Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened an investigation into Media Matters For America (MMFA) regarding “potential fraudulent activity” in their quest to shut down the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The move comes just days after X CEO Elon Musk announced that he was preparing a “thermonuclear” lawsuit against the far-left group of bloggers and journalists.
Media Matters initially published a report on Friday accusing X of placing ads next to “white nationalist hashtags,” a specious claim in which Musk argues the group used manipulated data and misrepresentations of reality to portray a false narrative.
Paxton’s office released a statement saying that they find Media Matters’ actions troubling.
“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.
RELATED: Elon Musk Readies Massive Lawsuit Against Left-wing Group Media Matters
Media Matters Under Investigation
Media Matters is an outfit well-known to readers of The Political Insider. They essentially began with a staff of top-notch bloggers sitting around all day and watching Fox News or right-leaning media entities, then interpreting what they’ve seen for their low-information viewers.
Following their publication on the matter, advertisers began fleeing X.
As our readers also know, Musk refused to take things lying down. The Political Insider’s Kathleen Anderson reported on the billionaire’s intention to file what he called a “thermonuclear lawsuit.”
“X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company,” he wrote. “Their board, their donors, their network of dark money, all of them …”
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 pic.twitter.com/55vl7PspaQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2023
Musk’s comments prompted the new investigation by the Texas Attorney General.
Paxton “was extremely troubled by the allegations that Media Matters, a radical anti-free speech organization, fraudulently manipulated data on X.com (formerly known as Twitter),” according to the statement.
The investigation also kicked off a slew of similar activity. Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey posted that his legal team was “looking into” the matter as well.
RELATED: Media Matters ‘Bombshell’ Video of Tucker Carlson Shows Him Hilariously Telling Them to ‘Go F*** Yourself’
Tucker Carlson: ‘Hey Media Matters, Go …’
Media Matters’ efforts to shut down free speech and destroy the careers and livelihoods of those with right-leaning opinions have been relentless and ongoing for years.
In 2019, Babbel, the company behind a language learning app, pulled ads from Tucker Carlson’s show, which aired on Fox News at the time, after Media Matters ran what critics called a ‘hit piece‘ against the media personality.
Babbel called Carlson’s show “repugnant” and “at odds with our mission and values.” They would later remove the tweet.
Fox News then issued a blistering response, stating that they unequivocally “will not allow voices like Tucker Carlson’s to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the intolerant partisan activists Media Matters … whose only goal is to silence conservative thought they don’t agree with.”
Here we are four years later, and Media Matters is successfully driving advertisers away from a social media platform that isn’t even right-leaning, but rather, promotes free speech.
Earlier this year, Media Matters posted a video to X which hilariously showed Carlson telling the group they should “go f*** yourself.”
“Hey, Media Matters for America, go fuck yourself!” he declared while flipping a double bird. “That’s the first thing I want to say tonight.”
2. After describing an unnamed woman to someone off camera as “yummy,” Carlson says, “just kidding, in case this is being pulled off the bird… Hey, Media Matters for America, go fuck yourself!” pic.twitter.com/xxefGaW9SX
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) May 2, 2023
In their own way, Paxton, Musk, and Pavloski are telling them to do the same thing.