{"id":266464,"date":"2025-06-01T05:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T05:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/advertising\/appeals-court-bars-media-matters-investigation\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T05:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T05:17:08","slug":"appeals-court-bars-media-matters-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=266464","title":{"rendered":"Appeals Court Bars Media Matters Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled unanimously in favor of Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog organization, blocking a Texas attorney general\u2019s attempt to investigate the firm for its reporting about brand safety concerns on X.<\/p>\n<p>Texas AG Ken Paxton opened an investigation into Media Matters in late November of 2023, after the organization published a report showing ads from major brands appearing next to antisemitic and white supremacist content on the social platform formerly known as Twitter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Media Matters\u2019 report sparked a wave of advertiser pullback, which angered X owner Elon Musk. Musk then sued Media Matters, alleging the group knowingly manipulated data to push a damaging narrative about brand safety on the platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On the same day that Musk filed suit, Texas\u2019 Paxton kicked off a probe into Media Matters, alleging it \u201cfraudulently manipulated data on X.com.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A district court granted Media Matters a preliminary injunction, which blocked Paxton\u2019s attempt to enforce a pre-litigation subpoena.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed an earlier decision from a district court to block Paxton\u2019s subpoena attempt, calling the effort an \u201carguably bad-faith investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The court ruled on First Amendment grounds, determining that Media Matters\u2019 statements about X constitute protected free speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaxton\u2019s contention that Appellees\u2019 conduct is not constitutionally protected because their articles were deliberately designed to mislead consumers about X is meritless,\u201d the court wrote in a 34-page ruling issued today. \u201cThe record is utterly devoid of evidence to support such a claim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The court added that Media Matters\u2019 \u201creporting on public issues are quintessential First Amendment activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response to the decision, Media Matters President and CEO Angelo Carusone said in a statement: \u201cElon Musk encouraged Republican state attorneys general to use their power to harass their critics and stifle reporting about X. Ken Paxton was one of those AGs who took up the call, and his attempt to use his office as an instrument for Musk\u2019s censorship crusade has been defeated. Today\u2019s decision is a victory for free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office did not respond to ADWEEK\u2019s request for comment by press time.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row justify-content-center\">\n<div class=\"col-12\">\n<section class=\"section section--teaser section--teaser_partners section--teaser_partners--horizontal px-0 py-4\">\n<div class=\"section--teaser_partner\">                         <a class=\"link-reset text-decoration-none\" aria-label=\"The company is betting on AI to help recover some of the millions it has lost in ad revenue since Elon Musk\" s=\"\" acquisition=\"\" of=\"\" the=\"\" platform.=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.adweek.com\/media\/x-rolls-out-ai-generated-ads-in-push-to-win-advertisers-back\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/static-www.adweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Logo_Grok_AI_xAI_2025.png?w=640&amp;h=360&amp;crop=1\" alt=\"The company is betting on AI to help recover some of the millions it has lost in ad revenue since Elon Musk\" s=\"\" acquisition=\"\" of=\"\" the=\"\" platform.=\"\" class=\"image image--partner\"\/><br \/><\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled unanimously in favor of Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog organization, blocking a Texas attorney general\u2019s attempt to investigate the firm for its reporting about brand safety concerns on X. Texas AG Ken Paxton opened an investigation into Media Matters in late November of 2023, after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12023],"tags":[34805,1685,410,20389,7633,10999,19435,10909,8374],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-266464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","tag-appeals","tag-bars","tag-court","tag-investigation","tag-matters","tag-media","tag-media-news","tag-platforms","tag-social-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Appeals Court Bars Media Matters Investigation - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=266464\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Appeals Court Bars Media Matters Investigation - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled unanimously in favor of Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog organization, blocking a Texas attorney general\u2019s attempt to investigate the firm for its reporting about brand safety concerns on X. 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