Far-left activist media organization Media Matters has laid off at least a dozen employees, according to a Thursday X post from one former staffer.
“Bad News: I’ve been laid off from @mmfa, along with a dozen colleagues,” wrote former employee Katherine Abughazaleh. She also took a jab at “billionaires” that have “armies of lawyers,” seemingly referring to Elon Musk.
Bad News: I’ve been laid off from @mmfa, along with a dozen colleagues.
There’s a reason far-right billionaires attack Media Matters with armies of lawyers: They know how effective our work is, and it terrifies them (him).
— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) May 23, 2024
In November, Musk filed a defamation lawsuit after Media Matters reported that ads on X were running next to antisemitic and pro-Nazi content. The suit, as previously reported by Valuetainment, claims: “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 and then portrayed these manufactured images as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform. Media Matters designed both these images and its resulting media strategy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”
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The legal complaint accuses Media Matters of deliberately manufacturing the ad placements, included in a November 2023 article. X alleges that Media Matters created a “secret X account precision-designed to evade normal safeguards, manipulating every aspect of the system through which posts and advertisements appear, ultimately creating the side-by-side images of objectionable content and advertisements.”
The suit describes the methods by which Media Matters manipulated the X platform to inorganically produce the images, accusing them of misleading vividness, a logical fallacy where rare or extreme anecdotes are used to make a broader general statement.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey notified Media Matters that his office was investigating them in a December 2023 letter. On May 8, Bailey posted on X that Media Matters attempted to halt his investigation: “They filed a motion to HALT our investigation and lawsuit into their fraudulent practices,” he wrote.
🚨BREAKING: Media Matters is attempting to shut down Missouri courts. They filed a motion to HALT our investigation and lawsuit into their fraudulent practices.
D.C. courts have no say over Missouri courts.
I have filed a motion to protect our ability to litigate in Missouri.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) May 8, 2024
Related: The Latest Media Industry Layoffs
Media Matters, a watchdog group with a history of targeting conservative and right-wing outlets, also published an accusatory blog post attacking Valuetainment earlier this month. The article alleges that CEO Patrick Bet-David “provides a safe space for guests to push bigotry and conspiracy theories” on the PBD Podcast. The post’s cherry-picked evidence does not show an instance of Valuetainment manufacturing evidence for a hit piece but rather relies on guilt-by-association tactics to support their claims.
While Valuetainment has never been sued for defamation, the lawsuits against Media Matters are accumulating rapidly in the wake of Musk’s filing—and judging by the recent round of layoffs, the effects are already being felt throughout the company. Musk may soon join his former PayPal business partner Peter Thiel as a billionaire who has taken out a once-respected media organization.
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