Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey launches investigation into Media Matters

Patrick Hilsman
·2 min read
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UPI
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said he is investigating the watchdog Media Matters. The statement comes after X filed a lawsuit against Media Matters over a report on far-right content being featured alongside advertisers' content. File Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey informed Media Matters that it is under investigation after it released a report alleging that harmful content appeared alongside advertisements on the social media platform X.

Bailey alleged Monday Media Matters was engaged in fraud, citing the report that preceded several high-profile advertisers pulling their ads from the platform, formerly known as Twitter.

"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," Bailey said. "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."

In a letter to the watchdog, Bailey referenced a lawsuit filed by X alleging that Media Matters "knowingly and maliciously manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers' posts on X Corp.'s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content."

"Media Matters designed both these images and its resulting media strategy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp," X said in the filing.

In the wake of the report, multiple advertisers including Disney, Apple, IBM and Lions Gate Entertainment suspended advertising on X in November.

Bailey on Monday said he believes Media Matters' actions may have violated Missouri consumer protection laws, including those that prohibit nonprofit entities from soliciting funds under false pretenses.

"I am especially concerned that Media Matters' action, if proven true, have hampered free speech by targeting an expressly pro free speech social media platform in an attempt to cause it financial harm while defrauding Missourians in the process," he wrote.

He also requested a series of records documenting internal communications from the watchdog.

Media Matters declined to comment on the letter and called Musk's lawsuit "frivolous" and meant to "bully X's critics into silence."

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also already opened an investigation into Media Matters.