First appearance on Fox: Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a motion in state court on Monday to enforce a civil investigative request similar to a subpoena for advertising material from the left-wing nonprofit group Media Matters for America.
“Media Matters uses deception to steal money from Missourians in order to trick advertisers into removing their ads from X (formerly Twitter), one of the last platforms dedicated to free speech in America. We are asking for donations,” Bailey wrote in the petition, which was first obtained by Fox News. Digital.
In November, Media Matters published a report saying that X would place ads next to “pro-Nazi” content. Elon Musk, the owner of X, filed a lawsuit against Media Matters said the group falsely and deceptively manipulated X’s algorithms. Bailey said in the filing that the attack was carried out “through systematic and fraudulent conduct” “with the purpose of defaming the organization and causing advertisers to dissociate their support from the platform, thereby causing harm.” Stated. freedom of speech,”
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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey; (Graham Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Media Matters is pursuing the activist agenda of destroying X because they cannot control it,” Bailey wrote in Monday’s petition.
After Media Matters published its report, companies including IBM, Disney, Apple, Sony, and Walmart removed ads from their social media platforms.
“Missourians will not be manipulated by ‘progressive’ activists masquerading as news organizations, nor will they be fooled in the process,” Bailey wrote.
According to its website, Media Matters is a “progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”
The petition asks the court for permission for Bailey’s office to investigate possible violations of the Missouri Commodity Exchange Act, including “any deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise, misrepresentation, Material facts in sales, advertising, solicitation of charitable funds that involve any wrongful act or the concealment, suppression, or omission of any act.
Media Matters For America reportedly received millions of dollars from Democratic megadonors.
In a statement to FOX News Digital, Bailey said his office has “reason to believe that Media Matters used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to bully advertisers into leaving X.” “So we started an investigation to find out the truth.” ”
“But Media Matters has a sordid history of refusing to cooperate with investigations, and we will not let this activist group stand in our way.”
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“The Attorney General is seeking a court order because Media Matters has rejected such efforts in other states and has made clear that it will reject such efforts,” Bailey said. wrote.
In November, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into the group for “possible wrongdoing” after several companies began advertising on it.
Fox News Digital reached out to Media Matters for comment, but did not receive a response by press deadline.
Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.
