilet paper known as the Constitution, the Government is the wrong tool to use.

This is what free speech absolutism looks like, for those that might be confused by the idea.

The issues with MM extend far beyond Musk's own suit against them. Since its inception in 2004, MM has filed as a 501 c 3 non-profit organization. The problem with this is, the IRS forbids using charitable dollars for "more than an insubstantial part" of partisan activity. Easily 90% or more of MM's existence is partisan, declaring its explicit purpose to be "expose and neutralize conservative media lies" in IRS filings. That's tax fraud right off the bat. Their non-profit status SHOULD have been revoked a long time ago, but between the partisan protection from Obama and Biden, and the lack of prioritization under Trump's first term, it never happened. The importance of this will make sense soon.

One of the tags on the FTC page of this case stands out in particular: Invitation to Collude. Should their CID be effectuated, it would be child's play for the Feds to find such collusion (should it exist, which it almost certainly does given MM's stated purpose). This will empower the IRS in a subsequent fraud lawsuit against MM, because at that point it will have nothing to do with the First Amendment (not like it ever did, since the First Amendment explicitly restricts Congress, which hasn't passed any laws restricting speech in this matter anyways).



TL;DR: MM is suspected to be in gross violation of corporate tax law, the FTC is opening up an investigation into them to prove it (which an investigation *by itself* couldn't possibly be a 1A violation), and if they find partisan activity, the IRS will subsequently have all the ammo it needs to take them to court.

 

[nnguy2]

The issues with MM extend far beyond Musk's own suit against them. Since its inception in 2004, MM has filed as a 501 c 3 non-profit organization. The problem with this is, the IRS forbids using charitable dollars for "more than an insubstantial part" of partisan activity. Easily 90% or more of MM's existence is partisan, declaring its explicit purpose to be "expose and neutralize conservative media lies" in IRS filings. That's tax fraud right off the bat. Their non-profit status SHOULD have been revoked a long time ago, but between the partisan protection from Obama and Biden, and the lack of prioritization under Trump's first term, it never happened. The importance of this will make sense soon.

One of the tags on the FTC page of this case stands out in particular: Invitation to Collude. Should their CID be effectuated, it would be child's play for the Feds to find such collusion (should it exist, which it almost certainly does given MM's stated purpose). This will empower the IRS in a subsequent fraud lawsuit against MM, because at that point it will have nothing to do with the First Amendment (not like it ever did, since the First Amendment explicitly restricts Congress, which hasn't passed any laws restricting speech in this matter anyways).



TL;DR: MM is suspected to be in gross violation of corporate tax law, the FTC is opening up an investigation into them to prove it (which an investigation *by itself* couldn't possibly be a 1A violation), and if they find partisan activity, the IRS will subsequently have all the ammo it needs to take them to court.

we should also revoke evangelists and other Christian Churches for adovacting for which candidates to vote for, left or right doesn't matter.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

The issues with MM extend far beyond Musk's own suit against them. Since its inception in 2004, MM has filed as a 501 c 3 non-profit organization. The problem with this is, the IRS forbids using charitable dollars for "more than an insubstantial part" of partisan activity. Easily 90% or more of MM's existence is partisan, declaring its explicit purpose to be "expose and neutralize conservative media lies" in IRS filings. That's tax fraud right off the bat. Their non-profit status SHOULD have been revoked a long time ago, but between the partisan protection from Obama and Biden, and the lack of prioritization under Trump's first term, it never happened. The importance of this will make sense soon.

One of the tags on the FTC page of this case stands out in particular: Invitation to Collude. Should their CID be effectuated, it would be child's play for the Feds to find such collusion (should it exist, which it almost certainly does given MM's stated purpose). This will empower the IRS in a subsequent fraud lawsuit against MM, because at that point it will have nothing to do with the First Amendment (not like it ever did, since the First Amendment explicitly restricts Congress, which hasn't passed any laws restricting speech in this matter anyways).



TL;DR: MM is suspected to be in gross violation of corporate tax law, the FTC is opening up an investigation into them to prove it (which an investigation *by itself* couldn't possibly be a 1A violation), and if they find partisan activity, the IRS will subsequently have all the ammo it needs to take them to court.

-Yeah, if they're tax dodgers, then they need to be dealt with.

Problem is I don't trust this admin especially (and any admin really) not to go down the "unilateral disarmament" route and target partisan institutions on only one side of the aisle and not the other.

Either they all get dealt with, or none of them do.