Missouri AG alleges Media Matters committed fraud in seeking donations

Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey on Monday alleged that Media Matters for America (MMFA) may have defrauded Missourians by soliciting donations amid its reporting on social media platform X.

MMFA last month published an article entitled "As Musk endorses antisemitic conspiracy theory, X has been placing ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to pro-Nazi content." The article purported to show the pairing of ads for major companies next to antisemitic posts. X has since sued alleging that the group manipulated the algorithm to create the ad pairings and omitted its methodology in a bid to falsely paint the pairings as common and scare off its advertisers.

Bailey, on Monday, notified MFFA of a pending investigation alleging that the group committed fraud "to solicit donations from Missourians in order to trick advertisers into pulling out of X." The state Attorney General expanded on the allegations during an appearance on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show.

"Well, first off, I believe in the right to free speech as a foundational ... principle of our Republic," Bailey said. "And so it's worth fighting for. And at the end of the day, we're going to fight against radical progressive tyrants who will lie, cheat and steal to take that freedom away from Missourians and all Americans and the allegation here is that Media Matters defrauded Missourians in a scheme to solicit contributions and then convert the money into a coordinated market manipulation in an attack on the last platform dedicated to free speech in America and ultimately, that harms all Missourians."

"And so we're launching an investigation we're demanding that they retain certain documents that we feel most likely to expose any lies, fraud, or manipulation and uncover the truth and we're gonna hold wrongdoers accountable," he said, before noting that his office had not yet placed a dollar amount on the alleged impact of the fraud.

"I think that's something we hope to find in the course of this investigation, exactly how many Missourians were negatively impacted by this and we never ... may know the full number, but the corporations, the advertisers that are pulling out of Twitter at this point are pawns in Media Matters's manipulation," he went on. "Look, Media Matters, the whole organization, is built on a lie."

"This is a radical progressive advocacy group that's masquerading as a news organization. And you know, the allegation again here is that they took money from everyday Americans, everyday Missourians, and then use it to defraud advertisers on Twitter. That's a lie," Bailey went on. "The allegation here is that the manipulation of the algorithms itself emphasize controversial speech and tethered that speech to advertisers in an attempt to bully Twitter and its advertisers. Why would they do that? The only possible reason is because they hate Twitter because they can't control it, because Twitter is the last platform dedicated to free speech in America. And that's why this investigation is so important to protect Missourians, and all of our constitutional right to free speech."

Just the News has sought comment from Media Matters for America.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.