Missouri AG isn’t defending free speech. He’s just trying to boost Elon Musk’s X | Opinion

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is cracking down on free speech.

He frames it differently of course: The unelected attorney general says he is on a crusade to protect free speech. But Bailey’s announcement this week that his office is investigating Media Matters — a progressive media outlet that had the temerity to critically report about the Elon Musk social media platform formerly known as Twitter — is plainly an attempt to intimidate and penalize rivals and critics of the American right, using all the powers available to Missouri law enforcement.

Just listen to Bailey’s own words.

“I’m fighting to ensure progressive tyrants masquerading as news outlets cannot manipulate the marketplace in order to wipe out free speech,” he said in a press release.

That’s an acknowledgment, albeit buried in hyperbolic language, that ideology is propelling Bailey’s inquiry.

Some background is necessary.

After Musk took over Twitter last year — he has since rebranded it as X — he opened the platform to trolls, racists and other digital brigands who had previously been barred from the platform for bad behavior and spreading. (That included Donald Trump, whom Musk invited back after his ban following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.)

This was done ostensibly in the name of “free speech,” although Musk’s definition of free speech has shifted depending on whether his own interests are involved: He has suspended reporters and other accounts that have reported critically on him and his companies. The world’s richest man became something of a hero on the right, but it came with a cost: Racial slurs and hate speech are thriving on the site.

Many users fled to other social media platforms. So did a number of advertisers. The result? X is sinking under the weight of debt and lost revenues.

Here’s where Media Matters comes in: Last month, the progressive outfit published a story on its findings that racist posts — promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party — could be found directly next to ads from major companies like Apple and IBM. Some of those advertisers paused their campaigns in the following days, depriving X of even more revenue, though it was likely they were also motivated by a recent Musk post embracing the “great replacement” — the white supremacist and antisemitic conspiracy theory that minorities are orchestrating a takeover of Western society.

Musk filed suit against Media Matters, saying the outlet manufactured its results by following extremist accounts and advertisers to produce “inorganic and extraordinarily rare” ad placements. A judge will decide the matter — and that’s usually where the story about this conflict would end, with two private parties squaring off in a civil court.

Only it didn’t end there. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton jumped into the fray, announcing an investigation into Media Matters and denouncing the organization’s “radical left-wing” activity. (Media Matters sued Paxton for interfering with its First Amendment rights.)

This week, Bailey followed suit — putting out a press release calling X “the last platform dedicated to free speech in America” and suggesting that Media Matters’ criticism of Musk’s platform may have “fraudulently” caused some Missourians to donate money to the outlet.

Ridiculous idea that Twitter is last bastion of freedom

“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 harrumphed.

Laughable. Dangerous.

Laughable, because Musk’s social media platform isn’t close to being “the last platform dedicated to free speech” in America. Bailey’s wild claim would only be made by somebody pursuing a less than legally rigorous, ideological vendetta.

Laughable, because Bailey’s own commitment to free speech is — like Musk’s – highly situational. He has sued the Biden administration for allegedly pressuring social media platforms to crack down on COVID-19 misinformation, while simultaneously sending warning letters to Target for selling LGBT-themed merchandise. If your vision of “free” speech applies only to your allies, it’s not really free.

And dangerous, because the clear point of Bailey’s investigation is to warn Media Matters — and other media organizations — against critical reporting about institutions and people favored by the right. That’s a violation of free speech concepts generally, and of the First Amendment specifically.

Such violations are becoming all too common in the Kansas-Missouri region.

Earlier this year, police in Marion, Kansas, served a search warrant on the office of the Marion County Record newspaper and the home of its editor — the apparent result of a feud between the now-ex-police chief and the paper. The raid drew international condemnation, and sparked still-ongoing investigations into how local and state government officials permitted such an ugly assault on the First Amendment.

Marion police may have believed their little raid would go unnoticed by the wider world. That’s not the case with Bailey. He is courting publicity, putting out the aforementioned press release and talking about his crusade against Media Matters with right-wing media figures such as Tucker Carlson, Benny Johnson, Sebastian Gorka and Dana Loesch, as well as outlets like Fox Business and Real America’s Voice. That’s a lot of free attention for an attorney general who will be facing Republican primary voters for the first time in 2024.

Free, but not harmless. Even if Bailey doesn’t eventually bring charges, the public announcement of an investigation may prompt other outlets both in Missouri and nationally to hold their fire when it comes to covering Musk and other figures beloved by conservatives. The threat of a prosecution — or of the legal bills that accompany an investigation — will inevitably chill the free speech that the Missouri attorney general claims to love.

That might be the point. And that makes Bailey’s investigation potentially a far graver assault on the First Amendment than the Marion raid.