Under Siege From Trump and Musk, a Top Liberal Group Falls Into Crisis; New York Times, July 25, 2025

Kenneth P. Vogel Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, New York Times;  Under Siege From Trump and Musk, a Top Liberal Group Falls Into Crisis

"Even as the battle continues, Media Matters stands as an example of how legal warfare waged by powerful ideological opponents can squelch influential voices and stifle political dissent. The group says it has dialed back its criticism of Mr. Musk and the Trump F.T.C. Media Matters has also been frozen out by some allies. And it has faced plummeting staff morale, rising infighting and security concerns.

All that has proved quite a change in fortune for the influential group.

Media Matters raised nearly $250 million in the two decades between its creation in 2003 and the end of 2023, establishing itself as a force in Democratic politics by effectively undermining major right-wing media figures and politicians.

The bleak outlook now facing the group underscores the serious harms that can be inflicted when the Trump administration and its allies train the vast resources of government or billionaire bank accounts on perceived enemies.

It leaves targets facing a tricky choice: whether to spend heavily and fight back, or negotiate settlements that risk backlash for abandoning their convictions."

Elon Musk worries free speech advocates with his calls to prosecute researchers and critics; NBC News, November 12, 2024

 David Ingram and Lora Kolodny, CNBC , NBC News; Elon Musk worries free speech advocates with his calls to prosecute researchers and critics

"Musk, the world’s richest person, has in the past two years called for several of his opponents to be prosecuted, and it’s something that free speech advocates say they could overlook if he were only an ordinary private citizen. 

But now that Musk is gaining political power as a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, his demands for criminal charges against critics are much more worrisome, according to scholars and groups devoted to the First Amendment...

According to NBC News' review of Musk’s public statements, there’s an established pattern of him attacking nonprofit groups, journalists and others who produce information that he disagrees with or that may not be helpful to his goals or image — a pattern that runs counter to frequent vows by him that he’s a defender of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech."

Election Falsehoods Take Off on YouTube as It Looks the Other Way; The New York Times, October 31, 2024

Nico Grant , The New York Times; Election Falsehoods Take Off on YouTube as It Looks the Other Way

"From May through August, researchers at Media Matters tracked 30 of the most popular YouTube channels they identified as persistently spreading election misinformation, to analyze the narratives they shared in the run-up to November’s election.

The 30 conservative channels posted 286 videos containing election misinformation, which racked up more than 47 million views. YouTube generated revenue from more than a third of those videos by placing ads before or during them, researchers found. Some commentators also made money from those videos and other monetized features available to members of the YouTube Partner Program...

Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, posted more false electoral claims to YouTube than any other major commentator in the research group, the analysis concluded...

YouTube, which is owned by Google, has prided itself on connecting viewers with “authoritative information” about elections. But in this presidential contest, it acted as a megaphone for conspiracy theories."